Rachel Weisz
Rachel Weisz | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Years active | 1993-present |
| Spouse | Darren Aronofsky (engaged) |
Rachel Weisz (born March 7, 1971) is an Academy Award-winning English actress.
Biography
Early life
Weisz (surname pronounced [vaɪs] or "vice"; it is a variant spelling of the German word weiß, "white") was born in London, England and grew up in Hampstead. Her father, George Weisz, is a Hungarian-born inventor whose family fled to England to escape Nazi persecution. Her mother, Edith, is a Vienna-born Austrian psychoanalyst and aspiring actress. Weisz's father is Jewish and her mother has been referred to as either Catholic,[1] Jewish,[2][3] or having Jewish ancestry.[4] Weisz refers to herself as Jewish.[5][6]
Weisz was educated at North London Collegiate School, from which she was expelled. She was then sent to Benenden School and eventually settled when she was about 13 in 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 Festival for an improvised piece called Slight Possession.
Career
Her breakthrough role was that of Gilda in Welsh director Sean Mathias's 1995 West End revival of Noel Coward's 1933 play Design for Living at the Gielgud Theatre. Having already worked for television, with strong parts in major UK series 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. Since then she has starred in a number of films including The Mummy (1999) and its sequel The Mummy Returns (2001), Enemy at the Gates (2001), About a Boy (2002), Runaway Jury (2003) and Constantine (2005). Her stage work includes the role of Catherine in a London production of Tennessee Williams' Suddenly Last Summer and Evelyn in Neil LaBute's The Shape of Things at the Almeida Theatre (also film).
In 2005, Weisz starred in 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. For this role, Weisz won the 2006 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, the 2006 Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress and the 2006 Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role. In her home country, she was recognized as a leading role for the film according to the nomination from the BAFTA awards and winnings from the London Critics Circle Film Awards and British Independent Film Awards.
In 2006, she starred in The Fountain and also provided the voice for Saphira in Eragon. Weisz is rumored to be in negotiations to return with Brendan Fraser for the third installment of The Mummy trilogy in 2008 or 2009. She is also rumored to be playing the role of Ava Lord in the sequel to Sin City, which is slated for a 2008 release.
Personal life
Weisz is engaged to American filmmaker Darren Aronofsky. They have a son, Henry Chance, born on May 31, 2006.[7] The couple resides in Brooklyn. Weisz previously dated actor Alessandro Nivola, actor Neil Morrissey, and director Sam Mendes.[8]
Awards
| Year | Award | Film |
|---|---|---|
| 2006 | London Critics Circle Film Award for British Actress of the Year | The Constant Gardener |
| 2006 | British Independent Film Award for Best Actress | The Constant Gardener |
| 2006 | Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress - Motion Picture | The Constant Gardener |
| 2006 | Screen Actors Guild Award for Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role | The Constant Gardener |
| 2005 | Academy Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role | The Constant Gardener |
| 2006 | San Diego Film Critics Society Awards for Best Supporting Actress | The Constant Gardener |
Nominations
| Year | Award | Film |
|---|---|---|
| 2006 | BAFTA Film Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role | The Constant Gardener |
| 2006 | Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Supporting Actress | The Constant Gardener |
Selected filmography
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1996 | Chain Reaction | Dr. Lily Sinclair | |
| 1998 | Swept from the Sea | Amy Foster | |
| 1999 | The Mummy | Evelyn "Evi" Carnahan | |
| 1999 | Sunshine | Greta | |
| 2001 | Beautiful Creatures | Petula | |
| 2001 | Enemy at the Gates | Tania Chernova | |
| 2001 | The Mummy Returns | Evelyn Carnahan O'Connell/Princess Nefertiri | |
| 2002 | About a Boy | Rachel | |
| 2003 | Confidence | Lily | |
| 2003 | The Shape of Things | Evelyn Ann Thompson | |
| 2003 | Runaway Jury | Marlee | |
| 2004 | Envy | Debbie Dingman | |
| 2005 | Constantine | Angela Dodson/Isabel Dodson | |
| 2005 | The Constant Gardener | Tessa Quayle | |
| 2006 | The Fountain | Izzi | |
| 2006 | Eragon | Saphira (voice) | |
| 2007 | My Blueberry Nights | Release date: June 22, 2007 | |
| 2007 | Fred Claus | Wanda | Release date: November 9, 2007 |
| 2007 | Definitely, Maybe | Summer Hartley | Post-production |
| 2008 | The Brothers Bloom | Filming began March, 2007 | |
| 2008 | Sin City 2 | Ava Lord [1] | Filming begins June, 2007 |
| 2008 | Dirt Music | Georgie | Filming begins August, 2007 [2] |
| 2008 | The Colossus | Olive Schreiner | Filming begins October, 2007 |
| 2008 | The Lady from Shanghai | Pre-production | |
| 2008 | The Mummy 3 | Evelyn O'Connell [3] | Pre-production |
| 2009 | Constantine 2 | Angela Dodson/Isabel Dodson | Pre-production [4] |
Footnotes
- ^ "Guardian Unlimited". Toast of the tomb. Retrieved October 29.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=(help); Unknown parameter|accessyear=ignored (|access-date=suggested) (help) - ^ "ThisIsLondon". The virtues of Weisz. Retrieved November 17.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=(help); Unknown parameter|accessyear=ignored (|access-date=suggested) (help) - ^ "Guardian Unlimited". The Guardian profile: Rachel Weisz. Retrieved October 29.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=(help); Unknown parameter|accessyear=ignored (|access-date=suggested) (help) - ^ "BangItOut". The Shape of Things (2003). Retrieved October 29.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=(help); Unknown parameter|accessyear=ignored (|access-date=suggested) (help) - ^ "Index Magazine". Rachel Weisz 2001. Retrieved October 29.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=(help); Unknown parameter|accessyear=ignored (|access-date=suggested) (help) - ^ "Guardian Unlimited". Girl behaving sensibly. Retrieved October 29.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=(help); Unknown parameter|accessyear=ignored (|access-date=suggested) (help) - ^ "USA Today". Oscar winner Rachel Weisz has baby boy. Retrieved December 9.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=(help); Unknown parameter|accessyear=ignored (|access-date=suggested) (help) - ^ "Sunday Times". Giving It Her Best Shot. Retrieved December 9.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=(help); Unknown parameter|accessyear=ignored (|access-date=suggested) (help)
External links
