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Rachel Weisz is an English film and theatre actress, famous for her role as Evelyn Carnahan in “The Mummy,” and as Tessa Quayle in “The Constant Gardener.” Here are 50 interesting facts about the Academy Award winning actress.
- Weisz was awarded the British Actress of the Year award by the London Critics' Circle Film Award for her performance as Tessa Quayle in the 2005 political thriller movie “The Constant Gardener,” based on John le Carré novel of the same name.
- She also won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, the British Independent Film Award for Best Actress, the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture, the San Diego Film Critics' Society Award for Best Supporting Actress, and the Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture, for her role.
- She was also honored with the Britannia Award for Artist of the Year at the Los Angeles BAFTA ceremony.
- Her performance was well received and the UK newspaper The Guardian noted that “The Constant Gardener” movie has “established her in the front rank of British actors.”
- She started modeling at the age of 14. She is known as an “English Rose,” though she grew up as a tomboy.
- She was even offered a role in the Richard Gere movie “King David,” in 1985, but she had to turn down the offer as her parents did not let her do it.
- Rachel Hannah Weisz was born on March 7, 1970 in London, UK.
- She was born to Edith Ruth, a psychotherapist from Austria, and George Weisz, an inventor from Hungary.
- Her father invented machines that sense land mines and respirators that supplied their own oxygen.
- Her parents moved to United Kingdom before the outbreak of Second World War, in order to escape the Nazis.
- She has a younger sister, Minnie Weisz, a photographer and curator, who describes herself as an architectural detective.
- She attended North London Collegiate School, Benenden School and then St Paul’s Girls School from which she completed with A-levels.
- She describes herself as a bad pupil until the age of 16, when she was inspired by an English Literature teacher.
- She graduated with second-class honors, upper division (2:1) Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Trinity Hall, Cambridge.
- Weisz co-founded the Talking Tongues theater company while studying at Cambridge University.
- At 1991's Edinburgh Festival, she won a student drama award for a play – Slight Possession, which she wrote and acted.
- She was awarded the 1994 London Critics Circle Theatre Award (Drama Theatre) for Most Promising Newcomer for her performance in Design for Living, for her breakthrough role as Gilda in Sean Mathias's revival of Noël Coward's “Design for Living.”
- She first appeared in the 1992 television film “Advocates II,” in a minor role.
- Later, she went on to star in the “Inspector Morse” episode "Twilight of the Gods," “Scarlet and Black,” and "Dirty Something" alongside Paul Reynolds.
- She started her career with a minor role in the 1994 film “Death Machine.”
- Her first major role was in the movie “Chain Reaction,” as Dr. Lily Sinclair alongside Keanu Reeves and Morgan Freeman.
- The movie received mostly negative reviews with a 16% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. However, Edward Guthmann of the San Francisco Chronicle felt the film was one of the summer's best movies of the year.
- She got her name “English Rose,” in the year 1996, after her role as Miranda Fox in the movie “Stealing Beauty,” directed by the Italian Academy Award-winner Bernardo Bertolucci.
- Her breakthrough role was in the 1999 adventure film “The Mummy,” as English Egyptologist Evelyn Carnahan, opposite Brendan Fraser.
- Originally, her character was meant to be Evelyn Carnarvon. She and her brother were to be the children of the "cursed" Lord Carnarvon.
- She was casted in the movie as Stephen Sommer was impressed with her performance in the 1998 movie “The Land Girls.”
- In a scene, where Weisz is covered with rats and locusts, real animals were used, though there were many computer generated scenes in the movie.
- She was nominated for Saturn Awards for Best Actress and Blockbuster Entertainment Awards for Favorite Actress – Action.
- In 2001, she returned her role in the sequel “The Mummy Returns,” which grossed an estimated $433 million worldwide.
- She played a dual role of Evelyn Carnahan O'Connell as well as Princess Nefertiri in the sequel.
- She received a nomination for Best British Actress from Empire Awards, for her performance in the movie.
- She was cast as Angela Dodson in the movie “Constantine,” alongside Keanu Reeves. The movie was based on the comic book, “Hellblazer.”
- Film Threat called her portrayal in the movie as "effective at projecting scepticism and, eventually, dawning horror."
- A life-size replica of Rachel Weisz was made and used as the corpse of Angela Dodson's twin sister Isabel who committed suicide.
- Her next role as an activist Tessa Quayle in the movie “The Constant Gardener,” earned her a number of awards including an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress.
- The role was actually based on the famous social activist and charity worker Yvette Pierpaoli, who was killed in a truck crash in Albania, in the year 1999.
- The scene in which she walks through a sum and children ask her "How are you?" was unscripted. The children are not extras and they will in Kibera.
- She beat Eva Green, Kate Winslet, Sienna Miller, Naomi Watts and Nicole Kidman for the role.
- She met American filmmaker and producer Darren Aronofsky, while starring in “The Shape of Things,” at London's Almeida Theatre in 2001. She moved to New York with Aronofsky.
- The couple announced their engagement in 2005 and resided in East Village, in Manhattan. The duo welcomed their son Henry Chance on May 31, 2006.
- She offered her voice for Saphira the dragon in the fantasy film “Eragon.” She is one of the first actresses in the history to have a leading role as a dragon.
- She was one month pregnant with her son Henry when she completed filming for this movie.
- She was named as one of the “100 Sexiest Stars in Film History,” by Empire magazine in 2007.
- She was offered to star in “The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor,” in the year 2008. However, she turned down the role due to script issues.
- She ranked #44 on Glamour Magazine's 2009 list of “Most Glamorous Women in the World.”
- She was cast as Blanche DuBois in Rob Ashford's revival of the play “A Streetcar Named Desire” in 2009. Her performance was praised by the critics with Daily Telegraph noting that she "rises to the challenge magnificently."
- She won the 2010 Olivier Award for Best Actress for her role, and the Critics' Circle Theatre Awards in London named her as the Best Actress of 2009.
- Her performance in the role of Kathryn Bolkovac in the 2010 movie “The Whistleblower,” was well received and Variety magazine wrote "Weisz's performance holds the viewer every step of the way."
- She was named as the global ambassador for L’Oreal and also serves as a muse to Narciso Rodriguez, a fashion designer.
- She began dating English actor Daniel Craig in December 2010 and within 6 months, the duo tied the knot in a private ceremony in New York with just 4 guests in attendance.
