Sigourney Weaver & Zoe Saldana Talk Avatar and behind-the-scenes stories! | The Jonathan Ross Show
Uh well listen speaking of shows it’s in a way I suppose I owe my career to your father. That’s very true because am I right in thinking that uh your father invented the talk show? Yes he invented the Tonight Show but also the whole idea of the talk show. When was this? It was back in the 50s. I guess I think it was around 1952. Wow. And it’s still going kept it alive and thriving. Well I’ve tried to kill it off many times but it’s obviously a very strong format. Um, here’s a thing uh I’m interested in is I didn’t know this and someone told me that you’d shown this on American show and we got the footage as well that you were a big Beatles fan. Yes, I was. And you always were back in the day. So, you still are, I guess, aren’t you? Well, of course. Once a Beatles fan, always a Beatles fan. Uh, and you saw them live pretty early in their in their kind of American career. I My my family moved to California when I was 12 and the Beatles were playing at the Hollywood Bowl. Wow. And so I didn’t know anyone, but I went to the Hollywood Bowl and I just remember it was I saw they were so far away. I must have been in the last row and I was surrounded by all these girls who were crying and screaming, you know, like the Trojan women. You It was ridiculous. But I was so thrilled and every now and then I didn’t want to look like I wasn’t excited. So I’d go John, you know, and then I’d kind of laugh because I couldn’t I couldn’t get into that hysteria. So and why? Because you weren’t feeling the love for them like the others were or you just didn’t want to be seen. You wouldn’t be silly with a bit of selfrespect going on. I didn’t understand why they were so why they were weeping. I mean, it was so happy. It was their music is so happy and joyous. I didn’t understand why they were so hysterical. I’m sure there’s something wrong with me. But anyway, I and probably if I’ve been with like five friends I knew really well, we’d all be crying. I don’t know. Zoe, let me ask you because what an incredible few years it’s been for you because not only are you, you know, this huge role in this new movie franchise, but also um one of the leads in Avatar as well. What a fabulous film and a great performance. And of course, you were you were up. Yeah. For most of that. But that’s and they’re making a sequel, aren’t they? Is that going ahead? I think that uh they’re doing a a part two and a part three and they’re probably going to shoot it at the same time because if we just do two and then wait I’ll probably be like 45 or 50 by the time we get to part three. It takes a long time. It’s a very hard process when you shoot motion capture and you is it as hard as when they don’t get you water when you need it? It is. Or when you’re wearing like a wet suit. It’s so hard. When are you shooting it? Uh early next year, I think. Yeah. And you uh you’re in the new there’s a new Marvel movies as well. You’re kind of doing a lot of this fantasy stuff. Guardians of the Galaxy. Yes. So I was blue for Avatar and now I’m going to be green for Guardians of the Galaxy. So you you play just about any color. Yeah, pretty much. Pretty much. And can you tell us anything about that or is that kind of top secret for now? It sort of is. And the only reason why I say it is because they made me sign a whole bunch of papers, but if I didn’t, I’d be so telling you right now. Can you talk about the movie? Uh hey. Hey, hey, hey, hey. O, no whispering. Can I? Yeah. Oh, one of my favorite things is that Zoe played Nina Simone in a biopic that she shot earlier this year. And I cannot wait. Oh, last fall. Yeah, last fall. Right. I can’t wait to see this cuz I love Nina. Me, too, man. Me, too. An incredible woman. And also, she was quite a a troubled woman, wouldn’t she? Didn’t she have bipolar condition or there was some kind of psychological problem? Yes. Well, this is No, actually people people think that that um that she obviously was a person like that that uh was a drug addict, but it was um she was diagnosed with bipolar disorder very early in a time where they were experimenting drugs on people. So these drugs were not approved. They they had severe side effects and they had weakened her body very very much. So learning these things as I was uh you know stepping into this character stepping into her life uh I was very grateful to to know that it’s wonderful that you can get the truth of her life story out there because obviously that will help people go through the same thing. Let me ask you about the new movie called Chappie uh from the very uh gifted director of District 9. Yes. And it’s not a dissimilar kind of territory in some ways that film but this is a different