Rachel Weisz spills the beans in the big TF interview.
an eight-minute walk from Camden Town tube station, a cosy gastropub is filling up for lunch. Into the hubbub sweeps Oscar-winning actress Rachel Weisz, somehow managing to float across the floor without eliciting so much as a batted eyelid. Perhaps it’s because this is her local, the venue where she first met with Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos (“I saw Dogtooth and pursued him...”) to discuss a future team-up – a conversation that led to her role in The Lobster, which we’re today here to discuss. Or perhaps it’s because she conducts herself with a minimum of fuss. Would it be OK to trade our reserved table in the dining area for a seat in the bar? she asks, and then, nestled into a corner, if it’s possible to get a plate of scrambled eggs? When the answer is no, it’s not met with a ‘Do you know who I am?’ tantrum, merely a request for a glass of tap water.
Born, on 7 March, 1970, to George Weisz, a Hungarian inventor, and Edith Teich, an Austrian psychoanalyst, Weisz felt little urge to jump on tables as a child, instead discovering her love of acting as a teenager. She formed theatre company Talking Tongues while studying English at Cambridge University, and promptly bagged a Guardian Award at the Edinburgh Festival plus assorted Best Newcomer and Shooting Star gongs in the early ’90s. TV roles followed, then film leads opposite Keanu Reeves in actioner
Chain Reaction, and for Michael Winterbottom in noir romance I Want You. Also tucked among her early performances was a part in Bernardo Bertolucci’s Stealing Beauty, the first of several collaborations with auteurs: Fernando Meirelles ( The Constant Gardener, for which she won a Best Supporting actress Oscar); Wong Kar-wai ( My
Blueberry Nights); Alejandro Amenábar ( Agora); and, following her team-up with Lanthimos for
The Lobster, Paolo Sorrentino ( Youth). But it was playing Egyptologist Evelyn ‘Evy’ Carnahan in Stephen Sommers’ 1999 update of
The Mummy that made Weisz a Hollywood player; she’s since returned to action in lesser sequel The
Mummy Returns, for another stint with Keanu in Constantine, and as a scientist riding shotgun with superspy Aaron Cross in The Bourne Legacy. But these, of course, are just some of the 50-plus turns she’s crammed into a 23-year career. She’s also worked with Danny Boyle ( Sunshine), Neil LaBute
( The Shape Of Things), then-partner Darren Aronofsky ( The Fountain), Peter Jackson ( The Lovely Bones), Terence Davies ( The Deep Blue Sea) and Sam Raimi (as the iconic Wicked Witch of the East in Oz The Great And Powerful).
The Lobster is a classy addition to her CV. Set in a dystopian future, it sees Colin Farrell’s mild-mannered widower David ushered into The Hotel, where singletons have 45 days to find a soulmate or face transformation into an animal. Weisz plays Short Sighted Woman, living in the woods, outside of society’s strictures.
“People have said that The Lobster reminds them of Tinder, which I missed the boat on because I’m already hitched [ to Daniel Craig],” says Weisz. A fascinating interview, she’s given to long pauses as she weighs her words, but is also refreshingly frank. “I think it’s a satire on the pressure that society puts on us to be in some perfect relationship. But there’s no such thing as this perfection of Coke ads and a smiley world...”
You hunted Yorgos down to work on The Lobster...
Actually, there was [ another] script that I was attached to, that he wanted to do, but the producers were not very sophisticated and they thought it was too dark, or whatever. The idiots must be kicking themselves now. But anyway, Yorgos and I met, and talked, and made a connection. He said, “I’m writing something at the moment.” And then he sent me The Lobster.
How was the actual shoot? What’s his method?
Zero rehearsal. Zero discussion. Not one second about anything. The only thing he got involved in, in relation to me, was costume. He was involved in which poncho I wore and which grotty old sweater and which boots.
unless you keep trying, it’s hard to make a good film. very, very hard
How did you find the lack of discussion? I loved it. He directed a lot when we were on set, he just didn’t analyse it. The tone that he creates is what’s so extraordinary about his films. Everyone is different, and they’re naturalistic, but they’re all in the same tone. He would direct you, sometimes for many takes, to get you into the Lanthimos groove. But there’s no psychobabble, no intellectualisation of it. Everyone has their own readings of The Lobster. What does it mean to you? I thought it was romantic in terms of the love that David eventually finds with the Short Sighted Woman. I thought it was romantic in that oldfashioned sense of the word – there were so many obstacles in the way of their love; like, I guess, Romeo and Juliet. A lot of yearning and wanting. What do you make of The Hotel’s guests being urged to find someone with the same tastes and personality traits? To me, that was about narcissism. People can fall in love with their own image.
You’ve worked with many great directors...
Yeah. I also like to work with first-time directors. Film is such a director’s medium. What I do is just one element. Direction is all about tone and control, and that’s why he or she can create a universe. It’s an extraordinary thing. [ Pause] You’re very much in the hands of a director’s fabrication of this piece of work.
