Sigourney Weaver and Jamie Lee Curtis Revisit High School Rivalry

Double take: Jamie Lee Curtis and Sigourney Weaver commit a fashion faux pas in 'You Again.'

From the mean girls who made our lives miserable to the “friends” who stole our boyfriends or otherwise stabbed us in the back, we all shudder at the memory of high school classmates we never want to see, whether it’s in person or on Facebook. So imagine running into your nemesis and finding out she’s about to become family — that’s the premise of the new movie You Again, a comedy in which a young woman named Marni (Kristen Bell) discovers that her worst nightmare (Odette Yustman) is marrying her brother. The theme repeats when Marni’s mother (Jamie Lee Curtis) is shocked to realize that her future daughter-in-law’s aunt (Sigourney Weaver) is none other than her former BFF with whom she had a misunderstanding-fraught falling out.

The on-screen rivalry between Curtis and Weaver’s characters plays out hilariously in a can-you-top-this dance scene and another where both wind up in a swimming pool, wearing identical David Meister dresses. It’s a climactic moment, when their characters “realize that what we’ve missed and given up was the friendship we had, and we get to reinvent that as women,” Weaver says.

The heightened drama-fest that is high school and its lasting emotional repercussions rang true for both Curtis and Weaver. “You tell a friend something and the next thing you know, you’re betrayed. For me, that’s what high school was, learning that people are going to tell your secrets,” says Curtis, who was a “good-girl cheerleader” and somewhat envious of the bad girls. “I just wanted to fit in. I still do.”

Weaver, who says she was so tall, awkward, self-conscious and dweebish as a teen that she was too unimportant to be targeted by bullies, adds: “Everyone is still trying to recover from whatever happened to them in high school. But, as an actor, having been a loser is actually helpful. It’s a way into a lot of characters.”

Weaver, more in demand than ever since Avatar, has a wide variety of projects on tap, including the Amy Heckerling comedy Vamps, the thriller Abduction, the action film The Cold Light of Day, a possible third Ghostbusters (!) and a second Avatar, even though her character died in the original. “Anything can happen in science fiction,” notes Weaver, who’s ready to work more now that her daughter is in college.

Curtis, whose children are younger, only accepted the role in You Again because it shot in summer in L.A. “I’m very involved in my son’s school, and I do as much charity work as my family life will allow,” she says. Her profile remains high, however, thanks to her ubiquitous yogurt commercials, which elicit more comments from strangers than anything else she’s done. “At airports, hiking in Idaho — people come up to me anywhere I am in the world and thank me for Activia,” says Curtis, who’s also a children’s book author. Her latest, My Mommy Hung the Moon: A Love Story, was published this month by HarperCollins.

Both Weaver and Curtis were delighted to have the chance to work with comedy doyenne Betty White. Playing one of her signature feisty, funny grandmas, she’s revealed to have a high school nemesis of her own. “She hasn’t missed a step and she’s a great icon to me,” says Weaver, with Curtis adding, “Every single thing you’ve ever heard about her is true.”

Did you have a nemesis in high school? What would it take to get you to bury the hatchet?

Photo credit: Courtesy Disney Studios