Video:Avatar Sigourney Weaver and Giovanni Ribisi Interviews

Transcript:Avatar Sigourney Weaver and Giovanni Ribisi Interviews

Rebecca Murray from About.com Hollywood Movies at the LA Premiere of 20th Century Fox's Avatar.

Sigourney Weaver - 'Dr Grace Augustine' in Avatar

Sigourney Weaver: "Well, Grace Augustine is this very passionate, dedicated scientist who runs the avatar program and has devoted her life to studying the flora and fauna in this other world. And, in fact, that's really where he allegiance lies. It was fascinating to me to play someone who's so armored at work in her human world, because she's so open to her real life on Pandora. She's sort of leading this double life, and I actually think a lot of people do that. They're one way at work and they're another way when they really feel like they're in their community. So it's fascinating to play someone like that. I guess having played Dian Fossey, there were a lot of people like Grace in the world who give up everything to study a species or to record data. It's a wonderful life, but I'm glad in the end Grace gets a family, too."

How difficult was it to work with that performance capture [suit] on?

Sigourney Weaver: "Actually it was so easy and organic because there's no greenscreen, there's no makeup or costumes or anything. You're just sort of free in your little black suit to interact with the other actors. And Jim has a virtual camera that he can show you your avatar and the world that you're actually walking through. He can do a master and then he doesn't need you for coverage because all the information is in this magic camera that he created. I call it magic because even though he's explained it to me about five times, I'm like after the fourth sentence I'm just lost because it's so sophisticated. So it was actually more actor-friendly than anything I've ever done."

How has he changed over the years?

Sigourney Weaver: "I think he just has become more himself, more of a leader, more passionate, more confidant, more joyous, more dedicated to giving the audience the best possible and most unique kind of story. I think he really understands the audience loves big stories, love stories, powerful women, humor. He really believes in us as audience members and I think that's one reason why his movies are so, so good."

How has it been traveling around the world promoting this movie?

Sigourney Weaver: "I don't know what time zone I'm in right now but it has been wonderful just to go from culture to culture and share the movie and see how universal it is."

Do you think this will change the way people see 3-D?

Sigourney Weaver: "Gosh, it's certainly has changed the way I see 3-D. I think there is still a lot of corny 3-D around, but I think if people start to use it as a way to support a story instead of distract from a story, I think it'll be great."

Giovanni Ribisi - 'Parker Selfridge' in Avatar

You're kind of a bad guy...

Giovanni Ribisi: "I guess so, yeah."

But he doesn't view himself as a bad guy.

Giovanni Ribisi: "I think he's innocent. I think there's an innocence behind his terror."

And you actually didn't have to do any of the performance capture or anything like that.

Giovanni Ribisi: "No. I don't know. I guess a lot of people really like that experience. You know, you get to put the suit on and sort of like just letting the camera go. Also, that was a huge part of the technology because Jim was actually able to have the world or the environment created in CG and he was actually able to see it in the camera in real time, which was extraordinary."

What is it like being on his set?

Giovanni Ribisi: "He's one of the smartest people I've ever met as far as science and engineering. Every detail of the script is worked out over and over and over again, on scientific levels and on storytelling levels. And I think that for me I just felt privileged to be involved in something that had whether it was Jim or anybody or architecture or anything, it's something that had been developed for that long and worked on for 10 or 12 years."

Did you ever worry that the technology would overwhelm the story?

Giovanni Ribisi: "No, not at all. I mean I think that sometimes you can have people who exploit that in a way, put too much attention over story, but that's one of his gifts I think. It's a lot of work and he knows that, and he's not willing to settle for mediocrity. And I think that while the film is so immersive because of the technology, it wouldn't be had the story not been what it is. And it's such a massive story, but within that it's very personal for people."

And you've got Rum Diary too, right?

Giovanni Ribisi: "Yeah, Rum Diary."

How did that go?

Giovanni Ribisi: "It's funky."

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