00:02You're a big director and the king of the world. I know that you're here out of love
00:06and friendship. Welcome James Cameron. Okay, I'm not as smart as Pedro who wrote it all down. I
00:24just have a couple of bullet points here, but I'm speaking from the heart and it's such
00:29a pleasure to be here. We're all here to honor this miracle of a human being named Sigourney,
00:38self-named by Sigourney. And all of you know her as this amazing actor, but I am blessed
00:49and honored to know you as a friend of way too long. I don't even want to talk about
00:56it. We've worked together multiple times over the years, starting with Aliens 1985. Oh my
01:05God. For which he was nominated for Best Actress Oscar. And you know, that was kind of a milestone.
01:13It was, I think, the first time that an actress had been nominated in a genre of science fiction
01:20or horror. And that was a huge milestone for the genres that we love so much in its day.
01:27And she's been nominated a number of times since and really pretty overdue for that Oscar there,
01:34kiddo. I'm just saying.
01:39But you know, anyway, screw the Oscars. You know, you've arrived when you get your hands in the cement,
01:45right? And they'll uncover this like a million years from now. And you know, those cave guys that
01:54put their hands up, they didn't sign their names, but they'll read it and it'll say, they'll go,
01:59you know, Sigourney Weaver. Hmm. She must have been like a goddess, right? And she is. In my book,
02:08you are a goddess. So we met on Aliens in 1985. Little anecdote around that. I'd been working on
02:15this script for four or five months and I had Sig's picture up right in front of my writing desk.
02:23But I, we'd never met. The producers that had known you for seven years had assured me,
02:30Sigourney's on board. You know, she's got an option. We've got her. I get the script done and
02:35they say, uh, actually she's not on board and you have to go talk her into it. So they nominated
02:41me
02:41to go talk to Sigourney because they were petrified of you. So now I'm petrified driving up to meet you
02:47in Santa Barbara. And of course I'm staring at Ripley. I'm not, I don't know you. And I find this,
02:54you know, incredibly warm, super intelligent, wonderful, funny person who fortunately for me
03:02actually really liked the script and, and, and signed on and, and kind of, you know, the, the rest
03:09is history. I don't think we knew what we had until we were at the premiere in Westwood. And when
03:17she
03:17comes out, she rocks out in that power loader and says, get away from her, you bitch. The crowd went
03:27apeshit. I mean, you know, you know what premieres are like. It's a thousand of your, of your closest
03:33friends with their knives out, ready to hate your movie. They went apeshit. And I never had a premiere
03:40on Terminator, my previous film. And I thought, okay, this is what cinema can be a perfect consonant
03:47moment between the performer and everything that's gone before in that movie that brings you to that
03:53feeling, that culmination. And I was hooked for life. And I think you were kind of stunned as I
03:59recall by the, by the impact of that. So Sigourney basically created the ultimate eye icon of female
04:06badassery in cinema, which I think stands, you know, to this day. And, you know, the question
04:13is, what is so relevant about that performance these days? Well, you were the intelligent woman
04:21that the men didn't listen to, and they all got wiped out. And let that be a lesson to us
04:28all. So 20 years go by before we worked, even though we're pals and we're, you know, we're building
04:37families, we're, we're going through the trials and tribulations of Hollywood. It was 20 years before
04:42we worked together again, which was on Avatar in 06. And, you know, I had written this kind of cranky
04:49but endearing scientist. And, you know, I thought, well, who can I get to play her? And the character's name
04:55was Grace Shipley. It was like staring me in the face. So I called up Sigourney. I said,
05:03I really, really want you to play this woman. And she jumped on board. Of course, I had to
05:07change the name, because you can't have Ripley and Shipley. And, you know, and of course,
05:13your performance in that is so endearing and so intelligent and lucid as this kind of mother
05:21figure for, for Jake Sully and this, you know, advocate for, for the Na'vi, for the, you know,
05:28the culture of the Na'vi and so on. I think it, it went a great deal toward making that
05:33film what
05:34it became, which is the highest grossing film in history, which it still is to this day. And I
05:38deeply grateful for that. Thank you. And we enjoyed working together so much, even though,
05:44unfortunately, I had killed off her character. So I said, well, just come back and play your
05:49character's clone daughter. How's that sound? And you're going to be 15 years old. So we have
05:56late 60s-ish, should I say, actor playing a 15 year old girl. And I assured her, this is going
06:05to be
06:05okay. You're going to be fine because you're basically emotionally 15 anyway. It's going to work
06:12out. And, and of course, Sigourney was absolutely luminous in the role of, of Kiri in the, in the two
06:20sequel films. And we both leaned into and embraced this incredible methodology, which Jon Favreau has
06:27also used, where, you know, actors can, can perform and then we see them manifested as a kind of a
06:34CG
06:34version of themselves. And, you know, well, it allows an actor to overcome their kind of bodily
06:43self and become anyone or anything that they wish to be, that they can imagine. And, you know,
06:50Sigourney is not technically a method actor. I wouldn't, I wouldn't say, but she used to come in
06:56and enter that capture volume every day with a lightness of spirit. I just felt like she had
07:01shed all those decades. And she was just this kind of sparklingly alive person that uplifted all of
07:09our spirits on the, on that film. And I have to say, Sig, it's been such an absolute joy collaborating
07:18with you and you bring such heart and such empathy to all your characters, of course, Kiri as well.
07:24And I love seeing that inner essence of you, that spirit of you in that lanky, awkward,
07:33four, four, 15 year old blue alien girl, because I see something of you. I didn't know you when you
07:39were 15, but I feel like, I feel like I do now. And, you know, I look forward to many
07:45more years of us
07:46collaborating in our little world that we've co-created of, of Pandora. You know, so I've talked a lot about
07:53our work together, which is the part of her I know the best, but obviously she's played so many iconic
08:00characters over the years from, you know, brass balled corporate executives, queens, these women of
08:07power, alien killers, but also mothers and women of deep vulnerability and, and this kind of, you know,
08:17almost heartbreaking vulnerability. You're the most emotionally kind of present actor, one of the
08:24most emotionally present actors that I've, I've ever worked with. And it's an absolute joy every day.
08:29And all these amazing characters all have one thing in common, which is your intelligence and your
08:34emotional strength and your courage, just as a human, a human being. And in between all this,
08:41we know her as a, as a, an actor primarily, but in between all this, she's also a fierce warrior
08:46for the oceans, for sustainability, uh, for indigenous rights. We went down to the Amazon to work on, on
08:54some causes down there and just campaigning against climate change. And, you know, uh, for example,
09:02she narrated Secrets of the Whales, which won an Emmy probably very much because of the
09:08intimate intelligence that you bring to looking into the minds of the culture of these magnificent
09:13animals. So when I'm blessed to work with you, I always look forward to the creativity and the passion
09:22that you bring to the work. So congratulations, my dear, dear friend, and please enjoy this big
09:29celebration here today, um, for your work, but also just you, you know, the, in all your glorious,
09:37glorious, sigourniness, right? Come on up here.
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