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Mummy Beauty
Background:
"People find out I'm an actress and I see that 'whore' look flicker across their
eyes." Rachel Weisz
British actress Rachel Weisz, sometimes credited as Kenya Campbell, received
wide recognition as scientist Evelyn Carnahan in Stephen Sommers' box-office
blockbusters The Mummy (1999) and The Mummy Returns (2001). First noticed on
stage while starring in Sean Mathias' West End revival of Noel Coward's "Design
For Living" (1994), Weisz later gained more attention for acting in such films
as Stealing Beauty (1996), Chain Reaction (1996), The Land Girls (1998), Enemy
at the Gates (2001), About a Boy (2002), Confidence (2003), The Shape of Things
(2003), Runaway Jury (2003), Constantine (2005) and The Constant Gardener
(2005). She will soon star in the upcoming films The Fountain, and Heaven and
Earth.
This greenish-hazel-eyed, exotic-looking brunette was one of Hello’s (UK
magazine) “The Most Beautiful Actress,” European Film Promotion Board’s
“European films' Shooting Stars” (1998) and Stuff magazine's “102 Sexiest Women
in the World” (2002). A model at age 14, Weisz is currently the face of Revlon
(2005). Additionally, the 5' 7" English beauty, with a flawless American accent,
reportedly is set to replace Kate Moss as the new face of Burberry fragrances.
On a more personal note, Weisz has been linked to several high-profile names,
including actor Neil Morrissey, her I Want You co-star Alessandro Nivola, Chain
Reaction and Constantine co-star Keanu Reeves, and American Beauty British
director Sam Mendes (born on August 1, 1965). In June of 2005, she became
engaged to Requiem for a Dream director Darren Aronofsky.
"I find Hollywood really toxic." Rachel Weisz
Cambridge’s Most Popular
Childhood and Family:
In London, England, Rachel Weisz (last name is pronounced "vice," means “white”
in German) was born on March 7, 1971. Her father is George, a Jewish-Hungarian
inventor (credited with inventing life-saving respiratory medical equipment) and
her mother is Ruth, a Jewish-Austrian psychoanalyst (of part Italian descent).
When Rachel was younger, she spoke only German. She went to St. Paul’s Girls
School in London and studied English Literature at Cambridge University in
Cambridge, England, where she was the most popular girl.
Rachel Weisz now lives in a $450,000 London apartment and drives an old, black
Jaguar 4.2 Sovereign with pepper-pot wheels. She has recently become a supporter
of The X Appeal, the official charity of the Royal College of Radiologists.
Design for Living
Career:
"You just have to play every scene honestly and forget about a reaction and what
the audience is going to think. I think the more seriously you take something,
the more funny it might be." Rachel Weisz
A model since age 14, Rachel Weisz began acting while studying at Cambridge
University and appeared in various student productions. She later co-founded a
theater company named Cambridge Talking Tongues and won the Guardian Award at
the Edinburgh Festival, for its take on Neville Shouthall's "Washbag."
Afterward, Weisz began appearing on TV. She acted opposite Paul Reynolds in the
TV movie Dirtysomething and costarred with Ewan McGregor in the 1993 BBC
miniseries "Scarlet and Black," an adaptation to Stendhal's novel. She was also
spotted as a guest on "Inspector Morse" and "Sweating Bullets," as well as
played a role in the 1994 made-for-TV movies White Goods and Seventeen.
Weisz got her stage breakthrough role as Gilda, in Welsh director Sean Mathias’
West End revival of Noel Coward's 1993 play, "Design For Living," at the Gielgud
Theatre. The role, which she played opposite Rupert Everett, earned Weisz a Most
Promising Newcomer by the London Critics' Circle and Evening Standard Award for
Best Newcomer.
Writer-director Stephen Norrington's sci-fi action Death Machine (1995) was
Weisz's debut big screen work, in which she was cast to play a junior executive.
Two years later, she was cast as Miranda Fox, a beautiful, but snooty artist's
daughter, in Bernardo Bertolucci's drama Stealing Beauty (1996, starring Liv
Tyler). She followed it up with that same year’s film, her first US feature,
Andrew Davis' chase movie Chain Reaction. In the film, Weisz played scientist
Dr. Lily Sinclair, opposite stars Keanu Reeves and Morgan Freeman.