kind of movie, isn’t it? Yes. It’s still it’s set in Johannesburg in the future and um there are robot policemen who are guarding the city against all these gangsters who are very outlandish and they want to kidnap a a police robot to help them do heists. But they kidnap this robot that’s sort of an experiment that is has been programmed to think and feel and paint and write poetry. So, it’s one of the most surprising, original, charming, and violent movies. And it’s very funny at times. It’s so funny. Yeah. Especially when they’re teaching him to try and be a gangster. So, the director’s name is Neil Blumamp. Bloom. Bloom. Okay. Neil Bloom. And he, I believe, is um there’s talk that he might be reviving the Alien franchise. He’s a big Alien fan. Well, aren’t we all? I mean, I’m assuming you are a bit of a fan as well. eyes. It’s all right. Um, how would you rate the movies of the four movies we’ve had so far? There was Alien, there was Aliens, there was Alien 3, and there was Alien Brackets for Resurrection. That’s like asking me which of my children I love best. Well, which one do you love best? Well, I only have one. So, so it’s nothing like asking which one of your children you like better. If you had three others, two of them were a bit which two would you like best? I like each one for different reasons. Yeah. But which one do you like the most? Of those different reasons, which reasons do you prefer? If Neil Bloomkent does the last one, I will like that one. You think it’ll be that one? And and is this happening? Can you say if this is happening or not? You don’t know. You know, he’s done a lot of the artwork and he seems to be writing the script. So, do you know I know you can’t say and we wouldn’t want it spoiled, would we? But do you know in which direction he might be taking it because that that’s either a very fancy party you’re going to or you’re getting involved with the alien there. Yes. Um I’m not sure what it means. Okay, listen. I’ll have to find out. I hope it doesn’t mean I’m going underwater. That look. Well, no. Yeah, because which one was it? Number four, where you spent a lot of time underwater? We spent a lot of time underwater. That must have been. And you were actually doing that yourself. Yes, we all had to do it ourselves. And we had to go into this this cavernous set filled with sharp objects where there was no light. And we had this crazy stunt guy named Ernie who So, we were down there. We had masks and we had we had air, but as soon as they said action, we had to leave everything. So he’d go five, four, three, two, masks off, masks off, go, go, go, go, go. And he was got, you know, he got you so frightened, you’re out of breath right away. And then you keep swimming and you can’t see anything as far as you could for as long as you could. And then you went like this and hoped that some guy with air would come and find you in the dark. Wow. And we did this for five weeks. H how many how many actors did you lose? Well, not everyone showed up for work every day. No, no, but it was it was exciting. And I think in Avatar, too, we’re going to have some water sequences. Then I get to be underwater with Jim Cameron, which will also be fun. Nice having you on together because I know you’ve known each other for a while, but of course in the new kind of mythology of Star Trek, you guys are lovers. Or I guess they’re kind of heading that way if they’re not already. No, we’ve been in a relationship. Spock and Hur have been in a relationship for since the first movie at least. Yeah. But do you know how are you told how far the relationship’s gone? I don’t Well, they’re definitely having sex. Okay, that’s what I’m asking. Actually, that’s not true cuz Vulcans don’t have sex except for every seven years. No, they can they can only every seven years. My mom told me. Oh, so I got to keep her satisfied. That’s going to be that’s going to be some big night every seven years. Well, you know, I work really hard. How come your mom knows more about him having sex than you do? No, cuz my mom used to watch Star Trek when she was growing up in the Caribbean. And back then it was dubbed and she used to watch it with her grandpa and it was called Vah Estreas. So when she knew that I was up for uh for the role of Ahura, my mom was just like, “Shoe, you have to take it. This is amazing. And now you get to be in love with Spock. He’s the sexiest character in the show.” That’s my mom. Your mom was in Westside Story, wasn’t she? She liked Westside Story. She was though. So So you were you were raised in the Dominican Republic. Is that right? So Spanish is your kind of first tongue, I guess. It was it was my first language. It’s so funny because my sisters and I have a joke and and and we reference it to