Make ’Em Laugh
Her doubting Yale professors must have done a double take—as did her parents, her mother most of all. “She was ambivalent about my success,” says Weaver, a hint of regret in her voice. “It was not great for her to give up acting, but in those days, women did that—especially if they were married to someone like my father, who was running a whole world. She was astonished by my success, and it was sometimes very difficult for her.”
The actor surprised directors in a different way: by letting loose her outrageous, quirky humor. Auditioning for Ghostbusters director Ivan Reitman, Weaver startled him, she once recalled, when she began “to growl and bark and gnaw on the cushions.” Reitman cut the tape and said, “Don’t ever do that again.”
Shooting the 1999 cult classic Galaxy Quest, Weaver parodied the dizzy, buxom blond stereotype, dressed in a wig and enhanced breast padding. As costar Alan Rickman later recalled, she would return to her hotel at the end of a workday in full costume, just to enjoy people’s reactions.
With visionary director James Cameron, Weaver says, she found a cinematic soulmate. Like her father, the Avatar and Aliens director groks Weaver’s wry humor—“We make each other laugh,” she says—and intuits the awkward teen still lurking and aching within.
The first Avatar, in which Weaver played botanist Grace Augustine, came out in 2009 and became the world’s highest-grossing film of all time. For the second and third installments, Cameron created the role of Kiri, a 14-year-old Na’vi girl that Weaver portrayed in a motion-capture suit. “He told me, ‘You’re so immature. Nobody knows that, and you’ll be fine doing this.’ For better or worse, I feel a lot in common with Kiri,” she says.
Weaver reunited with “Aliens” director James Cameron for “Avatar” in 2009. The film remains the highest-grossing blockbuster in history.
20thCentFox/Courtesy Everett Collection
The star has already signed on to do two more Avatar sequels, taking her up to 2031. She’s also considering bringing back Ellen Ripley for more space-creature killing—which would be her fifth turn in the role. “It’s very gratifying,” she says, “that this character has continued to represent things that are inspiring to people.”
A Distinct Sense of Home
Perhaps her greatest Hollywood superpower isn’t her high-flying and enduring career so much as her gift for sustaining a stable, private family life amid the industry’s chaos.
She and Simpson live in midtown Manhattan. Their only child— Charlotte, 35, an adjunct assistant professor at Columbia University—and new son-in-law are in temporary residence. They dine on Simpson’s vegan specialties, catch movies and stroll through Central Park.
There’s no one like your child to remind you of who you really are. “Inside, I’m still that shy little person, and that’s never going to change. My family certainly knows that I’m not like Ripley,” Weaver says, laughing. “I’m very human.”
“Inside, I’m still that shy little person, and that’s never going to change,” Weaver says.
John Russo
Her hometown also keeps her grounded, Weaver adds. “I love living in New York,” she says. “It’s the place I feel most sane. In Los Angeles, people are obsessed with the film business. In New York, everyone thinks that what they’re doing is the most important thing, and they all live together with their obsessions. I think it’s healthier.”
Despite her attachment to New York and family, the actor ventured to her mother’s homeland in the spring of 2024 for a personal milestone: her London stage debut. Her casting—as Prospero in Shakespeare’s The Tempest—was the firm and final answer to the doubts of long-ago naysayers, including a particularly dear one.
“I had to wait until my mother died to do theater in London,” she confesses. Once again, Weaver’s voice softens. “She would not have been in the front row cheering me on. I don’t know why. I can’t explain it.” (Weaver’s father died in 2002, and her mother, in 2007.)
But maybe, I suggest, her mother was with her in spirit?
“Kind of … a little bit,” she says, recalling some of the magic she felt when she arrived in London’s West End. Film and TV may have made her career, but the theater? “That’s my home,” she says. “When I got to the star’s dressing room, I felt like the theater gods had wanted me to come, as if they were saying, ‘You’ve earned the right to be here. We’ve always been on your side. I’m glad we can tell you now.’”