1997 watched Weisz playing Ben Affleck's girlfriend in Mark Pellington's
adaptation of Dan Wakefield's novel, the drama comedy set in 1954, Going All the
Way (also starring Jeremy Davies) and appearing as a prostitute in Sean Mathias'
screen version of Martin Sherman's play, the war drama Bent (starring Clive
Owen). She also won her first leading role, as servant Amy Foster, in Beeban
Kidron's 19th century romantic drama Swept from the Sea (costarring with Vincent
Perez).
Weisz teamed up with Catherine McCormack and Anna Friel, portraying three young
women who join The Women's Land Army during World War II, in David Leland's film
based on Angela Huth's novel, The Land Girls (1998). She then starred as Helen,
a young woman running a hairdressing salon, in Michael Winterbottom's crime
drama I Want You (1998, alongside Alessandro Nivola) and costarred as a
Hungarian Jewish woman, who has a treacherous relationship with her
brother-in-law, in writer-director István Szabó's epic tale Sunshine (1999,
starring Ralph Fiennes), the latter of which gave her a nomination for a Genie
Award for Best Supporting Actress in 2000.
1999 marked Weisz with blockbuster status and worldwide recognition, thanks to
the female lead role of the beautiful, but clumsy, Egyptologist Evelyn Carnahan,
opposite star Brendan Fraser, in Stephen Sommers' box-office hit The Mummy. The
role eventually earned Weisz Best Actress nominations at the Blockbuster
Entertainment Awards and Saturn Awards. Weisz later reprised her Mummy role in
its 2001 installment, The Mummy Returns, in which she also played Princess
Nefertiri.
On the London stage, Weisz starred as Catherine in Tennessee Williams'
"Suddenly, Last Summer" (1999, Weisz received the 1999 Barclays Theatre Award
for Best Supporting Actress) and as an American sculptress in writer-director
Neil LaBute’s "The Shape of Things" (2001) at the Almeida Theatre. Her motion
picture work also continued. She costarred with Susan Lynch in Bill Eagles'
thriller comedy Beautiful Creatures (2000) and snagged the female lead role of
courageous female soldier Tania Chernova in Jean-Jacques Annaud's WW II drama
Enemy at the Gates (2001, with Joseph Fiennes, Jude Law and Ed Harris).
The subsequent years saw Weisz join Hugh Grant in Chris and Paul Weitz's
romantic comedy, inspired by Nick Hornby's best-selling novel, About a Boy
(2002) and play art student Evelyn in Neil LaBute's big screen version of his
own play, The Shape of Things (2003, opposite Paul Rudd). Director James Foley
cast her to play a brash, blonde pickpocket named Lily in his crime drama film
Confidence (with Edward J. Burns and Dustin Hoffman) and Gary Fleder handed her
the role of John Cusack's mysterious girlfriend in his drama film, based on John
Grisham's novel, Runaway Jury (both in 2003). In the next year, Weisz portrayed
Ben Stiller's wife in Barry Levinson's comedy Envy (also starring Jack Black).
More recent, in 2005, Weisz reunited with Keanu Reeves to play skeptical
policewoman Angela Dodson in Francis Lawrence's adaptation of Jamie Delano and
Garth Ennis' comic book "Hellblazer," in the action drama Constantine. She also
portrayed Tessa Quayle, the brilliant, passionate activist and new wife of the
British diplomat Justin Quayle (played by Ralph Fiennes), in Academy
Award-nominated director Fernando Meirelles' politically charged thriller film,
based on the best-selling John le Carré novel, The Constant Gardener.
"It was everything. It was the character, a brilliant, once-in-a-lifetime role.
It was the story. It was Ralph Fiennes. And it was Fernando. I'd seen City of
God. That surpassed my wildest fantasies about what the film could be." Rachel
Weisz (on winning the role of Tessa Quayle in The Constant Gardener, 2005)
Weisz will soon complete her upcoming film, the sci-fi drama written and
directed by fiancé Darren Aronofsky, The Fountain, opposite Hugh Jackman. She
will also portray true-life character James Miranda Barry, the first woman
doctor, who had to pretend to be a man, in Marleen Gorris' British drama, Heaven
and Earth.
"There's nothing I would do if I didn't act. I've only ever wanted to make films
and now I am. So, right now, I'm sorry to say, I'm very satisfied. It's gross,
isn't it?" Rachel Weisz
Awards:
