In fact, the Alien actress traveled back 59 years to play 14-year-old Kiri in the highly anticipated sequel to Avatar: The Way of the Water.
To convincingly portray a teenager through the wonders of motion capture technology, 73-year-old Weaver took classes at New York’s prestigious LaGuardia High School of Music, Arts and Performing Arts.
“I just sat on one side [of the class] and listened to the pitch of the voices, from childish to adult,” Weaver told USA TODAY of observing young acting students. “I’m just another actor. They have their own business.”
The Na’vi alien Kiri is the daughter of Dr. Grace Augustine, Weaver’s scientist character who was killed in the original 2009 Avatar. Director and screenwriter James Cameron, who first worked with the three-time Oscar nominee in 1986′s Alien, knew years ago—as early as 2010—that he wanted Weaver to play a younger character in the sequel.
“Even before [Cameron] wrote the letter, he told me, ‘No one knows about you, but I still know that you are 14 at heart. You’re so grown up and always joking, so I believe you can do it.’”
Like the rest of the Avatar cast, Weaver practiced holding her breath during the film’s water scenes and even learned how to parkour for action scenes with her younger co-stars.
“I am determined to achieve everything they have done,” she said. “I don’t want anyone to say, ‘She’s kind of an old lady.’ We all need to be in good shape, and parkour is a great way to achieve this.”
Thanks to the magic of time machine motion capture technology, Weaver loves to connect with his inner child. “It frees actors from certain longstanding conventions that you have to play your age group,” Weaver said. “It just lets you play with anything and flow in any shape.”
Weaver hopes her Girls’ Generation in Avatar, which debuted this weekend and grossed $134 million, will fight ageism in Hollywood. “A lot of our older actors, we do very different things,” she said. “So I hope Hollywood gets the message.”
Post time: Dec-22-2022