It must require a vast amount of trust? Yeah. You have to... It’s just like you talking to me now, and your instincts saying that you trust what I’m saying or not. It’s very personal. You can tell if I’m bullshitting you or not. Or you can imagine what I’m saying, and see it. That’s all you’ve got. Short Sighted Woman is a fierce, tenacious character, which you seem to be drawn to...
I think she’s very fragile. Is she tenacious? She’s rebelling against society, refusing to play by the rules. I guess everyone will see her differently. Anyway, I loved being outside in the mud. It was fun.
Do you agree that you’re drawn to committed women? I suppose it’s interesting to play someone who’s committed to something. Even if someone’s committed to alcoholism; I would be very interested in that. It doesn’t matter if it’s forces of good or forces of destruction or self-destruction. Yeah, to be full of appetite is interesting. Otherwise, to be passive, it’s hard to play that. Jodie Foster says that she always plays strong women. They can be bad women or good women but they’re always strong, and she’d have trouble playing weak... I think my character in Deep Blue Sea is pretty vulnerable. She had an appetite and was driven to get this guy, to leave her husband, but she was a bit of a mess. Maybe Jodie Foster said she likes to play strong women… [ Pause] I object to that phrase, actually, because I just don’t know what that means. No woman would ever say to a man, “You like to play a strong man.” It’s just an unthinkable sentence. It’s like talking to us as if we have some disability because we’re women. Which I suppose we do, but I object to it in culture and in films. What does it mean? I can’t lift big dumbbells? I like to play interesting women, driven women, women with appetite and desire. A lot of people seem to be calling Hollywood out on its chauvinist bullshit this year. Does that please you? I’m not a politician. I’m not sure if talking about it... [ Pause] It’s about films getting made. Doing it. Making films in which women can show the strength of their feelings. When you say “a strong woman”, I would say “a woman with strong feelings”. I can’t think of any male drama which wouldn’t have a man who has very strong desires or goals. It’s ridiculous that some people have said that Hot
Pursuit might set back female filmmakers!
Because it’s not been successful? It’s not been successful and it got slated. But why should it have to be representative? I’ve not seen it. But yeah, like there aren’t bad films about men, directed by a man? Most films are about that. It’s just nonsense. Absolute bollocks. Unless you keep trying, it’s hard to make a good film. Very, very hard. Imagine if Patty Jenkins’ Wonder Woman fails. It will have serious repercussions...
I hear you. It’s so depressing that one even has to think like this. Actually, I watched the TV pilot made in the ’70s. It’s the genesis story. Wonder Woman comes from this planet where women live forever and they don’t need men. Then this man crashes on their planet and they go, “What is this creature?” Wonder Woman takes him back to Earth. It’s fucking brilliant. I watched it with my nine-year-old son. He was just like, “Wow, these women are badass!” It’s really interesting. You handled some badass action sequences in
The Mummy. Did you enjoy making a big, effectsheavy blockbuster? I loved it. I was in LA doing auditions and I read the script and thought it was delightful. I auditioned and got the part. She was like this ditzy... I always felt like she was in the wrong genre. She of all people shouldn’t be in an action movie! I loved that. And I used to really enjoy doing stunts. I’m quite athletic. [ Long pause] In my 20s, I had no idea how to navigate the politics of this profession. I didn’t go to the premiere of The Mummy or The Mummy Returns. I was doing plays. What you’re meant to do in a blockbuster, as you know, is show up on the red carpet in a frock. How do you find the selling side of it? Like now, doing this interview? I think it’s part of the job, and sometimes it can be enjoyable, and sometimes it isn’t. But isn’t that true of all jobs? Offices have politics, right? Parties that you have to go to, people you have to have a drink with. You won an Oscar for The Constant Gardener. How did you find the campaigning? I was talking to a publicist, not mine, about that last week. And she just said, “In the last 10 years since you won the Oscar, it’s completely changed.” In terms of the aggressiveness which people are expected to have, it’s a very, very different landscape.
So you didn’t have to do the campaign trail? I wasn’t asked to do anything that made me uncomfortable. I did Q&As. I was fiercely proud of the film, so it was quite interesting to talk about it. I didn’t have to sell my soul. Meirelles made The Constant Gardener after City Of
God. How was he to work with? Heaven. No discussions, no talking, no analysing! Also, very low-tech. There were very few lights. It’s handheld camera often. It always felt to me like Ralph [ Fiennes] was my husband, and sometimes there’s a crew, like a documentary. It felt very real for a film set. Did you relate to the character? You do charity work and are committed to causes. I pour most of my energy into my career. I have nothing on her. That character, she was willing to die for what she believes in. I admire people like that, people who will risk their lives to do what they believe is right. I’m a scaredy-cat. I’ve never done anything. Was it weird playing a character who only appears in flashback? No. The script wasn’t written in that order. In the edit they changed it all around, so it began with her death. But in the script it went forwards. Did you think it worked when you saw the finished film? I did, yeah. Claire Simpson is an incredible editor. She’s brilliant at the grammar of storytelling, but also brilliant at finding little moments of performance which are not about words; just behaviour. Little reactions and stuff. Editors can make a performance. You can cut a good performance out of a bad one.
