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Sigourney Weaver as the chief executive of a military weapons company with one of the robot cops her company is promoting.Credit:None

It turns out the admiration is mutual,as 65-year-old Weaver confesses with a giggle."I've never seen anyone be such a sublimely relaxed,gracious and generous movie star – or just person,"she says."I went and saw him[on Broadway] inThe River last week and there were a few rows of girls who were drooling over him and repeating dialogue out loud,but he just carried it off beautifully."

Chappie,directed by Neil Blomkamp (District 9,Elysium),is set in the near future in South Africa,where an entire city is under the so-called"protection"of police droids called Scouts,the best-selling product of military weapons company Tetra Vaal. Weaver plays Tetra Vaal chief executive Michelle Bradley and Jackman plays a scientist at the company who goes to great lengths to stop the development of a feeling,thinking robot called Chappie. He wants to convince Bradley that his own missile-firing robots are a better fit for law-enforcement needs.

Weaver seems resigned to the fact she is playing more supporting roles at this point in her career,but is thrilled to play a female boss in a man's world,something that comes naturally to her after years of breaking glass ceilings as an actress and producer."But my character is one of those women CEOs driven by the bottom line and not able to find a balance,"she says,eager to differentiate herself from her alter ego.

"I did have a company for a long time and I used to have a sign of myself as Katharine Parker from[her 1988 film]Working Girl on my door that said'Boss from Hell',but in fact I think I'm the opposite. I'm probably overly friendly;I try to always hire young actors to work for me so they can learn what that life is really like waiting for a good script and looking for the next job,so they see it's not just about me in a mink coat getting in a limo."

Hugh Jackman co-stars with Sigourney Weaver in Chappie.Credit:None

Weaver keeps you on your toes in an interview,covering everything from climate-change policies to her hopes for Hilary Clinton as a future US presidential candidate. She reportedly grew up painfully shy,and it seems surprising when she brings this up as if it's still fresh in her memory.

"I was tall and nerdy and shy and not at all cool in high school,"she says,wincing."It took me a few years to grow into my height and get some confidence. I know a lot of shy people become actors,probably because they're more comfortable playing other people than being themselves,but I'm still surprised to this day that I actually did it."

Sigourney Weaver in her younger days as one of Hollywoods first female action heroes.

What's more surprising is her admission that she was not convinced she could really act until she was in her 40s (bear in mind this was after her best-known work and those Oscar nominations)."I'd gone to drama school,where they'd been very discouraging,so it wasn't really till I'd had a number of years of success that I thought,'I want to be an actress,it's going to work'."

At what point did she come to that decision?"Maybe aroundIce Storm[Ang Lee's 1997 family drama],so it was kind of late. I kept thinking I'd come across another profession at some point but then I finally realised I was a good actor."

As Dian Fossey in<i>Gorillas in the Mist</i>. — As Dian Fossey inGorillas in the Mist.

Had Weaver opted to become a journalist or marine biologist – two of her back-up career plans before acting won out – we would have missed some great performances. She'll always be best remembered as Hollywood's first true female action hero,Ellen Ripley in Ridley Scott's 1979 filmAlien and its three sequels,but Weaver also made classic films such asThe Year of Living Dangerously (1982),Working Girl(1988)Ghostbusters (1984) andGorillas in the Mist (1988) before returning to the sci-fi genre inAvatar,James Cameron's 2009 movie that broke box-office records.

Weaver,who is based in New York,is proud to have always prioritised her family – her husband of 30 years,theatre director Jim Simpson,and their 24-year-old daughter Charlotte – over fame."I feel sorry for women like Katharine Hepburn,"she mused last year toHello magazine."She might have won four Oscars but she never got to enjoy what it is to be a mother."

When I ask what she'd most like to be remembered for,she says:"As someone who did something useful. I don't even care if that's very local,like the Flea Theatre Company[which her husband co-founded with two others in 1997],which changed a lot of young people's lives and made our artistic world richer. But I don't know where my world is going to end up,"she suddenly muses as her voice trails off in thought."It wouldn't surprise me if ultimately I do more in the local community because that's how you grow,I think."

Chappieis in cinemas now.

Five things you didn't know about Sigourney Weaver

1. Her father,Sylvester"Pat"Weaver,was an early pioneer in television as president of the US NBC network in the 1950s."I like to be in commercial things that people see and I know I get that from my father,"Weaver says.

2. She was born Susan Weaver but changed her name at age 12 to Sigourney,after a minor player in the F. Scott Fitzgerald novelThe Great Gatsby.

3. Weaver got a Masters degree from Yale University,where she acted alongside fellow student Meryl Streep in the chorus of a Sondheim musical,The Frogs.

4. She didn't make her professional acting debut until she was 28,in a small role in Woody Allen's classicAnnie Hall.

5. Weaver says she'd be"honoured just to walk in the background of a scene"if asked to appear in the coming reboots ofGhostbusters(with an all-female cast she's excited about) andAlien (to be directed by herChappie director,Neil Blomkamp).