New York | In 1983, Mary Griffith's rabid belief in hellfire and damnation for queers drove her 20-year-old gay son, Bobby, to commit suicide. In the tragedy's wake, Griffith transformed from narrow-minded religious zealot into a PFLAG-waving activist for GLBT youth and their families.

Sigourney Weaver portrays Mary Griffith in Lifetime's powerful original TV movie Prayers for Bobby, which is based upon Leroy Aaron's aptly titled 1996 book Prayers for Bobby: A Mother's Coming to Terms with the Suicide of Her Gay Son. The film premieres on the cable network on Saturday, January 24, at 9 p.m. Check local listings for encore showings.

Via telephone, the pro-gay actress and feminist icon discussed her award-worthy turn, the real Mary Griffith, a new danger facing gay youth, and, of course, whether we're going to see Alien's Ripley back in action.

WATERMARK: How did making this film affect your own views of religion?
SIGOURNEY WEAVER: I'm an Episcopalian, and it seems to me that Jesus' teachings are so much about including people, loving people, believing in people. I have to say, I found it so difficult to understand why people put more faith in the Old Testament, with all its ferocity, than the New Testament, which preaches kindness and "do unto others." Mary Griffith believed [that the Old Testament] was the word, and her church was certainly not saying, "Well, that's one way to believe." It was fascinating and disturbing.

Mary Griffith seemed brainwashed, like the Hitler Youth kids who turned against—and turned into—the SS, their own family members.
The thing is, she kind of made up her own religion. She patched together a few things, and it was all based on this father figure who was quite capricious and stern. And the church she was connected with did not enlighten her. She found a church that felt homosexuality was an abomination, and there are people all over this country who believe that.

Was it difficult to inhabit Mary Griffith? Would you look into the mirror while preparing for the role and say, "You're an idiot!"?
You can't judge the person you're playing, and I did have the great opportunity to meet Mary. She's such a gentle, easygoing person. When I met her, I said, "I'm having a little trouble putting you together with this woman at the beginning of our story who was so closed-minded and fierce." She just looked at me and said, "Well, I was very serious." And I got it.

She showed me her Bible, where she had underlined things in red and put exclamation points. The tragedy to me is Bobby's entire family loved each other so much and felt they were doing the right thing. If there's one thing I hope for the pockets of people who don't have the privilege of knowing any [GLBTs] in their family, it's that this film can humanize this issue.

But wouldn't a person who's like Mary used to be, such as a member of the "God Hates Fags" clan, shut this film off or dismiss Mary's transformation? Or could the message still manage to get through to them?
Well, I certainly hope so, because this movie is for them. One of the reasons I wanted to do this movie so much is that I heard Prayers for Bobby is one of the books that kids give their parents when they want to start the process of talking about being gay. I thought if we can give them another form in which to start this conversation—because some people won't go off and read a book—and you can say, "Hey let's watch this movie; it's got that woman from the Alien movies in it." They can sort of ambush their parents. Then maybe they won't be able to turn the tube off. I hope it will start conversations and give kids support and the knowledge that what they are is natural and normal and that the church is wrong.

What was the toughest scene to shoot?
I think the moment where Mary realizes what she's done. That's tough. And of course, what I admire so much about Mary is that she has lived her life since then trying to make amends for the decisions she made and has paid a huge price because she lost Bobby, who is still so much a part of their lives.

It's a difficult story to share with the world and does not put her in a very good light. I think it's so generous and courageous of her to put this story out, because it will save lives.

The real Bobby turned to hustling and promiscuity, whereas he's depicted as quite innocent and clean-cut in the film. Do you feel that if he had been more like the film's boy-next-door type, Mary would have been more likely to accept his being gay?
No. I think she was so concerned about his immortal soul that she wasn't really paying attention to the quality of his life on Earth. She was so driven by her own fear for herself, her family and him that any kind of gay life was evil.

Which is responsible for more deaths, the Aliens or religion?
Religion, I'm afraid. I respect people's faith, yet at the same time, I think the Church for centuries has wanted to keep people under their control with very rigid dogma, and unfortunately it's still going on today.

I live in New York, and I have so many good friends who are gay, and so does my daughter. We're fortunate to be living in a world populated by so many different kinds of people. If you're in a town where you don't have access to different kinds of people, then it's much harder to recognize their humanity. You don't have any personal knowledge of them.

Even if raised in a liberal, accepting family, there's another threat to gay kids' survival and well-being today, from their own community no less: the barebacking trend. Gay youth are reading blogs and Web sites that glorify, eroticize and promote unprotected sex and portray HIV as something trivial and easily treated; condom use is becoming the exception rather than the norm.
I didn't know that. That infuriates me as a parent, because none of the younger generation should be having unsafe sex no matter what your sexual leaning is, and I think it's particularly dangerous for gays not to use condoms. I have so many friends who are on [HIV] medication, and it's a very difficult life.

No interview with you would be complete without asking about Alien; I read something online about you being open to another one.
I've done Avatar, which is Jim Cameron's new 3-D film that takes place in outer space. I play this fantastic woman scientist who also has a whole avatar life. That's my latest foray into sci-fi, and I kind of believe in going forward and not going back.

I don't know what you've heard, but there's always some rumor circulating that I'm going to do another Alien. The Alien vs. Predator series has knocked that particular character out of orbit for me.

We want to see a lesbian clone of Ripley.
Well, I imagine you could create her at this point with the work I've already done.

Is there a chance that if Prayers comes out on DVD, we might get a bonus scene where Ripley storms in and blowtorches Mary's homophobic pastor?
Well, I'm hoping this movie will act as a flamethrower to everything he's saying. [Laughs.] But you know, at this point, in order to get people to see this movie, I'm open to anything.