In one of her very few interviews for this project, Weaver told MediaVillage that she had not yet seen the series, which seamlessly weaves interviews with Fossey’s colleagues, government officials, old Nat Geo footage of her with gorillas, and news clips about her violent death. “I read some of her letters, which I thought were fascinating,” Weaver said while on a break from shooting the first sequel to Avatar. “I was so glad they included her voice. She is passionate and practical.”
Weaver has spent a lot of time thinking about Fossey (p[ictured below). She won a Golden Globe and earned an Oscar nomination for playing her in the 1988 film. She remains in awe of the tough, self-taught Fossey who studied mountain gorillas in a remote section of Rwanda for 18 years. Maintaining her distance and mimicking their sounds, Fossey kept inching closer. Eventually, the gorillas accepted her.
Magical scenes in Secrets reveal the magnificent beasts tenderly interacting with Fossey, a connection very few people experience. Weaver described similar enchanted moments. “I remember reading the book on my own, and thinking what a great story this is, and too bad you can’t make a movie out of this,” Weaver recalled of Gorillas in the Mist. “You would have to work with mountain gorillas. You would have to intrude on them. I was amazed as to how we could work with them and protect them. I went up with Study Group 5 and frankly those were some of the most blissful days I have ever spent.
“Surrounded by baby gorillas jumping up and down on me, urinating on me … this was the happiest thing in the world,” Weaver continued with a gentle laugh. “It was such a huge gift to me. With that came the understanding -- and Dian felt this even before she went to Africa -- that animals are equal denizens of our planet. We do not respect their habitat or way of life. They are considered subordinate to us and that really infuriated Dian. She could see we were wiping out a huge percentage of the species.”
Fossey’s death was not in vain; the population of mountain gorillas in that rainforest doubled since she began her work. Still, they are critically endangered and Weaver is careful to not claim victory.