Sigourney Weaver Playing Her Own Character's Kid In Avatar: The Way Of Water Was Pretty Distracting
This post contains spoilers for "Avatar: The Way of Water."
James Cameron's long-awaited sequel "Avatar: The Way of Water" is here, close to a decade and a half after the first film. Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) and Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña) are raising a passel of kids, including Kiri (Sigourney Weaver), the daughter of Dr. Grace Augustine, who you likely recall died at the Tree of Souls. However, her Na'vi avatar is alive (though brain dead) on the old military base. Kiri's father is suggested ... but not named.
Kiri is 14 years old and very connected to Eywa, the spirit of Pandora. She drifts off into reverie after plugging her hair into various things, but the rest of the time, she's a teenager. Kiri is the sort of good kid who takes care of their younger siblings and is friendly to everyone. A little broody, sure, but she's the kid no one worries about ... until they do.
Her face is very close to that of Sigourney Weaver, who did the voice and the motion capture for the role — and that is a problem.
The voice is one thing most people know well
I will say this at the beginning: I love Sigourney Weaver. I adore her work, and I've been a fan of hers for my entire life. She is an incredible actress who can play almost any role, but not a 14-year-old girl. Kiri is the daughter of a pregnant Grace's avatar. One can argue about Grace having a child at the age she was in the first film, but perhaps her avatar was younger. Weaver certainly looks far, far younger than she is, so let's leave that aside. That's not the important part, and there are certainly people who have children at that age.
Kiri is an unusual child, of course. She's very connected to her universe, as Grace was to Pandora's spirit. I'll buy that. I mean, I buy the blue and green people who shove their ponytails into plants. What I don't buy is her voice. I studied and taught as a voice coach for many years. Things happen to your voice as you age. Women's voices drop a few tones, and the vocal cords become less flexible. Weaver has a deep voice anyway, which is lovely, but you're not starting from an easy place here. Most of us know what teenagers and older adults sound like. We know how they're different.
Of course, there are teens with deep voices, adults with high voices, those changed through hormones, etc. I'm accounting for that variation because if you're familiar at all with Sigourney Weaver's acting work, you know what she sounds like. You've likely seen "Alien." You've probably seen the first "Avatar." Heck, we hear Grace speak in this film. We're comparing Kiri's voice to Weaver's, and no one is trying to hide it.
Uncanny valley for the voice
Perhaps you're familiar with the concept of the uncanny valley (usually spoken about in terms of video games and CGI), which is a hypothesis about how, when things are close but not quite human, particularly in the eye area, we feel a sort of revulsion. Think about your reaction to "The Polar Express." Humans with sight know what eyes look like. We see them all the time. We see them in a mirror. We look at them when we speak to people. When they're close but not exactly right, it makes us uncomfortable. Goofy cartoon eyes are fine because they're not trying to pass as realistic. If you get too near to the human eye but don't quite make it, it can be disturbing. The industry is getting much better at it, but that is not true for the voice.
The idea of an uncanny valley works here as well. We may not know how to describe it exactly, but those with hearing know what a teen sounds like. It's more than just the higher tone that colors it. Plus, we have the actor's body of work to compare it to, and it's just off. We have actual teens in the film to compare it to. We know Weaver's age. This isn't an unknown performer.
The wisdom of age
In addition, there is a gravitas that comes with age. You can hear a person's life in their voice. You can hear their experiences, their suffering, and their joy. You can hear the vocal cords moving slower. Even if you're a trained singer who has worked their entire life to preserve their range, there is a warmth and depth to their tone that you cannot disguise, even if you can hit all the right notes. There is no judgment on which is better. I love the sound of an older voice. I just don't buy this as the voice of a child.
Many voiceover artists play younger roles, but it's often in a heightened state, like an animated comedy. We also don't see the person or hear them speak in a different voice. We're not watching a face — albeit blue — we already know so well from seeing them on a huge screen for decades.
Because we know what Sigourney Weaver sounds like, and the film reminds us with flashbacks and visions to keep it firmly in our minds (for over three hours), we know that this is wrong. Some of us are even looking for it because the idea of her playing the role is so unusual. Every time Kiri speaks in the film, it reminds us again that this is strange. It's an exciting experiment, but one I don't think was successful.
Life does things to us. It imprints on our faces, our bodies, and our voices. We know it in our bones. There could have been a different way to bring Weaver back, which I would have been all for. This one just didn't work.
"Avatar: The Way of Water" is currently in theaters.