Kevin Smith Had No Idea That Was Sigourney Weaver in Avatar: The Way of Water

Though it was well publicized that actress Sigourney Weaver was returning for Avatar: The Way of Water, it still took plenty of people by surprise, including Kevin Smith. Though her character Dr. Grace Augustine died in the 2009 original Avatar, co-writer and director James Cameron conceived of a way to bring back the actress in a unique way, having her play the part of Kiri, a young Na’vi girl with…peculiar abilities and an origin story that seems rooted in a biblical tale. In any event, the 73-year-old Academy Award nominee playing a teenager took many by surprise, with Smith praising her performance while also being unable to really come to terms with it.

“You know what I found out that I didn’t f–king know about Avatar this week? The little magic blue cat, who jedis that sh-t. I had no idea that was Sigourney Weaver,” Smith said on the latest Fat Man Beyond podcast. “That was pretty astounding, I was pretty astounded by that. I was liek Oh my god, that’s craze. Then when I thought about it I was like, she did kind of look like her. Then I saw online the behind the scenes they were shooting her and then turning her into a teenage blue girl cat. He’s a mad genius, man.”

He continued, “That was nuts man. You’re just setting yourself up for all sorts of complications when you’re like, when going to let Sigourney play the teenage girl, but like what an astounding feat it was, it was kind of cool….In the piece I saw, she like studied, she trained to get her voice (higher). I thought they put her through a processor, they didn’t. That’s her doing a teenager’s voice. She practiced and sh-t like that and worked on her vocalizations so that she could do the voice…She don’t get enough credit man.”

Weaver’s Na’vi character Kiri is actually born from the Avatar body that her human character piloted/died in in the original movie. Between her miraculous conception and some-what observable superpowers, many have been calling the character Na’vi Jesus, something that one of the writers of the sequel recently addressed in an interview. “I don’t think we ever spoke about her specifically as a Na’vi Jesus,” co-writer Amanda Silver told Variety, adding:. “But it’s a mystery. We can’t really talk about it.”

Avatar: The Way of Water is now playing in theaters.