Chinatown. You know, when they say it’s my sister, my mother, it’s like, “Oh, so English is your first langu. It’s English. It’s Spanish. It’s because you keep always jumping. Like whenever you hit a wall and I can’t I don’t know what to say. I usually say that means that means That means everything. It’s a handy word. When you’re mad, you go. When something’s good, you’re like Yeah. So is like everything. When you flub your lines, you go. I don’t think there’s a word in English which covers every eventuality. True. We should come up with one though. I think so. Yeah. Here’s the thing about Alien is when you the first Alien movie when it came out. I mean, it changed the face of cinema. It changed the face of that kind of movie and it certainly changed the face, I think, of how an audience regarded women in those films cuz you were the first sort of tough kick-ass action female star that I could think of in a big western movie. And it was sort of an accident because they just thought, well, let’s make the girl the survivor because no one will ever think that she’s going to be she’s going to do it. Cuz was Ripley the part originally written for men? It was. They were all men. All men’s parts. Wow. It’s incredible movie. So, you mentioned Avatar. Now, Avatar, what a movie Avatar was. Wow, what a piece of work that was. And once again, very much of the moment and very unexpected. And now with Jim Cameron, you’re doing, I believe, not just You’re not making just a sequel, you’re making two or even three more. Is that making three more simultaneously? Wow. That must be How do you get your head around that kind of schedule? I’m going to find out very soon. When do you start? Uh, I think in the fall. Okay. And presumably the timeline picks up where the first film left off. No, I don’t play the same character. Ah, well, you’ve kind of disappeared at the end of that movie. I went into the Syosinastic Fundibulum or something, right? Because that’s the kind of sort of sensory network of the big plant beast, the whatever the thing. Yes. Whatever. Wherever I went, I went somewhere. But that but that the premise of that when you first uh read that, you must have some he’s got to really pull this off or this is going to be silly because you’ve got so much going on in it. And if it wasn’t in the hands of someone as competent and confident and brilliant as him, it could have been a disaster, couldn’t it? Well, I always had great confidence in Jim. You know, he always does to me what things that are impossible, like build the submarine that will take him down to the bottom of the Mariana’s Trench or something. He’s always he is down in the undersea area quite a lot. He says he makes movies actually to be able to afford to build the submarines and design them and and use them. And is he generous with his subs? has invited you on one of his undersea journeys. He has invited me. I I’m a little claustrophobic. I I decided not to tax our friendship with what might happen to me after we’ve been going down 5 hours and have another five hours to go before we go down and see anything. Does he really go for 10 hours down like that? Well, I he really you know the bottom of the Mariana’s Trench is I don’t know even 20 20 hours probably. Why on earth would you want to go down there? There must be something going on there we don’t know about. It must be the world’s greatest swingers party. That’s what he said. Exactly. Uh well, look, Chappie is out fired, ladies and gentlemen. Sigourney Weaver is as always sublime in it. Uh but I can’t wait to see the Avatar movies. Cannot wait to see Alien 5, which as you just said is going to be better than the two you don’t like. So, uh let me ask you about your clothing because you are in an outfit so tight. I mean, it’s not quite as tight as something I saw Sher wearing looking at some pictures last week, but but it doesn’t leave a lot to the imagination, I guess. Are they are they restrictive? Is it difficult to perform in that? You mean the wet suit that I have in that scene? Um, it was definitely a wet suit. So, it was made with the material of of wet suits. But you needed baby powder and four people to help me put it on and zip it up. And then and I and I bet it was hard finding volunteers, wasn’t it? You know what was hard was getting water because when I was on the set, I would ask for water and nobody would get it for me because they didn’t want me to go pee cuz that meant that they would all have to come and unzip me and take it off and I would have to and it was a very mean. We’ll add that to the benefit. We’ll add that to the concert that you pulled together for so shaved eyebrows and risking fuss or whatever. It seems like oh my god that’s so lame. Why is she complaining you guys? When you’re