Lobsters and love
ACTOR Rachel Weisz today reveals her love for solitude, Colin Farrell’s love handles, and why she doesn’t care if people refer to her as Mrs Bond.
As far as love stories go,
The Lobster is pretty out there. Was it the rabbits or Colin Farrell’s pot belly that clinched it for you?
“I think my character loves his pot belly and the rabbits. And his soul. Colin is very soulful in it – and sensitive and compassionate and sweet.
“I think I would probably overlook that pot belly, too. But that pot belly is how most people look, isn’t it? It’s not grotesque or bizarre …”
Says the woman who is married to Daniel Craig.
“It’s just middle-aged spread.”
The Lobster imagines a parallel universe in which there are two camps – people prepared to make huge compromises to find themselves a mate, and loners who embrace a solitary existence instead. Who do you have the most sympathy for?
“I’d probably have to say the
loners because I had to play one, but while they seem to be rebels from the dominant ideology, it turns out they are a cult as well.
“In the end, I think I would have to create an alternative, a third way. There don’t seem to be any free spirits anywhere.”
If you were single, which group do you think you would have aligned yourself with?
“I like my own company. I don’t mind solitude. I don’t always need to be with someone.
“But it’s definitely lovely to be in a relationship and share your life with someone.
“Really, I don’t know where I would be if I hadn’t met my husband. It’s like an impossible question to answer.”
Colin Farrell’s character wants to come back as a lobster. What animal would you choose?
“I’d like to be a pony owned by a teenage English girl.”
Presumably that’s because you think you would be exceptionally well looked after?
“Exactly.”
The Constant Gardener, The Lovely Bones, The Whistleblower … your list of credits is remarkably diverse. In that context, your breakout film, The Mummy, seems almost like an anomaly.
“Not at all. I am very proud of that film. I have done other mainstream films such as Constantine, The Bourne Legacy, Oz The Great and Powerful, it’s just that none of them connected with people in the same way.
“The Mummy is an accessible piece of entertainment.”
Actors often say the roles they turn down are as important as the ones they accept. You said no to King David with Richard Gere. And no to
Mummy 3. Any others?
“Yes! There are lots of roles
I wish I had said yes to, but I can’t say what they are because other people did them and that’s not fair on them.”
You recently took a side step into producing.
“The first film I produced is coming out in England next month.
“It’s called Radiator starring Gemma Jones and Richard Johnson, who passed away recently, and deals with end-oflife issues. It’s quite dry and brittle and funny.”