Was Brie Larson and Gal Godot, thanking Sigourney Weaver, weird?

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Oh okay Carrie Fisher is an interesting one since Star Wars also came out before Alien. Yeah guess Alien is the first if we are not counting, Carrie, or Halloween, etc, I just thought it was weird cause I never saw it as the first. I just thought the superhero movies of today are different movies and one had nothing to do with the other.



I think Carrie Fisher was a step in the direction taken with Sigourney Weaver. Her character subverted the expectations of a damsel in distress but she was also a love interest.

Larson and Gadot's comments seem to come out of left field because there have been so many action films featuring female leads since Aliens. She was not really the first if you consider the Pam Greer films (Can other MoFoers think of others?). But Weaver did help make a grim and gritty female action heroine a popular idea.



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Oh yes, I didn't think of Pam Grier as well! That's what I mean, it feels like Weaver is not necessarily the pioneer, they made her out to be.



Ami-Scythe's Avatar
A bucket of anxiety
At the Oscars, both women on stage, thanked Sigourney Weaver, saying if it wasn't for her in Alien, than they wouldn't have been able to be in the Superhero movies they were in, and they wouldn't have been made. I am thinking really, do they actually believe that?

If Alien had not have been made, does that mean that Marvel and DC comics would have? The Wonder Woman character was created before the screenplay to Alien was even written. So why wouldn't they make a movie based on a DC comics character that was created in 1941, unless some movie in the 70s was going to be made? The wonder woman TV show was even aired before Alien was made, so it doesn't add up.

That would be like Christian Bale thanking Sean Connery, that if he hadn't played James Bond on screen, that no Batman movie would have been made, even though Batman was created before James Bond.

Or it would be like Matt Damon coming out on stage with Arnold Schwarzenegger and thanking him that if he had no made Conan the Barbarian, that the Bourne movies would not have been made. I would be thinking, really?

I was thinking where did these two actresses get that idea? Even Sigourney Weaver seemed to believe it that without her, those movies wouldn't have been made. Unless I am missing something? I just thought it was really strange.
When I saw the thread I thought they were thanking her as an inspiring actress this is just...what????? Especially when Gal Gadot plays Wonder Woman, a character who is a superhero....ALWAYS WRITTEN TO BE A WOMAN. Captain Marvel was also always written to be a woman and a manlier woman than Wonder Woman so what exactly are they smoking?
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The trick is not minding
Good call on Grier. Always forget she came years before Weaver. She’s deserves credit especially as a black Woman.
Fisher was a heroine, but she wasn’t the focus of the movie, which is the point here.
I’d love a solo film about a young Leia that explains how she came to be involved in the conflict.



I agree wtih everybody.

A bit of genre crossing - Ripley was a heroine, but not a super hero. And Alien was sci-fi / horror, but not a comic-based superhero flick.

Since we're crossing genres - would Jamie Lee Curtis count in the Halloween movies? I never really followed them, but wasn't she the heroine? Sure, she mostly ran and screamed, but didn't she have to fight the killer in the end?

(On TV you also had The Girl from U.N.C.L.E., the Bionic Woman, Police Woman, Charlie's Angels, the Mighty Isis, Electra Woman and Dyna Girl, etc.)



When I saw the thread I thought they were thanking her as an inspiring actress this is just...what????? Especially when Gal Gadot plays Wonder Woman, a character who is a superhero....ALWAYS WRITTEN TO BE A WOMAN. Captain Marvel was also always written to be a woman and a manlier woman than Wonder Woman so what exactly are they smoking?
Just some clarification - there've been a few Captain Marvels...

The first was Billy Batson who turned into Captain Marvel by saying the word "SHAZAM!" created by C.C. Beck in 1939 for Fawcett Comics. (He was later acquired by DC Comics and is now called "Shazam" due to copyright issues).

Next, Marvel Comics created a Captain Marvel in 1968 who was a "Kree" alien (named Mar-Vell) who was male.

Then the name was adopted by a black female Marvel Comics character (name Monica Rambeau) who could turn into various forms of light in 1982.

Then by multiple Kree aliens.

Then by Carol Danvers in 2012 - who had previously gone by the names "Ms. Marvel," "Binary," "War Bird" and finally "Captain Marvel" (whew!)

Neither of the initial Captain Marvels were originally intended to be women.



The trick is not minding
When I saw the thread I thought they were thanking her as an inspiring actress this is just...what????? Especially when Gal Gadot plays Wonder Woman, a character who is a superhero....ALWAYS WRITTEN TO BE A WOMAN. Captain Marvel was also always written to be a woman and a manlier woman than Wonder Woman so what exactly are they smoking?
Just some clarification - there've been a few Captain Marvels...

The first was Billy Batson who turned into Captain Marvel by saying the word "SHAZAM!" created by C.C. Beck in 1939 for Fawcett Comics. (He was later acquired by DC Comics and is now called "Shazam" due to copyright issues).

Next, Marvel Comics created a Captain Marvel in 1968 who was a "Kree" alien (named Mar-Vell) who was male.

Then the name was adopted by a black female Marvel Comics character (name Monica Rambeau) who could turn into various forms of light in 1982.

