Rachel Hannah Weisz (, like the word "vice"; born 7 March 1970) is an English screen and theatre actress and fashion model. She gained wide public recognition after her portrayal of
Evelyn "Evy" Carnahan-O'Connell in the films
The Mummy and
The Mummy Returns. In 2002, she starred opposite
Hugh Grant in the hit
About a Boy and continued to garner leading roles in Hollywood productions. Her performance in
The Constant Gardener (2005) won her the
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, along with other major motion picture awards.
Early life and background
Weisz was born in
Westminster, London, England, and grew up in the
Hampstead Garden Suburb. Her mother, Edith Ruth (
née Teich), is a teacher turned
psychotherapist who was born in
Vienna, Austria. Her father, George Weisz, is a Hungarian-born inventor and engineer. Her parents fled to England during the
Second World War. Weisz' father is
Jewish and her mother is of Jewish,
Catholic Viennese, and Italian descent. Weisz's maternal grandfather, Alexander Teich, was a secretary of the
World Union of Jewish Students, and Weisz' maternal grandmother's mother was Italian.
Weisz was educated privately at independent schools for girls: North London Collegiate School, Benenden School, and St Paul's Girls' School. She then entered Trinity Hall, Cambridge, where she graduated with a 2:1 in English. During her university years, she appeared in various student productions, co-founding a student drama group called Cambridge Talking Tongues, which went on to win a Guardian Student Drama Award at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival for an improvised piece called Slight Possession.
Career
Screen
Having already worked for television productions, such as
Inspector Morse (1993), Weisz started her cinema career in 1995 with
Chain Reaction and then appeared in
Bernardo Bertolucci's
Stealing Beauty. She followed this work with more English films including
My Summer with Des, Swept from the Sea, The Land Girls, and
Michael Winterbottom's
I Want You. Although she received favourable critical recognition for her work to this point, her breakout into wide audience recognition came from a horror movie
The Mummy, in which she played the lead female role alongside
Brendan Fraser. She followed this up with two hits,
The Mummy Returns (2001), which grossed $433m, even higher than the original, and
About a Boy (2002) with
Hugh Grant. She then appeared in
Enemy at the Gates (2001),
Runaway Jury (2003) and
Constantine (2005).
In 2005, Weisz starred in Fernando Meirelles's The Constant Gardener, a film adaptation of a John le Carré thriller of the same title set in the slums of Kibera and Loiyangalani, Kenya.
The same year, she starred in The Fountain and also provided the voice for Saphira in the fantasy film Eragon. Her subsequent films include the Wong Kar-wai-directed drama My Blueberry Nights (in which she played an "anti-Southern belle")In 2006 she was offered the role of Becky Scott in Kevin Smith's film Clerks II, but she turned it down. The role ultimately went to Rosario Dawson. She plays the lead role of Hypatia of Alexandria in the historical drama film Agora,an spanish production directed by Alejandro Amenábar, released in October 2009.
Her film The Whistleblower debuted at the Toronto Film Festival in 2010. The film made a woman in the crowd faint.
In 2010, she guest-starred in the animated series The Simpsons, in the season 22 episode How Munched is that Birdie in the Window, as the voice of Dr Thurston.
Stage
Her breakthrough role was that of Gilda in
Welsh director
Sean Mathias's 1994
West End revival of
Noel Coward's 1933 play
Design for Living at the
Gielgud Theatre. Her other stage work includes the role of Catherine in the Donmar's production of
Tennessee Williams'
Suddenly Last Summer and Evelyn in
Neil LaBute's
The Shape of Things at the
Almeida Theatre (also film) at its, then, temporary location in London's Kings Cross. In 2009, she played
Blanche DuBois in
Rob Ashford's
Donmar revival of
A Streetcar Named Desire.
Other
On 7 July 2007, Weisz presented at the
American leg of
Live Earth. She is represented by Independent Models in London.
Personal life
Weisz began dating American filmmaker and producer
Darren Aronofsky in the summer of 2001. They met backstage at London's
Almeida Theatre, where she was starring in
The Shape of Things. They became engaged in 2005. Their son, Henry Chance, was born on 31 May 2006 in
New York City. The couple resided in the
East Village in
Manhattan. On 9 November 2010, Weisz and Aronofsky announced that they had been "separated for some months", but "remain close friends and are committed to raising their son together in NYC".
Weisz serves as a muse to fashion designer Narciso Rodriguez.
