A Sigourney Weaver Top Ten
Tuesday, May 23, 2023 at 2:00PM 
Back in April, Nathaniel wrote about Sigourney Weaver, arguing that her legendary career more than deserves Oscar gold. Maybe it's time for the Academy to give her an Honorary award since they don't seem especially keen on recognizing her recent output. Regardless, you can't argue that Weaver has significantly faltered in her craft, for the thespian's excellence is as apparent today as it was in her 1980s heyday. Indeed, both that article and its comment section were full of recommendations for those eager to explore the star's filmography. Inspired by them and the release of Paul Schrader's Master Gardener in theaters, I decided to do just that, enjoying a SigWeavie marathon that doubled as research for this actress-y top ten.
Continuing the tradition established with the Nicolas Cage top ten, I shall exclude Weaver's Oscar-anointed work because there's plenty written about them already. In each case, she delivered superior work to the Academy's chosen victor, showcasing the sheer range of her talents as she did so...
Sigourney Weaver serves action-movie perfection in Aliens, a non-clichéd approach to prestige biopic acting in Gorillas in the Mist, and a deliciously nasty caricature in Working Girl. Some of her most essential abilities are on full display, like the ease with which the actress projects intelligence. Then there's the performer's delineation of terror even when the character's resilience takes precedence, how she often adds a subtext of anger to complicate the material.
Moving on from those three AMPAS approved performances, we encounter someone capable of all that and much more, especially when given the opportunity to develop strengths within genre material or broad comedy. Her physicality is often imposing, but that doesn't preclude Weaver from tenderness, from marrying strength and fragility in an array of surprising variations. Such is my admiration that, counting almost fifty films of hers I've seen, I've only ever disliked Weaver's work once or twice. Overall, she's a dependable performer, often a blessing upon material that doesn't deserve her. But then again, this is a list of favorite performances, not favorite films.
Without further ado, here's my Sigourney Weaver top ten:
ALIEN (1979) Ridley Scott
Because the first four Alien movies are so different, there's not much repetition in Sigourney Weaver's work. The career-defining role of Ellen Ripley proves elastic in her hands, modulated from horror to action to thriller to fantasy. In the first one, the characterization is all about cold competence in a moment of unimaginable crisis. Especially near the end, Weaver is working within a milieu where loaded silence is the norm, her body language and expressive eyes the principal mechanisms through which she expresses the plot's many frights and tensions. It's a commanding performance, grounding the sci-fi in palpable humanity, perfectly calibrated realism.
Alien is streaming on Starz and DirecTV. You can also rent the film on most major platforms.
THE YEAR OF LIVING DANGEROUSLY (1982) Peter Weir
This Oscar-winning Peter Weir project is the first major project where Weaver's inability with accents became apparent. It wouldn't be the last time she'd try faking an English intonation, only to crash into a wall of inconsistencies. Still, a dodgy accent need not ruin an entire performance. That is the case here, with Weaver playing Mel Gibson's romantic interest with more willful opacity than the text may indicate. Even when everything points toward a transparent personality, her take on a lovestruck Embassy worker is attuned to the titular dangers, a sense of mystery spiking a figure that could have easily been reduced to that of the port in a storm.
For a similarly thorny portrait marred by a dodgy English accent, see 2016's A Monster Calls. It's a good supporting turn whose merits transcend a minor failing.
The Year of Living Dangerously is available, to rent and purchase, on most major platforms.
GHOSTBUSTERS (1984) Ivan Reitman
A lot of Weaver's best work can be found in movies where she gives herself over to silliness. Such is the case of Ghostbusters, in which the actress plays a cellist possessed by the demigod Zuul, doing double duty as a sexy foil to Bill Murray and a vessel for demonic hijinks. What I most love about this turn is how Sigourney Weaver manages all the many identities she must embody as both character and mechanical part within the comedic engine. She's serving romantic realness in one scene and then must sell you utter panic the next, before twisting both modes to be the she-devil of your most secret dreams. She's a vision of Amazonian multitasking, taming chaos into order.