Then by multiple Kree aliens.

Then by Carol Danvers in 2012 - who had previously gone by the names "Ms. Marvel," "Binary," "War Bird" and finally "Captain Marvel" (whew!)

None of the Captain Marvels were originally intended to be women.
As a fellow comic book fanatic, I can confirm the above.
Carol Danvers has had an....interesting history to say the least. Rogue from X-Men ties heavily into her history for example.



Ami-Scythe's Avatar
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Did you even read all the posts above that explains everything?
My thoughts remain the same. I blame the sudden surge in female leads on the times. The late 90s and early 2000s wasn't a time for female heroes because people weren't making superhero films and when they were, they were terrible, especially when using female leads. What was being made at the time was campy action movies. The stuff with explosions and car chases in the city. But you're not going to say that The Matrix paved the way for campy action films. When I think, "pave the way," I think someone introducing a concept the world would never even think was possible or at least proving something that people didn't already think of before.
Dorothy Dandridge, to me, is a better example of a pioneer. She fought for her role as Carmen Jones in 1954 and even though she landed the part, she couldn't sing - In the first all black musical ever made. Everyone's singing parts were dubbed. (Did I mention that Dandridge started her career as a singer?) That feels more like she had something to prove. Weaver on the other hand, while I love her in everything she does, even her cameo in [i]Finding Dory[/I,], she went to an audition and got the part. The part of "one of seven astronauts." No one cared which foot went in what shoe. They wanted a group of people. She was in the group. Suddenly it's not all that impressive a story. Not to mention that they wanted to take advantage of the fact that she was inexperienced by making her discomfort on the set look like discomfort in the "situation." (And take it as you will but the casting directors for both the UK and US were female.) Yes, I understand that Weaver is amazing and it is her talent that made her an interesting and strong character but at the same time, I don't think she ever really had anything to prove other than her own acting ability. A strong female character was not a far-fetched concept. We had love interests as tough and witty as Anna Schmidt in The Third Man (1949), we had Princess Dahla in The Pink Panther from 1964 and Julia Roberts as the lead in Mary Poppins in the same year and the year before that, we had Tippi Hedren portraying Melanie Daniels in The Birds and Monty Python was making fun of the female stereotype (in sci-fi skit no less) years before the release of Star Wars or Alien so clearly some ways were already paved. And that was without the all too obvious Carrie Fisher argument. So I am very much on ironpony's side here. I trump the fact that more female action heroes are being written to popularity. Sci-fi was the thing to do in the late 70s to 80s the same way campy action films were the thing to do in the early 2000s, so of course, Weaver in Alien is going to stand out. Spielberg and Zemeckis stood out too. Are they the pioneers of whimsy? The roaring 20s the pioneer of hats?



The trick is not minding
You’re arguing apples and oranges here. Dandridge wasn’t an action star which is the point here. Schmidt wasn’t the main star of The Third Man.
Weaver wasn’t the first, Grier it has been established came previously, but Weaver helped usher in an era of heroines. That’s the key word here. Heroine.
No ones saying actresses didn’t have starring roles, that’s a straw mans argument.
We’re saying that they didn’t have many heroine roles.



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You’re arguing apples and oranges here. Dandridge wasn’t an action star which is the point here. Schmidt wasn’t the main star of The Third Man.
Weaver wasn’t the first, Grier it has been established came previously, but Weaver helped usher in an era of heroines. That’s the key word here. Heroine.
No ones saying actresses didn’t have starring roles, that’s a straw mans argument.
We’re saying that they didn’t have many heroine roles.
I guess. Some characters just feel like they are heroines even if they're not the focus or doing anything action-y, which I thought was the point in most of the films I referenced. But it doesn't matter because like I said, Weaver is a talented actress anyway so praise be given.



The first action heroine that springs to my mind is Cynthia Rothrock, a woman who had the skillset to handle the action scenes, stunts etc..
She started around the mid 1980's, around the same time as Michelle Yoeh who is also a great action star.



At the Oscars, both women on stage, thanked Sigourney Weaver, saying if it wasn't for her in Alien, than they wouldn't have been able to be in the Superhero movies they were in, and they wouldn't have been made...
If Brie Larson and Gal Godot were being completely honest they would've also thanked: the writers, the producers and the director of Alien, all who made the creative decision to have a woman as an action lead.

Alien (1979)
Directed by:
Ridley Scott

Written by:

Dan O'Bannon ... (story & screenplay) and Ronald Shusett (story)

Produced by:
Gordon Carroll
David Giler
Walter Hil
Ivor Powell
Ronald Shusett



Ami-Scythe's Avatar
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If Brie Larson and Gal Godot were being completely honest they would've also thanked: the writers, the producers and the director of Alien, all who made the creative decision to have a woman as an action lead.
Actually they weren't too invested in who all played the leads. It just played out that way. So it really was just Weaver's talent.



Actually they weren't too invested in who all played the leads. It just played out that way. So it really was just Weaver's talent.
I can't image that the producers didn't care if the lead was a man or a woman. That stuff matters to producers for ticket sales, especially back in 1979. Do you have a link to prove that none of the film maker's cared?