working like eight like 18our days, it’s just it’s it’s really it’s really hard. But you know, you should do no one would get me water. You have to pee and you just can I can I please can I get some water? And you’re so proud. You should You’re just meant to let it go though in a wet suit. You’re meant to pee in wet suit. That’s right. That’s right. And that’s what started happening. So for the rest of us, it was a nightmare. But that’s not me. Nobody told me about that. Yeah. But number ones only. Okay. You don’t want to uh one final thing before we go to the break and the guys are going to stick around. We’re going to talk about the break. I want to the whole Spock hand thing that’s plagued me all my life. I’ve always wanted to be able to do that just to snap into it and some people seem to do it, some people can’t. Could you always do it or how did you No, I did have to actually uh spend some time conditioning my hand uh before I started shooting the first movie. At one time, I uh I put rubber bands around these two fingers and drove around Los Angeles going like this. Wow. so that I could uh cuz I couldn’t do it at first, but I’ve got got it in the edge. Oh, did you do it in the left hand then? You were doing it left-handed? Yeah, I do it left hand. You don’t do it right-handed? I’m I’m left-handed. Yeah, I can kind of do it on the right hand. Not as well. I’m more like you on my right. You can’t do it on the right hand at all. What are you talking about? That’s the most pathetic Spock hand I’ve ever seen in my life. Well, good thing you’re not playing it, I suppose. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, hang on. Oh, the shade. Okay, let’s Are you creative in this way? Do you have outside of the acting, do you have an art that you enjoy doing, even if only as a hobby? I remember making a big canvas at in high school and of nothing and the teacher said, “That’s so interesting. What is that?” And I thought, “It’s the universe.” And she went, “Of course it is.” And I got a good mark, but it was total BS. I am sincere about my own work. Yeah. But I really really envy Martin because you have a because you have a farm. Yes, animals. I’m very lucky. Yeah. Hold on. Since when did farmers become so sought after? I thought young farmers traditionally had a hard time getting women. I’m sure some remember there was a terrific series I loved on TV cuz I love superhero stuff. Heroes was on television a while ago and you played the evil Silot in that. I did. Yeah. Uh, and the way you did you you you your face can you can make yourself look quite evil. Yeah. Quite easily. It seems to me your face lends itself to evilness quite well. Gives the eyebrows too. Partly. Is that what it is? Partly. So So right now you seem quite open and friendly. If How do you switch to evil mode? It comes in handy if I don’t want people to bother me at a restaurant. Hey. Well, you mentioned eyebrows because it is a big part of it and you’ve got a fine a spectacular of all the people that have to shave them off. I know that’s exactly the point. You got twice the normal amount right there. Uh, but eyebrows doing stuff with your eyebrows is kind of festival. See if you can help me spot whose eyebrows these are. It’s a new game we’re playing. Whose eyebrow is this? Okay. Oh, the rock. Ah, that was too quick. But he looks like he tweezes. He looks like he tweezes. Yeah. Okay, so that’s the rock. You got that one for one. Okay, let’s go again. Oh, uh, Sandra Bullet. Sophia. No, you’re both being too classy. Um Cheryl Cole. Cheryl. Wow. Sher Cole. Well, if you’re watching, Cheryl, I said Kim Kardashian. Kim Kardashian it is. You went low. That’s right. There you go. God bless her. Good luck with the baby Kim. Okay, let’s let’s do one more. Saloon. Yeah, that’s it. The master. More. More. More. There you go. Here’s one more. You get this one. This is a tough one. This is not possible. That can’t be real. Is that actually eyebrows of somebody? Well, it’s maybe not somebody. Maybe it’s a That’s too cute. And Okay, we’re going to have to say goodbye. We’ve had you here for a while. I would love to keep you out for longer. I’m enjoying your company so much. How lovely to meet you, Zoe. Zachary, lovely to meet you again. The film is out May the 9th. I said it’s great fun. Even if you’re not a Star Trek fan, you’re going to love it. But of course, who isn’t? Will you join me in saying thank you to the fabulous Zachary Quinto and Zoe Salana? [Music]
Get ready – this is the perfect warm-up for Avatar: Fire and Ash!
Sigourney Weaver and Zoe Saldana talk Avatar, their iconic movie careers, Star Trek, hilarious story of declining James Cameron’s Mariana Trench dive and the behind the scenes.
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