Ghostbusters is streaming on AMC+, Tubi, and DirecTV. It's also on most major platforms, available to rent and purchase.
DAVE (1993) Ivan Reitman
As a beleaguered First Lady, Sigourney Weaver is Dave's beating heart. Moreover, she's the anchor tethering a zany plot to the realm of real human emotions, tempering the innocence cum naivete. It starts with a sour register, the study of a broken marriage where love has long ago rotted into contempt. But then, a spark of interest comes with hope. That's all dashed in a moment of revelation when that early hostility bleeds grief, for the ghost of affection persisted after all. Most important, perhaps, is Weaver's deft transition into rom-com charm, electrifying the screen through her chemistry with costar Kevin Kline. It's a superb creation, deceptively simple but oh-so-beautiful if you're willing to look closer.
Dave is available for rent and purchase on most major platforms.
COPYCAT (1995) Jon Amiel
In his Horror Actressing series, Jason Adams described Weaver's Copycat performance as "terror incarnate," and I can't think of a more correct summation. She's Helen, a criminal psychologist attacked by a wannabee killer in the picture's prologue. The trauma breaks something in her, the woman now suffering from severe agoraphobia, self-imprisoned at home. But of course, danger soon comes a-calling in the form of a serial killer whose MO is all about imitating those legendary monsters who came before him. Like a reverse Hannibal Lecter, Weaver's Helen is the consultant who shall crack the case. She's also the central victim, her struggle for survival viscerally felt through a roller-coaster of wavering control. Quoting again from Jason, "Helen never once feels safe; she feels like the walls caving in."
You also have Roman Polanski's Death and the Maiden for a similar exploration of fear in an earthbound setting. A particular scene of aural-induced epiphany represents some of the most harrowing work in the actress' career.
Copycat is currently streaming on Hulu. You can also find it on Amazon, Google Play, Youtube, Microsoft Store, and DirecTV, available to rent and buy.
ALIEN RESURRECTION (1997) Jean-Pierre Jeunet
By the time of Alien Resurrection, the original Ellen Ripley is no more, having died at the end of the third picture. What we have as our protagonist is a hybrid creation, merging the human woman of yore with the genetic properties of the Xenomorph. The premise could have been another wasted idea in a movie full of such disappointments, but Weaver holds tight to the concept of this being a new character, one who's fundamentally inhuman. And so, this new Ripley is charged with a predatorial intensity that challenges the viewer's perception of her person as well as their innate allegiances. Negotiating shifting levels of danger and compassion becomes a film-long exercise for the performer, one of her most underappreciated feats.
1997 was a formidable year for Weaver in film. That was when she came close to a fourth Oscar nomination for Ang Lee's The Ice Storm. Check out my Almost There analysis to read my feelings on that supporting turn.
Alien Resurrection is streaming on Starz and DirecTV. It's also on most major platforms, available to rent and purchase.
SNOW WHITE: A TALE OF TERROR (1997) Michael Cohn
Going back to the days when revisionist fairytales turned gritty were a nascent trend, Snow White: A Tale of Terror provides the most exciting take on the princess's evil stepmother. That's undoubtedly a consequence of Tom Szollosi's and Deborah Serra's writing, but Sigourney Weaver deserves a lot of credit, too. Her Lady Claudia starts the movie as a woman caught in the difficult position of being a replacement for mother and spouse. While the wifely role suits her, she struggles with stepmotherhood, further sabotaged by a resentful ward. Weaver details how this imperfect woman gradually cracks, her evil rooted in despair and fostered by the cruelty of others. She's a villain by the end, but one that inspires a mixture of revilement and understanding.
Snow White: A Tale of Terror is currently streaming on the Roku Channel. You can also rent it on most major services.
THE TV SET (2006) Jake Kasdan
The 21st century began a period where Hollywood found, in Sigourney Weaver, an ideal performer for the broadest kinds of humor. Though she's suitably stellar in projects like Heartbreakers, Holes, and You Again, I choose to highlight a more sidelined effort in The TV Set. Though this behind-the-scenes comedy is nothing to write home about, the actress delivers the goods as the executive from hell whose mercenary nature is anathema to every artistic impulse. Like a cocktail fusion of Dunaway's Diana Christensen and Weaver's own Katharine Parker, she's brilliantly odious, always sporting the fakest smile in the world and hollow to the core.