Weaver’s 15 Most Memorable Roles
Ten from the screen …
Alien (1979) Who’s the greatest female action hero of all time? The conversation begins and ends with Weaver’s brains-and-brawn warrant officer, Ellen Ripley, in Ridley Scott’s jack-in-the-box sci-fi chiller. Somehow she’s even better in the 1986 sequel, Aliens.
The Year of Living Dangerously (1982) After rocketing from obscurity to the A-list, the Alien star proved she could smolder as a romantic lead, thanks to this thrilling—and steamy—love story between a savvy British diplomat (Weaver) and an Aussie journalist (Mel Gibson) in 1960s Indonesia.
Ghostbusters (1984) The 34-year-old actor manages to bewitch Bill Murray’s sarcastic spirit hunter, Dr. Peter Venkman, even after she’s possessed by the ancient Sumerian demon Zuul in Ivan Reitman’s decade-defining comedy blockbuster.
Gorillas in the Mist (1988) Weaver earned the first of her three Oscar nominations for her poignant and powerful portrayal of real-life primatologist Dian Fossey in Michael Apted’s stunning, African-set biopic. She wouldn’t have to wait long for her next Academy nod.…
Working Girl (1988) The same year as Gorillas, Weaver also nabbed a Best Supporting Actress nomination for her hissable turn in Mike Nichols’ feminist workplace comedy, in which she plays Melanie Griffith’s stifling, villainous boss. Pretty good year!
The Ice Storm (1997) Ang Lee’s gimlet-eyed look at the permissive family values of moneyed suburbia in the ’70s is a touching and tragic time capsule, with Weaver’s bored, boozy libertine housewife stealing every scene she’s in.
Galaxy Quest (1999) An underappreciated cult classic, Dean Parisot’s comedy about the has-been cast of a long-canceled Star Trek-like TV series is pure laughing gas, with Weaver going for broke as a stereotypically dim sexpot clinging to B-list fame.
Avatar (2009) Still the highest-grossing movie ever, James Cameron’s sci-fi fantasia reunited the director with his Aliens star. As the compassionate xenobotanist Dr. Grace Augustine, Weaver gives what could have been a numbing CGI spectacle a human soul.
Master Gardener (2022) At 73, Weaver had more than earned the right to play an imperious grand-dame ice queen in the mold of Bette Davis. Here she portrayed a rich and manipulative Southern dowager, who has an affair with the hired help (Joel Edgerton), to the frosty hilt.
Avatar: Fire and Ash (2025) Sixteen years after Avatar broke every record in the book, Cameron and Weaver return to Pandora for the hotly anticipated third film in the eye-candy sci-fi franchise. Expect a new, war-hungry Na’vi tribe known as the Ash People … and, of course, massive box office.
And five from the stage …
Das Lusitania Songspiel (1979) Teaming with Christopher Durang, her frequent collaborator dating back to their years at Yale Drama School, Weaver starred in this madcap Off-Broadway riff on the cabaret-style theater of Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill.
Hurlyburly (1984) Weaver nabbed a Tony nod for her searing turn in David Rabe’s dark satire about bad behavior and toxic Hollywood machismo. The who’s-who cast also featured William Hurt, Harvey Keitel, Cynthia Nixon, Jerry Stiller and Judith Ivey.
Sex and Longing (1996) Weaver let her freak flag fly as Lulu, a sex addict who bucks against hypocrisy, hysteria and holier-than-thou moralists in Durang’s button-pushing social satire.
Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike (2013) In this Tony award winner for Best Play, Weaver costarred with David Hyde Pierce, Kristine Nielsen and Billy Magnussen in a simmering family drama about a movie star (Weaver) who visits her resentful sisters accompanied by her latest boy toy.
The Tempest (2024) Thirty-eight years after earning raves onstage in The Merchant of Venice, Weaver tackled Shakespeare anew in her West End debut, this time playing the storm-tossed (and gender-flipped) Prospero.
