‘Avatar: The Sense of Water’: How Sigourney Weaver became a teenager: ‘We did parkour’

Thirteen years after we first stepped into the breathtaking forests of Pandora, Jake and Neytiri’s story continues in “Avatar: The Water Way,” the highly anticipated sequel to James Cameron’s blockbuster, finally released in theaters on December 16th. And old acquaintances return with them, even if not all of them will have exactly the same face. Such is the case with Sigourney Weaver, whose character, Dr. Grace Augustine, died at the end of the first episode. Because of this, the actress plays a new character in the sequel, Kiri, a Na’vi teenager directly connected to Dr. Augustine.

The magic of motion capture has allowed the popular 73-year-old performer to put herself in the (blue) shoes of a 14-year-old girl, but technology isn’t the only thing that has made it possible. And is that to play Kiri, Weaver has done a complete work of immersive documentation in adolescence. As she tells us in an interview in London on the occasion of the premiere, the actress attended high school classes and he spent a lot of time with the younger actors in the cast, doing everything they did: attending the same classes, learning underwater sign language and even practicing parkour.. “They were very generous”tells of the children and adolescents of ‘The sense of water’. “They immediately accepted me as if I were a fourteen year old”.

Kiri is one of the most interesting characters in the sequel, and this is partly due to Weaver’s dedication to developing her closely with Cameron, to the point where he felt free to ask for changes and adapt it to his own experience as a teenager. “It was very nice that he listened to me”recognizes the actress. “I told him ‘I want it to be on the outside what it feels like on the inside’ […] and James let me “messe it up”. They called her ‘Rare Kiri’, which I think is perfect.”.

This process was a reflection of a different collaboration with Cameron, who has acknowledged on more than one occasion that his experiences as a father of teenagers not only inspired him to write the sequel, but also to be less harsh on set. “He’s charming. He never told us why, but he was much happier.”says Weaver. “We felt like family on set and I loved that he brought that energy. And may he have the humility, as a father, to say that he has learned things from his children. Because we all do”.

The evolution of motion capture

Importantly, underneath the digital spectacle layers of ‘Avatar: The Sense of Water’, there is a group of actors performing, as in the first installment. Weaver reflects on how far motion capture technology has come, but laments that there are still people who believe it’s the same thing as animation. “This is what most people don’t understand in the United States”emphasizes the actress. “They keep saying things like, ‘Did you voice that character?’ or “Were you in front of green screens the whole time? The reality is much more impressive than that. Indeed, it gives the actor the freedom to be anything. I very much remember Benedict Cumberbatch becoming the dragon Smaug, an incredible performance to think people don’t understand how much this technology depends on the actors”.

‘Avatar: The Sense of Water’ is released exclusively in theaters on December 16th.