‘A Monster Calls’ marks a first for Sigourney Weaver

TORONTO – As she portrayed a stern, emotionally reserved British matriarch in her latest film “A Monster Calls,” sci-fi queen Sigourney Weaver marked a career milestone — her first role as a grandmother.

The 67-year-old actress, famous for her “Alien” and “Ghostbusters” films among many others, said she jumped at the chance to be a part of the heart-wrenching fantasy drama directed by J.A. Bayona.

“I thought it was sort of fun,” she said of playing a grandmother after a slew of iconic action roles. “It was a pleasure.”

“A Monster Calls,” based on a novel of the same name by Patrick Ness, tells the story of Conor O’Malley, a young boy grappling with the looming death of his sick and rapidly weakening mother, who is played by Felicity Jones.

As Conor struggles with the reality of his mother’s deteriorating condition, faces bullies at school, and deals with his long-distance father, he slips into the realm of fantasy. He begins encountering an enormous tree-like monster, voiced by Liam Neeson, who visits him nightly to tell him stories that end up carrying particular significance.

Conor is played by Scottish actor Lewis MacDougall, who was 12 at the time of filming.

Weaver plays Conor’s seemingly frigid grandmother, seen as uptight and unfeeling by her grandson but secretly battling her own emotions. She said she dug into her role by tapping into personal experiences.

“When you participate in a story like this you have to bring a lot of parts of yourself that you don’t often use,” Weaver said in an interview.

“In my case, I haven’t been a grandmother but I’m certainly a mother and I’m a daughter. It was often a heart-rending experience but at the same time the film is so uplifting.”

Weaver noted, however, that it was a challenge playing a character that starts out being quite unlikeable.

“Playing someone who is trying so hard to love her family and they find her unlovable was very interesting to me,” she said.

“I guess that to me was the challenge of it. To play someone who wanted so much to be of help and to be a support and her help or suggestions are rejected until finally all of that, her whole physical being … all this armour that she has drops away and she’s just this grandmother who is losing her daughter and trying to comfort her grandson.”

Helping Weaver navigate her role was the fact that her own mother was English, a handy piece of family heritage that she drew on for the character.

“It’s a very familiar accent and a very familiar world to me,” she said. “Because my mother was English and they have a kind of formality, I just found that very interesting territory.”

While much of the film confronts the issues of loss and using the power of fantasy to grieve, Weaver said the film does have a positive side to it.

“I find the movie very healing,” she said. “More healing than it is upsetting in a way.”

“A Monster Calls” opens in theatres on Friday.