Hard to believe but Sigourney Weaver is 71, though don’t let that fool you – she has no intention of slowing down the work or physical challenges thrown at her in life.
Weaver recently has been in New Zealand on the set of James Cameron’s “Avatar” sequels which have been filming the past few months in a country that has largely managed to avoid the coronavirus pandemic.
Photos have been popping up from time to time showing off her and the cast doing some underwater stunts for the second film, and Weaver recently spoke with The New York Times about doing those sequences and how they underwent intense training allowing them to hold their breath for more than six minutes at a time:
“My hope is that what I receive from the universe is even more outrageous than anything I can think of. I don’t really say to myself, ‘Well, you can’t do this.’ Or, ‘You can’t do that.’ Let me at it! And we’ll see… [We were] learning how to not to squint or clamp their mouths shut – both natural reactions when you’re submerged – during take after take in a gigantic water tank… I had some concerns. But that’s what the training was for. And I really wanted to do it. I didn’t want anyone to think, ‘Oh, she’s old, she can’t do this.'”
She adds she weights around her waist and professional divers who sped her and others back to the surface for air at brief, regular intervals. Kate Winslet, Edie Falco, Michelle Yeoh, Vin Diesel, Jemaine Clement, and Oona Chaplin co-star alongside returnees like Weaver, Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Joel David Moore, Dileep Rao, Stephen Lang and Matt Gerald.
The first of the sequels arrives in cinemas on December 22nd 2022.
