Sigourney Weaver continues her love affair with fantasy by segueing from a cameo in last year’s Ghostbusters to the imaginative world of A Monster Calls, in theaters January 6, about a young boy (Lewis MacDougall) dealing with the terminal illness of his mother (Felicity Jones). Liam Neeson voices a huge treelike creature and Weaver, 67, plays the boy’s grandmother. Here are five facts you might not know about the native New Yorker.
- She was born Susan Weaver but took the name Sigourney after a character in The Great Gatsby.
- For a time while attending Stanford University, she lived in a treehouse and dressed like an elf.
- She made her film debut with a six-second role in Woody Allen’s Annie Hall.
- As president of NBC, her father, Sylvester Weaver, pioneered the concepts of morning (Today) and late-night (The Tonight Show) TV.
- In Alien: Resurrection, she sank a basketball shot into the hoop shooting backward.