Actor Sigourney Weaver has been a staple in James Cameron’s movies, but when her casting was announced for Avatar: The Way of Water it came as a bit of a shocker for everyone, given that in the original movie Weaver played the head of the Avatar mission, Dr. Grace Augustine, who was subsumed into the Tree Of Life by the end of the movie. For a comeback, Cameron conceived a whole new character for her to play. In a new interview with Empire, the actor spoke of the transition from one character to another in Avatar world.
The actor admitted that even she was not sure “where Grace went, based on the images that were shown,” in the final moments of the original movie. She thinks, “Jim hadn't quite made up his mind. He was just trying to figure out what would make sense with the story.” Though she was “delighted” to be reincarnated as another person. This other person is a Na’vi teenager, Kiri, Jake and Neytiri’s adoptive daughter. As the fans evolved over a decade Cameron’s characters did as well, as the new feature focuses more on emotional familial bonds. Weaver described Kiri as a “typical adolescent” who has a "deep love for all things in the world, creatures, plants, everything. This is also true when she's underwater. She's at ease in these natural environments and very comfortable with all the different creatures.”
In the upcoming feature, we’ll see that Jake and Neytiri’s family has been moved up from the Pandoran forests to the water worlds of the Metkayina tribe. As trouble ensues, the family has to stick together in face of a new war. Weaver divulges that the sequel is a touching story. “Because we have to leave our home and we have to leave the forest and go to this new environment. And I think what I loved about what Jim did was that she is a very typical adolescent. She's very self-conscious, filled with all these emotions that come from being thrown into this new reality and missing home,” she explained. What excited her the most about the new role is that she had “a lot to think about as Kiri,” and had to work in a “completely different way than I've ever worked.”
Image via Disney
Certainly, it’ll be a refreshing change for the audience to see Weaver getting into new skin and the actor is “glad” she had the Na’vi experience after playing Grace in the first movie. She explains, “I think Grace preferred her avatar herself and her avatar life, and everything to do with the humans was a lot of bullshit.” Further elaborating on her experience playing the teenager and the theme of the upcoming movie she said,
I'm just in awe of how Jim can come up with these incredibly complex layered stories and relationships about this family. We may look blue, but I feel like the themes of this movie — of becoming refugees, having to leave home and figure out how to live in this completely new environment — are so universal.
Avatar: The Way of Water premieres December 15. You can check out the trailer below: