Rachel Weisz has said she’d never heard of her historical character before landing the role in her new movie Agora.
Weisz, 40, plays the role of scientist and philosopher Hypatia but admitted that she wasn’t sure who she was before shooting the movie.
She said to UK newspaper Daily Mirror: ‘I must confess I’d never heard of Hypatia. I now know that she was a heroine for the romantic poets in the 18th century.
‘But I didn’t know anything about her. The project just seemed too unusual, unique, wonderful and bold to say no to.’
Rachel Weisz is a people person, and interacting with different actors and characters on movie sets brings her endless fascination. The Agora star seems like quite the sociologist!
She said: “I liked acting because I love to ask people questions.? I like knowing about people and trying to imagine myself in other people’s shoes and other people’s skins. I do that all the time.” Read more… »
The Oscar winning Weisz’s portrayal of fading beauty Blanche DuBois held off Gillian Anderson, Imelda Staunton and Juliet Stevenson among others to win the Best Actress title.
Weisz’s co-star Ruth Wilson won Best Actress in a Supporting Role for her outstanding performance as Stella in the play by Tennessee Williams.
The 28-year-old American playwright Katori Hall, scooped the Best New Play award, with her play The Mountaintop, which follows Martin Luther King the night before his assassination. She is the first black female playwright to win the award.
Rupert Goold, was named the Best Director and was presented his second Olivier, for Enron, about the collapse of the American energy company based.
In what has been described as an exceptionally strong year for revivals, the category for the Best Revival had an unprecedented six nominees.
It was won by Debbie Allen’s version of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof beating A Streetcar named Desire, A View from the Bridge, The Misanthrope, Arcadia and Three Days of Rain to the award.
Nica Burns, President of the Society of London Theatre said: “The Olivier Awards reflect a year of outstanding creativity and production excellence which brought the public rushing to the theatre taking box office and attendance records to an all-time high. Read more… »
Academy-award-winner Rachel Weisz finds performing for the live audience “wild and risky” and has vowed to do stage every year from now on.
The 40-year-old actress, who kickstarted her career in a student theatre group during her time at Cambridge University, recently returned to the stage with a starring role in a production of ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’.
She won the coveted Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress for her performance in the play recently, the Daily Express reported.
‘The Mummy’ star is now adamant she will try to leave time between movie roles to indulge her love of the stage.
“I’m greedy – I’d like to do film and theatre. It was eight years since I’d last been on stage and it was just too long a gap. I hope to do a play every couple of years – actually no: maybe every year.
“It’s the greatest feeling in the world being on stage and doing a live performance. It’s very wild and risky,” she said.
Rachel Weisz is apparently being considered for the role of a Bond villain.
The makers of new James Bond film, which has a working title of Bond 23, are discussing offering the Oscar-winning actress the role of a baddie, according to Cinema Blend.
The 40-year-old actress is currently filming Dream House with Bond star Daniel Craig and said recently: “I’ve been filming with Daniel in Toronto – we’ve been getting on really well and yet I still haven’t had an offer to be a Bond girl, but if he asks me, I’d definitely do it.”
The new Bond movie is being directed by Sam Mendes, who Rachel has had a relationship with in the past.
Britain’s Rachel Weisz has been named best actress at this year’s Critics’ Circle Theatre Awards for appearing in A Streetcar Named Desire.
Mark Rylance was named best actor for Jerusalem, while Jude Law accepted the best Shakespearean performance prize for playing the title role in Hamlet.
Musical Spring Awakening, which ran for a short time in the West End last year, picked up the best musical accolade.
This year’s awards were handed out at the Prince of Wales Theatre in London.
The event coincided with the final South Bank Show Awards, where Weisz and Rylance were also honoured.
‘Most discerning’
Oscar-winner Weisz received her prize for playing fading beauty Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire at the Donmar Warehouse.
The Critics’ Circle previously named her most promising newcomer in 1994 for her work in Noel Coward’s Design for Living, staged at the same central London theatre. Read more… »
Rachel Weisz has opened up about her upcoming film projects for 2010.
The Lovely Bones star has revealed that she has a busy year ahead of her since she’s been travelling the world to film multiple roles for movies being released this year, STV reports.
The 39-year-old actress said: “Well I just finished shooting The Whistleblower for a first time director Larysa Kondracki and we just finished that last week in Romania.
“It’s a true story about a woman who went to work in Bosnia at the end of the nineties and blew the whistle on the UN.”
Weisz will also star in the historical drama Agora, in which she admitted she didn’t use a body double for her multiple nude scenes.
She added: “It is a story set in fourth century Alexandria about a woman named Hypatia. It is a true story about a woman who is a philosopher.”
The Lovely Bones is currently playing in US cinemas and arrives in the UK on January 29.
RACHEL Weisz says cuddling her son helps her deal with stress.
The British actress — who raises Henry, 3, with fiance Darren Aranofsky — had some traumatic storylines to cover in her new movie The Lovely Bones and she says her family were the best antidote to a bad day filming.
“When I was making The Lovely Bones I had the perfect way to de-stress after an emotionally difficult day. Henry my son was a little one-year-old bubby when we were shooting it, so having a little one to go home and cuddle every night and play with was the perfect way to de-stress.
“You just forget any of the bad fictional things you have been thinking about all day Henry is so beautiful he takes your mind off anything.”
RACHEL Weisz felt like an “idiot” when she first met fiance Darren Aranofsky.
The actress — who now as a three-year-old son with the Requiem for a Dream director — admits she was so nervous ahead of their first meeting, she tried to impress him by playing down her star status.
“I didn’t want this cool indie director to see me in this stretch limo! But as I stepped out, he was waiting there,” Rachel recalled. “I was like, ‘Argh! S*t!’ I felt like such an idiot.” Read more… »
