Sigourney Weaver Refused to Join Sylvester Stallone’s ‘Expendables’ Franchise
Sylvester Stallone brought together a team of some of cinema’s most exciting action heroes for The Expendables. Sigourney Weaver was also meant to join the crew, but the actor rejected the proposal.
Sigourney Weaver turned down a potential role in Sylvester Stallone’s ‘Expendables’ spin-off
Seeing as Weaver was an action star in her own right, she might’ve fit right in with The Expendables crew. Her role as Ripley in the iconic Alien franchise helped cement her status, which was a rarity back in those early days. In a 2014 interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Stallone pitched a story where he and Weaver would actually be a married couple. He quipped that she would be the leader of The Expendabelles.
“With The Expendabelles we’ve got a situation where we’re in unchartered waters. Do we put all women actresses together, would that really work? Or do we have some women who are actually really known to be tough fighters,” he said. “So she’d get the house, the kids and my mercenaries!”
But later on, The Hollywood Reporter shared that Weaver ended up passing on the role.
Sigourney Weaver felt shafted as an action hero
Although many regarded Weaver as a certified action star, she felt she wasn’t given the same level of respect as her male peers. She pointed at a Variety article that listed her as a top three actor capable of opening a film on her own.
“It went on and on,” Weaver once said in an interview with Roger Ebert. “About Arnold and the other top box-office men, and what that meant about their careers. But it didn’t even say, ‘Isn’t it interesting that there’s a woman in the top three?’ They sort of went, like, it was a fluke.”
Weaver later shared that she didn’t feel like she was seen as a full-fledged action star. But at the same time, she wasn’t in the same category as some of her peers, either.
“It’s funny,” she said. “I seem to fall between the cracks. I’m not considered a legitimate action hero because I’m a woman. But I’m not considered in the same category with high-toned actresses like Glenn Close and Meryl Streep because I’m an action figure. See what I mean?”
Weaver also felt the variety of movies that she starred in played a part in why there was so much confusion categorizing her.
“I’ve been in so many different kinds of movies, some people think of me with gorillas, and others, the little ones, know Ghostbusters, you know, and the sci-fi fans analyze the Alien movies. So I have this sort of spotty support group; it looks like I almost can’t win. I’m amazed that overseas my movies are very much seen,” she said.
Sigourney Weaver was proud there were more female action heroes in the film industry
Over the years, women leading action films have been more commonly seen. Marvel has produced a couple of films centered around female action heroes. Actors like Angelina Jolie and Jennifer Lawrence have led their fair share of action films, for instance. Jolie starred in thrillers like Tomb Raider and Wanted. Meanwhile, Lawrence was famously the face of The Hunger Games franchise.
It meant a lot for the Holes actor to see female action stars flourishing in a way they didn’t decades ago.
“The tide is turning, but hasn’t it been a long time coming? I think it’s a long time coming in the real world, too,” Weaver once told Yahoo. “I’m very excited about it. It just shows how much our attitudes have changed because of course Ripley for the longest time was so unique in the whole lexicon of film women. And now she’s not. I love that.”
