IT’S HARD TO imagine any actor more equipped to handle a global pandemic than Sigourney Weaver. Over a career spanning five decades, she’s battled parasitic aliens (Alien), survived demonic possession (Ghostbusters), come face-to-face with serial killers (Copycat) and even fought off poachers (Gorillas in the Mist).
I’m hardly surprised then, when she shares that her past few months have been spent not cautiously relaxing at home like the rest of us, but thrashing around in water tanks, while filming action scenes for the hotly anticipated Avatar sequel.
“I like workman jobs, you know,” Weaver, who turned 71 in October, explains. “I like knowing how to do things. The only time [I’m a] ‘movie star’ is on the red carpet, or at the Oscars. The rest of the time I’m running around in sweaty clothes like everybody else, working very hard in all kinds of conditions doing my best—and I love it.”
When she’s not been in the tank, much of Weaver’s quarantine has been spent surrounded by nature. “I’m going to go to the New York Botanical Garden, which I’m a trustee of, on Friday to see the cherry blossoms. I feel like one of the things that happened during quarantine was that we all went outside and could watch each season unfold. The only safe place we could be was outdoors in nature, and that has created a wonderful connection. It’s going to change things, I think— I hope—in the way that we see our natural world.”
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