Sigourney Weaver, International Goya Award: “Women who speak up help others feel safer”

The American actress and producer Sigourney Weaver is already in Valladolid, a city to which she has traveled to collect the International Goya this Saturday for her cinematographic career. The 74-year-old American performer has been awarded this honorary award for her extensive career, an award that she excitedly thanked at a press conference this Friday with very good words for Spanish cinema, which she considers “less conventional and more personalistic.” than Hollywood. In her appearance, Weaver stressed the importance of women reporting inappropriate sexual behavior or abuses of power: “We have to thank women who raise their voices because they help other women feel safer.” The actress has praised the director Pedro Almodóvar as an emblem of Spanish cinema and also the female presence in films for offering less conventional roles and with more diverse profiles.

Weaver appeared alongside the president of the Spanish Film Academy, Fernando Méndez-Leite, and the mayor of Valladolid, Jesús Julio Carnero (PP), at the city's Town Hall, where he signed the Book of Honor before taking the word. Méndez-Leite was excited to receive the artist, “one of the best actresses in all of history, whose films have reached everywhere. It is a highlight in the history of the Film Academy to have her.”

“I am very excited because I have dedicated a novel to him [Fracaso sentimental en la calle 50], something that not everyone does,” he stressed. The winner was “delighted,” as she herself said in Spanish, before praising in English “the beautiful experience of making a film in Spain,” where she has filmed scenes from several films, with special mention for the technical teams that They also read the script and give a “different energy.” Weaver has highlighted that the themes are “more diverse and different, less conventional and more personal” than those coordinated by Hollywood or American franchises.

Lieutenant Ripley's interpreter in Alien has expressed a forceful discourse on the inequality of women both in the film industry and in the rest of society. She has also highlighted the importance of the Me Too movement for “shedding light on the abuses of cinema” and contributing to women feeling “more powerful to say no” compared to previous times, since she herself demonstrated sexism for several decades. back. “Things have to change, it is a problem that women have in all fields and I hope that these cases become less and less frequent. “We have to be less trusting,” claimed the actress.

The American has expressed her confidence that equality will soon come to her union thanks to the progress made in recent years. According to Weaver, before the industry “didn't give enough credit to women” and only looked “for what young men wanted to see.” “Times have changed and now stories are made where more women of all ages and with many facets appear: there is a desire for more varied stories,” she insisted. Weaver has taken the opportunity to joke that she hopes to see Pedro Almodóvar this Saturday at the Goya gala and offer to act with him now that she has opened up to working in English. She has also told of her desire to meet Penélope Cruz or Juan Antonio Bayona, with whom she met in A monster comes to see me: “I am very excited to be part of the Spanish cinema family, it is a deep honor to be awarded by the community.”

The versatile actress has recalled that in her youth her teachers blamed her for “not having enough talent” and did not motivate her, but despite this she achieved her goals. Weaver has announced that she is working on a black comedy and in the continuity of the saga Avatar: “I'm very busy, I hope this streak passes so I can return to Spain.” The winner of the 2024 International Goya has explained that her motivations for choosing a project are more about “good stories, with good narrative” than specifically the characteristics of the character she is going to take on: “I care more about what I would like to see as public than a specific character.”

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