Sigourney Weaver: How classmate Meryl Streep’s shadow continues to loom over her

The Alien actor is starring in My New York Year – which is out in UK cinemas this week. But despite carving her niche as one of the most important action heroines of her era, she’s overlooked, says Geoffrey Macnab

Sigourney Weaver is playing the brusque boss of the literary agency that represents reclusive writer JD Salinger, in ‘My New York Year’ (Memento Films/Moviestore/Shutterstock)

Sigourney Weaver is in typically imperious form in the new 1990s-set drama My New York Year, which is released in UK cinemas this week. She plays Margaret, the boss of the literary agency that represents reclusive writer JD Salinger. She is very tall, very imposing and very brusque. A silver streak in her hair makes her look a little like Cruella de Vil. Her dress sense seems to have been borrowed from one of those old Katharine Hepburn movies. She wears high-waisted trousers, expensive jewellery, and always seems to be dangling a cigarette in her fingers that she never inhales. “At ease!” She will bark at her terrified assistants as if she is a commanding officer who has just inspected her troops.

In truth, this isn’t one of Weaver’s more memorable movies. It’s a bland and slightly stilted story told from the point of view of a precocious young writer, played by Margaret Qualley, who has just been hired to work at the agency. Nonetheless, Weaver’s performance sticks in the mind. She brings pathos and depth to a character who, in her martini-quaffing, chain-smoking early scenes, seems like a grotesque caricature of a New York literary grande dame.

Weaver is now in her early 70s. She has never won an Oscar. She has her share of Golden Globe nominations and awards but, given the scandal currently surrounding the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) which organises the awards, they don’t count for as much today as they once did. Stars from Tom Cruise to Scarlett Johansson have been attacking HFPA for its perceived corruption and lack of diversity while broadcaster NBC confirmed this month it won’t be showing the awards next year.