Weaver's Weary Mother Role

Actress On 'Imaginary Heroes'

(CBS)  In the new film "Imaginary Heroes," Sigourney Weaver plays the matriarch of a family dealing with the death of the oldest son.

Matt (Kip Pardue) is a swimming champ, a seemingly perfect all-American on the outside, who commits suicide at the beginning of the movie. The film covers the year that follows.

Weaver visits The Early Show Wednesday to talk about the weary, pot-smoking mother she portrays and the dysfuctional family that mother heads.

The film also stars Jeff Daniels as Weaver's husband, and Michelle Williams and Emile Hirsh as her children.

Stay tuned!

Some Facts About Sigourney Weaver:

• Born Susan Alexandra Weaver in New York City on Oct. 8, 1949
  
  
• She began using the name Sigourney (after a character mentioned in "The Great Gatsby") around the year 1963
  
  
• Weaver made an early stage appearances in Southbury, Conn., in 1965
  
  
• In 1971, Weaver attended Stanford, then moved to Israel and lived on a kibbutz; she returned to the U.S. and enrolled at Yale
  
  
• In 1974, Weaver appeared with Meryl Streep in the chorus of the Stephen Sondheim adaptation of "The Frogs," which was performed at Yale; she made her Broadway debut (as an understudy) in "The Constant Wife"; and she made her Off-Broadway debut in Christopher Durang's "The Nature and Purpose of the Universe"
  
  
• In 1977, Weaver had a bit part as Woody Allen's movie date in "Annie Hall"
  
  
• In 1979, Weaver became an action hero in "Alien"
  
  
• In 1982, the actress co-starred opposite Mel Gibson in Peter Weir's "The Year of Living Dangerously"
  
  
• In 1984, Weaver played Dana Barrett in the blockbuster comedy "Ghostbusters"; earned Tony Award nomination for Best Featured Actress for the production of David Rabe's "Hurlyburly"
  
  
• In 1986, Weaver was nominated for a Best Actress Oscar for reprising her role as Ripley in "Aliens"
  
  
• In 1988, Weaver received two Oscar nominations, as Best Actress for "Gorillas in the Mist" and as Best Supporting Actress for "Working Girl"
  
  
• In 1989, Weaver reprised her role in "Ghostbusters II"
  
  
• In 1992, she again reprised Ripley in "Alien3," and made her producer debut
  
  
• In 1993, Weaver had her first onscreen teaming with Kevin Kline in "Dave"; formed Goat Cay Productions
  
  
• In 1995, Weaver appeared as an agoraphobic psychologist in "Copycat"
  
  
• In 1996, she returned to Broadway as the star of Christopher Durang's "Sex and Longing"
  
  
• In 1997, played a clone of Ripley in "Alien Resurrection"; re-teamed with Kline in Ang Lee's mood piece "The Ice Storm"; made her television-movie acting debut as Claudia, the wicked stepmother, in "Snow White: A Tale of Terror"
  
  
• In 1999, Weaver received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame; teamed with Julianne Moore for the screen version of the novel "A Map of the World"
  
  
• In 2001, Weaver had a featured role in "Company Man"; Weaver, with Jennifer Love Hewitt, played a mother-daughter con woman team in "Heartbreakers"; returned to the New York stage in "The Guys"
  
  
• In 2002, Weaver played Eve, a woman whose 16-year-old stepson falls in love with her, in "Tadpole."
  
  
• In 2003, she portrayed a New Yorker who helps a fire captain construct eulogies for his fallen men in "The Guys," a film that fed off the Sept. 11 tragedy. She also appeared as the warden in the teen feature "Holes."
  
  
• In 2004, Weaver added complexity to the village elder Alice Hunt, who nurses a crush on the community patriarch (William Hurt), in M. Night Shyamlan's "The Village."