How do you find your characters? Sometimes, like for The Lobster, there’s no research. But I just did this Donald Crowhurst film with Colin Firth and James Marsh, that’s based on a true story, so there was source material to read, a lot of archival footage to watch. That was fun. But at a certain point, it’s just about jumping off the diving board. The thing about a film is you get another take. You love the stage also, and won an Olivier Award playing Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire... I think the main difference is you get to tell the whole story once, sometimes twice a day. Film, you don’t get to experience that. You get a moment. Theatre’s controlling muchthe wholemore of tone an of actor’sthe whole medium. piece. You’re There’s no filter. No editing, music. It’s just there. It’s live. It’s happening. It’s very exciting. You did Neil LaBute’s The Shape Of Things on stage, and then appeared in his film version. Were they very different experiences? Actually, I feel like it was so over-rehearsed that it was hard to be spontaneous on film. We said it so many times, I think the film was quite theatrical as a result. The themes were prickly. There’s so much going on in terms of gender, and the act of artistic creation... Yeah. My son’s never seen any of my films, but I told him the story of that one. Then I said to him, “You’ve got to get a haircut.” He said, “I’m not your art project!”
That’s smart for a nine-year-old!
I didn’t go to the premiere of the mummy. i had no idea how to navigate the politics
Yeah, he’s a smart cookie. [ Pause] This is what Neil always used to say: her means are questionable. The content of her dissertation was really interesting. She was talking about people being so taken in by their physical self, they don’t see inside. It goes back to The Lobster a little bit, that sameness thing: “I want you to be...” There’s that Joni Mitchell song, ‘Will You Take Me As I Am?’ So yeah, I think The Shape Of Things was about really deep, interesting things, but obviously her means were very, very questionable. But that’s what made her. I relished her badness. A lot of people dismissed LaBute’s early work as misogynistic but it can be seen as feminist, shining an unforgiving light on the atrocities of male behaviour... I think I’m with you. I remember Germaine Greer coming to see The Shape Of Things. I saw her after. I don’t know her, and I was like, “It’s so feminist, isn’t it?” She was like, “No, I don’t think it is.” She was not having it! You did Pinter’s Betrayal on Broadway with Daniel last year. How was that? Pinter is hard. It’s challenging. I’d never done Broadway before, and it’s very different to the West End. They clap when the stars come on. In the middle of the play. Yep. Different culture.
Was it fun starring with Daniel, or kind of weird? It wasn’t weird; I’ve worked with him before. We did a play that not many people saw at the National Theatre Studio when we were young [ in 1994], so I’ve known him for a long time. I suppose, you know, I guess maybe I’ve been a bit naive about... [ Pause] Put it like this – people got their phones out to take pictures of him during the show. I just didn’t expect that. But he’s pretty famous [ laughs].
OK, change of tack. How did you find the stunt work on The Bourne Legacy? Pretty scary because I’m really driving motorbikes around. I was on the back. I got a thrill out of it too, but I get more of a thrill bringing a character to the screen. A lot of your films seem to deal with tricky relationships. Love and the breakdown of love.. Maybe. I don’t know if you’ve ever heard the expression “Happiness writes white”? If you were writing it on a piece of white paper [ it would be
lost]. It’s very hard to make a film about happiness without it being schmaltzy. It’s hard to write a story where nothing goes wrong. Drama is about obstacles, conflict. Talking of conflict, did you feel that the reviews of
The Lovely Bones were harsh?
I didn’t read the reviews. But he [ Peter Jackson] made his own version of the book. It wasn’t the book. And it wasn’t even some of what he shot. What I was very interested in – just in terms of my character – was that she has an affair with the detective who’s investigating the case. They cut that. Without that, I didn’t feel like I was left with much of a character. What interested me dramatically was that she didn’t do the noble thing. In fact, in the book, she doesn’t want to be a mother. [ Pause] But what interested him was heaven, and that’s a beautiful thing. He’s obviously a visionary filmmaker. Let’s finish with some of your upcoming films. You mentioned the James Marsh movie... Yes, yes, fantastic story. Lovely, sweet director. It’s set in 1968. I saw some of the stills. They look like stills from a movie from the ’60s. It looks good. Then there’s the untitled Joshua Marston film that I’m doing with Michael Shannon and Kathy Bates. He made Maria Full Of Grace. It’s a really low-budget indie. No trailers. We camped out in people’s apartments all around Brooklyn. It’s about a woman who assumes multiple identities. She’s not mentally ill; she does it for fun. Working with Caine, Keitel and Sorrentino on Youth must have been a big deal? Pure heaven. Again, Sorrentino doesn’t talk about it. No rehearsal. Maestros have no need to chat! They just do it. [ Pause] I’m missing one. Ooh! I worked with Derek Cianfrance [ Blue Valentine,
The Place Beyond The Pines] in New Zealand on The Light Between Oceans. Michael Fassbender and Alicia Vikander are the leads. It’s an epic story set in 1913 Australia. It’s about a couple who find a baby. They steal my baby, basically. It’s a big melodramatic drama, a big role, amazing. That’s some slate. Does it please you to have a body of work deserving of big career interviews like this one?
It makes me feel like I’m 75 years old!