Sigourney Weaver’s husband made a major move that changed their marriage a decade ago, as revealed in a new interview. The Oscar-nominated actress, 76, has been married to director and actor Jim Simpson, 69, for 41 years – but for many of those, she was travelling solo for work.
“My husband was running a theatre for over 20 years in New York, and he was never able to go on any jobs with me,” the actress recently shared with AARP. The couple co-founded The Flea Theater, where Jim worked as the artistic director, back in 1996.
While she was born and bred in Manhattan and still resides there with her husband, Sigourney’s acting has taken her around the globe to places like New Zealand for the Avatar film franchise and the UK to film the 1979 blockbuster Alien.
But around 2015, Sigourney’s marriage underwent a big change. Jim retired from the theatre and has since been able to join his wife on her acting adventures. “I mean, Avatar goes on forever and since he’s a surfer, this was heaven to him to come out here [to New Zealand],” the actress said of her husband becoming her travel companion on the job.
She continued: “I think that you really realise how lucky you are to have found a sort of soulmate, and it’s fun to have some time when your kids are grown up and in between jobs. It’s not that you want to change people, but people do change, and it’s fun to keep getting to know them.”
Sigourney’s 41-year marriage
Sigourney and Jim’s love story was a true case of ‘when you know, you know’. The couple tied the knot in October 1984 after just three-months of dating – and they’ve been together ever since. They got married the same year Sigourney starred in Ghostbusters, which was just a few years after her breakout performance in Alien.
Like his wife, Jim also comes from the world of showbiz. He starred alongside his wife in Guys, which he also directed. He was an assistant director on Spice World and Event Horizon.
“I feel very fortunate – since we hardly knew each other when we got married – that I ended up marrying someone who totally got what I did, respected the time it took, really enjoys working with me on the occasional script…I can run lines with him, we can talk about stuff,” Sigourney said on SmartLess.
© Getty ImagesThey have a child together
In 1990, Sigourney and Jim welcomed their only child, Shar Simpson. Shar, who identifies as non-binary, has grown up and continues to live a private life away from the spotlight as an adjunct assistant professor at the Digital Storytelling Lab at Columbia University School of the Arts.
“[They’re] not in the industry, bless [their] heart,” Sigourney said in an interview. “It’s a nightmare for parents in the business when their child says, ‘I want to be in show business,’ because we really know what it entails.”
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