My mother was the English actor Elizabeth Inglis. She appeared in Hitchcock's The 39 Steps. She was in The Letter, too, with Bette Davis. She's good in it. Just a small part. She was awfully pretty – and a huge inspiration to me. I love being half English. (Yes, I drink tea!) She was at Rada with Vivien Leigh, then moved to America and left her family behind because they didn't want her to act. She always made her own way in the world and showed me, as I grew up, that it's all right to do things for yourself.
She was kind of a renegade. She was the first jogger in New York City. She used to run alongside FDR Drive in the 60s and people would slow down in their cars and say: "You all right, lady? Shall we call the police?" because they didn't know why she was running!
I dreamed of being a stage actor like my mother, doing Shakespeare. I never imagined being in movies. When I told her I wanted to act, she said: "No, dear, they will eat you alive!" I don't think she meant to be critical – I think that was just her way of making sure I didn't get an over-inflated ego. That's a very English trait. Whereas my father just used to say about acting: "It's a racket, a wonderful racket!"
My father, Pat Weaver, was the head of NBC Television in the 50s. I learned from observing him the satisfaction that comes from striving and seeing a dream fulfilled. At 14, I changed my name from Susan to Sigourney – a minor character in The Great Gatsby. It was an act of desperation, because I didn't like being called Susie. Now I'm "Siggy", so it doesn't matter.
My daughter Charlotte is absolutely the most important thing to me. My family comes first and I'm so grateful to them that they let me go off and make films. But, you know, I find it very difficult to leave them. I hate it. I have had therapy and found it helpful in dealing with the guilt I've felt about leaving them. Going to New Zealand to make Avatar when my daughter was applying to colleges almost killed me.
I would have loved to have had more children, but there are no regrets now because I feel so fortunate that I have one – I didn't get married till I was 34. I didn't want to have children right away. You get the hand you're dealt, and it took me a long time when I did want a second child, to just wake up and go: "Why aren't I enjoying the child I have?"
Years after the success of Alien, I remember a friend saying to my daughter: "Don't you know that your mom is a huge feminist icon for all women?" And she said: "That goes in the little box of things I don't need to know." In our family that's as it should be. Acting is a thing I do on the side.
I like getting older – it's interesting. I don't think it's attractive to have a taut face with a 65-year-old's body. I find that look scary. My mother was a great beauty and she never succumbed to plastic surgery. She thought it was best to grow old gracefully. I feel the same. We change ourselves by looking back and trying to stay young instead of moving forward.
Don't complain: I learned that from my mother, too, when she was struggling with the infirmity of old age. It was a real lesson – she was so stoic, she never, ever complained. I grew up feeling you were supposed to make the most of whatever you have in life. It was drummed into me: enjoy the life you have.
Avatar has just been released on Blu-ray and DVD