Filmography
{|class="wikitable" style="font-size: 90%;" border="2" cellpadding="4" background: #f9f9f9;
|- align="center"
! style="background:#B0C4DE;" | Year
! style="background:#B0C4DE;" | Film
! style="background:#B0C4DE;" | Role
! style="background:#B0C4DE;" | Notes
|-
|1995
|
Death Machine
|Junior Executive
|
|-
|rowspan="2" | 1996
|
Chain Reaction
| Dr. Lily Sinclair
|
|-
|
Stealing Beauty
| Miranda Fox
|
|-
|rowspan=2|1997
|
Bent
|Prostitute
|
|-
|
Going All the Way
|Marty Pilcher
|
|-
|rowspan="2"| 1997
|
Swept from the Sea
| Amy Foster
|
|-
|
I Want You
| Helen
|
|-
|1998
|
The Land Girls
|Ag (Agapanthus)
|
|-
|rowspan="3"| 1999
|
The Mummy
|
Evelyn "Evy" Carnahan
| Nominated –
Saturn Award for Best ActressNominated –
Empire Award for Best British Actress
|-
|
Sunshine
| Greta
| Nominated –
Genie Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role
|-
|
Tube Tales
| Angela
|
|-
|rowspan="2"| 2000
|
Beautiful Creatures
| Petula
|
|-
|
|Lauren Hynde
|
|-
|rowspan="2"| 2001
|
Enemy at the Gates
| Tania Chernova
| Nominated –
European Film Award for Best Actress
|-
|
The Mummy Returns
| Evelyn Carnahan O'Connell/Princess Nefertiri
|
|-
|2002
|
About a Boy
| Rachel
|
|-
|rowspan="3"| 2003
|
Confidence
| Lily
|
|-
|
The Shape of Things
| Evelyn Ann Thompson
|
|-
|
Runaway Jury
| Marlee
|
|-
| 2004
|
Envy
| Debbie Dingman
|
|-
|rowspan="2"| 2005
|
Constantine
| Angela Dodson/Isabel Dodson
| Nominated –
Teen Choice: Movie Scream Scene
|-
|
The Constant Gardener
| Tessa Quayle
|
Academy Award for Best Supporting ActressGolden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress - Motion PictureScreen Actors Guild Award for Best Supporting Actress - Motion PictureIowa Film Critics Award for Best Supporting ActressLondon Film Critics Circle Award for British Actress of the YearBritish Independent Film Award for Best ActressSan Diego Film Critics Society Award for Best Supporting ActressSt. Louis Gateway Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting ActressUtah Film Critics Association Award for Supporting ActressNominated –
BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading RoleNominated –
Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting ActressNominated –
Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting ActressNominated –
Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Supporting Actress
|-
|rowspan="2"| 2006
|
The Fountain
| Izzi/
Isabella I of Castile
|
|-
|
Eragon
|
Saphira (voice)
|
|-
|rowspan="2"| 2007
|
Fred Claus
| Wanda
|
|-
|
My Blueberry Nights
| Sue Lynn
|
|-
|rowspan="1"| 2008
|
Definitely, Maybe
|Summer Hartley (Natasha)
|-
|rowspan="3"| 2009
|
The Brothers Bloom
|Penelope
|
|-
|
The Lovely Bones
|Abigail Salmon
|
|-
|
Agora
|
Hypatia
|Nominated -
Goya Award for Best Actress
|-
|rowspan="1" |2010
|
The Whistleblower
|Kathryn Bolkovac
|
|-
|rowspan="1" | 2011
|
Dream House
|Libby Attenton
|
post-production
|-
|rowspan="2"| 2012
|
Untitled Terrence Malick Project
|Dinah
|
post-production
|-
|
Unbound Captives
|May
|
pre-production
|}
Awards and honours
Weisz gained honours for her work in
The Constant Gardener, which included:
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress,
Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress - Motion Picture,
Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Supporting Actress - Motion Picture. She was also nominated for the
BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role. Furthermore, the critical acclaim she received for her performance also garnered her the
London Critics Circle Film Award for British Actress of the Year, the
British Independent Film Award for Best Actress and the
San Diego Film Critics Society Award for Best Supporting Actress. Additionally, she was nominated for the Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Supporting Actress.
In 2006, Weisz was invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Weisz also received the BAFTA LA British Artist of the Year award in 2006.
In January 2010, at the Critics' Circle Theatre Awards in London, she was named Best Actress 2009 for her performance as Blanche Dubois in the Donmar revival of A Streetcar Named Desire; she won the coveted 2010 Olivier Award for Best Actress for the same role.
References
External links
Gentlemen Prefer Rachel - slideshow by The First Post
Category:Alumni of Trinity Hall, Cambridge
Category:Audio book narrators
Category:Benenden Seniors
Category:Best Supporting Actress Academy Award winners
Category:Best Supporting Actress Golden Globe (film) winners
Category:British expatriates in the United States
Category:British people of Austrian descent
Category:British people of Hungarian descent
Category:English people of Italian descent
Category:English female models
Category:English film actors
Category:English stage actors
Category:English television actors
Category:British Jews
Category:Jewish actors
Category:Living people
Category:Old Paulinas
Category:English Jews
Category:1970 births
Category:Evening Standard Award for Best Actress