Yes, young man and an old soul. I mean, I don’t know when [Dan Harris] wrote the script, but he sent it to me when he was already 21. And then I got to meet him, and I immediately wanted to do it. It didn’t bother me that he was a first time director or any of that, because it was such a masterful script that I thought the only person who should direct this is whoever wrote it. And then I met him, and of course he looks even younger than he actually is and he’s such a gentle, smart guy. I think I have very strong, inappropriate maternal feelings for him. He doesn’t need a mother because he’s very mature, but I just adore him. He really is a great director. He’s going to have a great career and I feel very fortunate that I got to be in the first film.
Is this film more enjoyable because you date young men and smoke joints and have emotional moments? Does that make it more enjoyable and challenging?
Well, I think it’s very challenging. She’s a very kind of raw person, and I’d never played anyone like her before. I listened to a lot of rock music. I think also, I used to hang out at Fillmore West when I was in college. I think there were a lot of parts of myself that I never developed that I funneled into Sandy. So that did make it enjoyable.
I think it was certainly challenging, because again, what they are going through is so difficult and so painful and the way they try to escape is so naïve. I really liked her, but I never… I don’t think you ever really know what you’re doing. You don’t have time to go, “Oh, this is the right choice, I’m gonna ace this scene.” You don’t have time for that. You’re always insecure and you’re always just flinging yourself into the void and then it’s on film.
How did you and Jeff Daniels work off each other to play a married couple on screen?
You know, he’s such an accomplished actor. He just walked in with it and you feed off each other. But I’m not a great talker and I don’t think Jeff is a talker either. He mostly sat and played his guitar. You’ve done the work on your own, and somewhat in rehearsal, and then you just go for it in the scene and feed off each other.
I felt it was really an interesting marriage. I totally believe the marriage and I totally was sad for them that they had had this great love and it had gotten so screwed up because of bad judgment. I’m sure it wasn’t just her. I’m sure she had a reason to [spoiler deleted], but it was, to me, it was so human and so real. I thought, “Gosh, I’ve waited so long to work with Jeff Daniels and I hope I get to do it again soon because he’s so amazing.”
PAGE 3: Sigourney Weaver on Another "Alien" Movie and Action Heroes
