TORONTO - Dan Harris, the writer-director of Imaginary Heroes, says Sigourney Weaver is one of his real-life heroes.

"She's an icon," says the first-time director, who's best known for writing X-Men 2 and is currently working on the new Superman movie. "Beyond that, she's one of my heroes in this profession. Her whole résumé is so stunning to me. She was the perfect actress for this character and could breathe it to life in a way that nobody else could."

In Imaginary Heroes, Weaver plays Sandy, a mother trying to hold her sanity, marriage, and family together after a personal tragedy. For Weaver, the film is a return to some of the emotional territory she covered in Ang Lee's Ice Storm (1997), but with a few new twists. "I love it that it's even more from the kid's point of view," she says. "And I think one of the themes in our society is the hypocrisy of our society, especially in the suburbs where people try to appear normal, whereas in the city I don't think we really try that hard. You assume the person who lives next to you is crazy."

Asked if she ever feels that pressure, Weaver grins. "No, because I'm lucky; I'm an artist," she says at a hotel where she's promoting the film's world premiere at last September's Toronto International Film Festival. (It opens in Vancouver on Friday [March 18].) "They don't really expect me to be too normal-thank goodness."

Weaver is doing the movie promotion during her time off from telling another small-scale story. She's starring in a play, Mrs. Farnsworth-about a woman who may have had an affair with George W. Bush-which is running at the Flea Theatre, a small New York venue run by her husband, Jim Simpson. The Flea is also where she starred in the stage premiere of the first major dramatic autopsy of September 11, 2001: The Guys. "I love to do off-off-Broadway in the theatre, and I love to do off-off-Broadway in movies. That's where I'm comfortable. I think it's more to do with the size than the medium."

The off-off-Broadway quality was what drew her to Imaginary Heroes, which also stars Jeff Daniels (The Purple Rose of Cairo) as her husband and Michelle Williams (Dawson's Creek), Emile Hirsch (The Girl Next Door), and Kip Pardue (Remember the Titans) as their kids.

"I think we all kind of look to independent films to give us wonderful projects," Weaver says. "I've been sent a lot of mothers [roles], and often a mother's just there to make a statement or an impression or be some sort of catalyst for exposition or something. And in this case Dan created this mother who, yes, she's a mother, but she's many other things besides a mother. And it's so unusual to play a mother and have her be a whole, complicated, contradictory person.

"In our society, there's a kind of ideal projected of a woman who has it all together and is endlessly attractive and empathetic and organized, et cetera. And I don't know any women who really feel like that. So we all end up feeling like, 'Oh, God, I'm the loser; I'm the one who can't get it together.' And I'm fascinated by stories that show us what's underneath that faíƒ §ade."

One of Weaver's favourite un-mom-like scenes in Imaginary Heroes is her character's visit to a head shop. "It was just fun to go to a head shop. I didn't even know they still had them. What I love about Sandy is she really believes in having fun. She doesn't believe they should stop living because this thing has happened."

Then the subject shifts to heroes as a reporter asks if Weaver ever resents being known as Ellen Ripley, her alien-kicking alter ego. "No," she says almost instantly. "Because I don't think I could help make movies like Imaginary Heroes if I hadn't been Ripley. Once you've got that…you can actually bring a lot of support to these small movies. And, also, I thought it was a great character and it was a very unconventional picture and kind of an unconventional franchise, and so I feel really lucky that I got to take such an interesting path."

Having played a hero also gave her some insight into the themes of Imaginary Heroes. "I disagree with what the character says: that they [heroes] are either assholes or they're just like you. I don't think that's true," Weaver says. "You think that people like Ellen Ripley, or whoever, you think for these people who are heroes that life is simpler for them. And having played an action hero, I can tell you that life is not simpler for Ellen Ripley. So our heroes are imaginary."