When you think of working legends, Sigourney Weaver should be one that comes to mind. For many (myself included) she was the go-to badass woman growing up. She was funny, charming, and could kick an alien’s ass without second thought and I loved her for it. Now, she’s still working and bringing new characters to life that challenge Hollywood (just as Ripley did in back in 1979 with Alien). And that’s what The Good House does with Weaver as Hildy, an older woman trying to justify her drinking to her family and find her own happiness in the midst of her own chaos.
The film is a love story between Hildy and Frank (Kevin Kline) and their lost romance from when they were teenagers. But it is also completely Hildy’s story. She is talking to us in asides and telling us what she is really feeling despite what she projects into the world around her and it is refreshing to see a movie like this with an older woman at its center. Weaver, who is in her ’70s, could still kick some alien ass, but The Good House is a softer turn for her and an honest portrayal of love and aging that’s wonderful to see Weaver tackle.
And in preparation for the film’s release, we spoke to Weaver about it! Yes, I was nervous in this interview because I was talking to Sigourney Weaver, but it was amazing hearing her talk about Hildy and the project as a whole. I asked her what brought her in given the vastness of her career and Weaver was honest about her connection to The Good House.
“Well, I think it was the story of an older woman from her point of view who’s very funny, who’s hit a moment in her life when everything that she’s worked so hard for is slipping away,” Weaver said. “Just to have a movie from the point of view of an older woman is already so rare and exciting, let alone someone who’s this funny. And the fact that it had a love story also with what turned out to be Kevin Klein was like, you know, heaven, heaven, heaven. So I found the role of Hildy very challenging. She takes us, the audience, into her confidence and really lets her hair down and tells you what’s really going on with her. So the counterpoint between what she shows the world and what she shares with the audience was what really drew me in.”
And honestly, who among us doesn’t want to fall in love with Kevin Kline? I am your resident The Big Chill super fan and will talk about Kevin Kline in his running shorts at any given chance. Because come on, have you seen Kevin Kline in The Big Chill??
You can see the rest of my conversation with Sigourney Weaver (yes a wild sentence to write) here:
The Good House is in theaters now!
(featured image: Dreamworks Pictures)