The TV Set is currently streaming on FuboTV, Peacock, the Roku Channel, Tubi, Kanopy, Redbox, Crackle, Pluto TV, Shout! Factory, Plex, and Freevee.
PRAYERS FOR BOBBY (2009) Russell Mulcahy
Adapted from Leroy F. Aarons' homonymous book, Prayers for Bobby tells the story of a young gay man who committed suicide in 1983. Or, more accurately, it's the tale of his mother. Weaver plays her, an authoritative figure whose Christian devotion opens the floodgates of hatred once her son comes out. Though this is, ultimately, a tale of redemption and transformation motivated by loss, the actress doesn't dull the blade of her early scenes. She's cutting, investing as much in the depiction of cruelty as she later does in grief. To see her journey is a painful watch, but there's enlightenment around the corner and PFLAG activism to boot. Weaver has rarely been more purposefully brittle, shattering for the camera before building herself back up.
Themes of parents in the aftermath of their children's suicide and strict mothers handling tragic gay sons is a well Weaver has visited many times. You can see it in 2004's Imaginary Heroes and the 2012 miniseries Political Animals.
Prayers for Bobby is streaming on DirecTV and the Lifetime Movie Club.
MASTER GARDENER (2022) Paul Schrader
Have you ever wondered how Sigourney Weaver would have fared in Old Hollywood? Paul Schrader's last film in the 'Man in a Room' trilogy offers an answer to that conjecture, putting forward the idea that she'd have been a star in the Joan Crawford model. Indeed, her performance in Master Gardener is a sharp-edged miracle of arch mannerism with a diva-like attitude. She's a paragon of old-money power, a relic of deceptive Southern gentilities who plays with those under her control in the way a cat might do to its prey. Voracious, she's a barely-restrained storm of acute angles and flashing furies. Common naturalism has no place in this dowager's Gracewood Gardens. Instead, Weaver provides a spiked bloom, dazzling and deadly. Or perhaps she's a horny jellyfish – you'll get it when you see the movie.
Schrader's creation is just now arriving in theaters, but it went around the festival circuit in 2022. That was another banner year for the actress, who also starred in The Good House, Call Jane, and Avatar: The Way of Water.
Master Gardener is currently in theaters. Don't miss it.
What about you, dear reader? What are your 10 favourite Sigourneys?
Reader Comments (16)
Thankyou Claudio for this wonderful piece on my favourite actress above all others.
I know people usually say Streep,Hepburn,Davis or Rowlands when naming their favourite but for me it's always Sigourney.
I like you chose The TV set she is flat out hilarious in it and would have been a worthy nominee but I bet she was in 50th place.
Top 10 without the Oscar nods,here we go
Alien
Half Moon Street
Dave
Death and The Maiden
The Ice Storm
Snow White Tale of terror
Map of the World
Heartbreakers
The TV Set
The Good House
Can you tell us which films do you not enjoy her in?
Is she a lead or supporting actress candidate,I know she's got no chance.
Interesting top ten, not least because some of these I haven't seen (The TV Set, Prayers for Bobby).
I'd put Death and Maiden, A Map of the World, and the Ice Storm. I also have a soft spot for Heartbreakers. It's a pretty poor film all told, but she's so sexy and is clearly having a lot of fun.
YES. She is so good in Dave. So good.
She's just a tremendous talent - comedy, action, powerful, terrified, there's seemingly nothing she can't do. I love this list.
Hard to keep a list of favorites for her to only 10 but if I have to: Ghostbusters, Death and the Maiden, Copycat, The TV Set, Working Girl, The Ice Storm, Galaxy Quest, The Year of Living Dangerously, Aliens, and her small but delightful role in The Cabin in the Woods.
For me...
1. Aliens
2. Alien
3. The Ice Storm
4. Death and the Maiden
5. the Year of Living Dangerously
6. Ghostbusters/Ghostbusters II/Ghostbusters: Afterlife
7. Galaxy Quest
8. Working Girl
9. Dave
10. Imaginary Heroes
I am so pleased you acknowledged Prayers for Bobby. Because it’s a cheap Lifetime cable movie, I think Weaver deserves stronger recognition. In this potboiler, the actress imbues Mary Griffith with a humanity visible at the character’s cruelest moment and again at her most regretful. A lesser actress would succumb to the temptation to go over the top. Weaver remains heartbreakingly true in each moment.
What about "Gorillas inn the Mist"?????
Death and the Maiden is a terrific Polanski film, and she is spectacular in it.
@rdf I think Claudio was staying away from her Oscar nominated roles and sticking with those the academy didn't choose.
@Finbar totally on point assessment,she rarely goes over the top in any role.
She is far too undervalued even with the accolades she's gathered through the years. I have to admit I'm not as well versed in her more recent work as I'd like to be.
My top 10 in order:
Dave-She and Kevin Kline are in pitch perfect tune.
Aliens
Galaxy Quest
Working Girl
Alien
The Year of Living Dangerously
Heartbreakers
Prayers for Bobby
Copycat
The Sorrows of Gin
I was glad to see Copycat, Dave, The Year of Living Dangerously, and Prayers for Bobby but there were several pivotal works of hers that deserved inclusion as well. Excluding her Oscar nominated movies, I would also have included The Ice Storm, Death and the Maiden, A Map of the World, and Snow Cake. I'm still shocked she never got Oscar nominations for those four films I just listed.
My top ten of her best performances:
The Year of Living Dangerously
Aliens
Gorillas in the Mist
Death and the Maiden
Copycat
The Ice Storm
A Map of the World
Snow Cake
Prayers for Bobby
The Good House
Aliens
Working Girl
The Ice Storm
Death and the Maiden
Alien
A Map of the World
Snow White: A Tale of Terror
Alien 3
I'm in complete agreement with @Joel6's top 7. Recently saw an episode of Marvelous Mrs. Maisel that starred two actors from Galaxy Quest, so i watched that film again, and I LOVE Sigourney's campy performance. So delicious.
Haven't seen The TV Set, but will certainly check it out. Is Jake Kasdan Lawrence's son?
Mr Ripley79 -- Sadly, she can't overcome my issues with HALF MOON STREET and I can't say I'm a fan of whatever's going on in RAMPART as far as Weaver is concerned.
Peter Callahan -- She's very fun in HEARTBREAKERS, the best part of the entire movie.
Cash -- I might have honestly nominated her in 1993, for Best Supporting Actress.
ScottC & Pam -- So glad to see other GALAXY QUEST fans here. I do like her a lot in that movie, though my MVP choices are probably Rickman and Rockwell.
thevoid99 -- ALIENS is my choice for best Sigourney Weaver performance ever. As much as I like Matlin, Weaver should have won the Oscar in 1986.
Finbar McBride -- Exactly!
rdf -- I excluded her Oscar-nominated performances from this top ten.
charlea -- I adore what she does in the first third of that film. However, I can't help my curious mind from wandering what Close might have done with the part had she been allowed to repeat her Tony-winning performance on screen.
joel6 -- I still need to see THE SORROS OF GIN. Thank you for the recommendation.
xanara6 -- Sadly, SNOW CAKE wasn't eligible for the Oscars.
Angelo -- Only a top eight?
Thank you all for the feedback, and for sharing your favorite Weaver performances. I'm very grateful.
I was hoping against hope someone would mention Sigourney's work, small though it is, in the gay comedy Jeffrey. She plays a modern evangelist cum therapist with a huge and ardent following. Terry Cole-Whitaker if that means anything to anybody. Anyway, her work is picture perfect and even after multiple viewings I always get a bit more excited when her section of the movie comes on.
She's interesting and talented, but never a favorite of mine.
Weaver's Best Performances IMHO:
* Aliens
* Alien
* Working Girl
* The Ice Storm
* A Map of the World