Q 13

PLAYBOY: Why doesn't he work in television today?

Sigourney Weaver: Yeah. He even started cable TV 20 years ago, for goodness' sake. [Pauses] The fact that he's not in control shows that his ideas are still considered dangerous. They involve quality and taking big chances. I'm not saying that someone like Grant Tinker doesn't. He's done a very good job of pulling NBC away from what the other networks are doing. Yet I do think it's ironic that with all the awards my father receives, he still doesn't have the power. When he describes his vision and ideas, TV executives all go, "Ha, God, that's so exciting." Then they all go home and program the same old stuff. I tried to set up a series of on-camera interviews with my father, with me asking the questions. I would like to record in some form what he does as a live speaker. If he tries to write a book, he writes the way he talks, and the sentences go on for pages, you know. But when he's there just standing with his hands in his pockets, jingling his change and talking to everybody, he turns everything around.

Q 14

PLAYBOY: What did you say the last time anyone suggested your success had something to do with your father's connections?

Sigourney Weaver: I never used to mention who my father was when I went up for a job, especially in television. The last time it happened was when I was going up for a TV series with James Brooks [Terms of Endearment, The Mary Tyler Moore Show] and Allan Burns. Brooks said, "Still riding on the old man's coattails, huh?" I flushed to the bottom of my feet. By that time, I had already achieved some success, so the statement mortified me. But it also made me laugh. Brooks didn't do it for real, but it's still something I don't want to hear when I go in for interviews.

Q 15

PLAYBOY: What should a young girl learn from her mother?

Sigourney Weaver: To make her own mistakes.

Q 16

PLAYBOY: Your family is fairly well to do. Could you play someone poor?

Sigourney Weaver: My father made a lot of money, but he was still on salary, so his fortunes rose and fell with the jobs he took. I never worried about where my next meal was coming from, but I didn't feel like part of the rich world. Still, one of my frustrations is having been somewhat pegged into the rich-girl role--and even if I'm not, as in Ghostbusters and Eyewitness, my characters get huge, deluxe apartments. It's not the way in which they would live. But I guess the crews need the room in which to move the camera around. Directors tend to make women in film grander than they are, anyway. They're still caught up with them as glamorous. Usually, they clean women up and make them appetizing and into their ideals, which can often be a first wife or a girl they were in love with in high school. I suspect it has happened to me. There isn't a whole lot of curiosity about normal, everyday women--which is a great loss to the public and films and to me as an actor. I want to play all kinds of women. I'm an actor. That's my job. Give me the script and I'll see what I can do with it. Don't just write me off as some Grace Kelly type. If I thought I was cut out to play only rich people, I'd be so very bored with the prospect.

Q 17

PLAYBOY: You live in New York but have spent a good deal of time in Hollywood. Who gives better parties, New Yorkers or Angelenos?

Sigourney Weaver: I do. They're children's parties. There's usually a magician or some entertainer. I love people with specialties, such as fire-eaters. I've never given a party where people just stand around, drink and talk. I had a Halloween square dance for my birthday. I had a witch for a caller. It was glorious--all these goblins and tigers and ghosts dancing around the room, drunk, laughing, screeching, trying to follow directions--a lot of people who wouldn't normally be thrown together in such a violent manner.

Q 18

PLAYBOY: What's on your bookshelf that no one would suspect is there?

Sigourney Weaver: I have three copies of The Dragons of Eden. I like to read about evolution. I don't know if we're evolving up or down. I've thought about developing gills and going swimming. Maybe someday.

Q 19

PLAYBOY: You worked with Michael Caine in Half Moon Street. Did you get a chance to ask him, "What's it all about, Alfie?"

Sigourney Weaver: I should have. He works hard but secretly. You don't see it. And he wants to be home for dinner. He wants everybody else to get home for dinner.

Q 20

PLAYBOY: What's better than a massage?

Sigourney Weaver: I've always been fond of the Tilt-a-Whirl.