Seductive Reasoning

With four new films opening over the next few months, Rachel Weisz, the Oscar-winning thinking man’s knockout, returns with abandon. By Taylor Antrim

Men like me love actresses like Rachel Weisz. Me: mid-thirties, more education than I need, afflicted with a garden-variety Anglophilia. Weisz: mid-thirties, English-born, Cambridge-educated, sexy in that decorous, deeply seemly way only certain brunettes can pull off. She’s a tonic for an age of tabloid starlets, a thinking man’s knockout. Ralph Fiennes played a thinking man in 2005’s The Constant Gardener, with Weisz the fiery wife who inspired him to fight Big Pharma. Hugh Jackman’s brainy scientist lost Weisz to a fatal tumor in last year’s The Fountain, and he spent the rest of eternity in an interstellar bubble crying about it. Men like that, like me—we warm to the sight of Diaz, Dunst, or Johansson, but Rachel Weisz is our white-hot flame. Which is not to say the feeling is mutual.

“I like firemen,” she says. “Irish firemen. What girl doesn’t?”

Weisz and I are having tea in the ramshackle back garden of an East Village café in Manhattan. I’ve just asked her what kind of man she’s drawn to. Later in our conversation she’ll drop in a reference to Foucault, quote her favorite Smiths lyric, and reveal her love of both the French-born sculptor Louise Bourgeois and the California artist Raymond Pettibon, best known for the “four bars” logo he created for his brother’s hardcore band, Black Flag. Weisz owns three of Pettibon’s paintings.

She’s slighter and even more striking than she looks on-screen, with an intent gaze and a tunneling glamour that belies her jeans-and-a-T-shirt getup. Yet Weisz has built a career not on her beauty but on intelligent, earthy, and sublimely natural performances, most notably her Oscar-winning turn in Gardener. The two blockbuster Mummy movies, in which she played a plucky, sexy librarian, proved she also knows how to show her audience a good time.

Sadly for men like me, Weisz is also engaged to the film auteur Darren Aronofsky—he directed her in The Fountain—with whom she has an 18-month-old son, Henry. Motherhood put her career briefly on pause; now, however, she’s about to come back in force. Over Christmas she’ll turn up in Fred Claus, director David Dobkin’s follow-up to 2005’s Wedding Crashers. She plays opposite Vince Vaughan, an experience she describes as “going deep in the culture of Americana.”

In February she’ll appear as a sexy, free-spirited journalist in the comedy Definitely Maybe; after that, with Mark Ruffalo and Adrien Brody in the international con-man caper The Brothers Bloom, in which she plays a New Jersey heiress confined to her house for 18 years. Bloom is indie writer-director Rian Johnson’s sophomore effort, following last year’s noirish hybrid Brick. “This one is playing with genre as well,” Weisz says. “I think. Actually, the only person who really knew what was going on was Rian.”

Weisz has a crystalline accent, which she arrived at honestly, attending a couple of England’s oldest girls’ schools before finally graduating from St. Paul’s. Then again, there’s the rough, sultry laugh she uses when she discusses one more upcoming role, in Wong Kar Wai’s latest, My Blueberry Nights. “I’m a kind of anti–Southern belle, wildcat, bar-brawling alcoholic, tough seductress chick. Really great role.”

Under Wong, she channeled her experience acting Tennessee Williams, having starred in Suddenly, Last Summer on the London stage in 1999. Turns out Weisz knows her Southern writers. One of her two Cambridge theses assessed Eudora Welty, Flannery O’Connor, and her favorite, Carson McCullers. (The other covered the ghost stories of Henry James. She’s read Henry’s brother William—the 19th-century psychologist and philosopher—as well.)

And just like that, we’re back in thinking man’s territory. “Complexity gets me excited,” says Weisz.

Take that, you Irish firemen.

© Men’s Vogue

What’s the relationship between Vince Vaughn’s character Fred and your character Wanda?
Wanda’s come over to Chicago from London, and she’s been dating Fred for about three years. She’s a very down-to-earth, no-nonsense kind of girl. She can see the potential inside him and she really loves him. He’s kind of not very reliable, but she kind of forgives him his unreliability, in the sense that she can kind of see past it. And she knows that he’s a really big-hearted, warm, lovely, decent guy.

How was it working with Vince?
Vince’s been playing this character for a few months now. And I think he’s just thinking like Freddie. He goes very deep in his character. And, he’s extremely fast in terms of improvisations. Before you finish improvising a line, he’ll be back with his line. He’s extremely quick. It’s like lightning speed. He has a very creative mind.

How was it doing comedy?
It’s lovely to be part of a comedy, it’s just a different ball game, but it’s fun. And it’s fun, you know, playing opposite someone like Vince, who’s obviously is at the top of his game in the comedy world, so soaking it up.

You once said ‘You have to be quite stupid to act.’ Do you still feel that way?
Yes, I think it’s true in that you have to stop thinking too much and just use your heart and your gut and your instincts. Any intellect just gets in the way. You just have to go with the feeling and not over-analyse.

What is the real Rachel like?
(Laughs) Well, I’m not at all like a tough, sexy femme fatale, like I play in Confidence. But it’s fun to play people who’re really different from you, from different cultures and places. I suppose I’m a bit quieter than most of the people I play.

Which performer do you most admire today?
I love Cate Blanchett. I think she’s phenomenal, so stylish and a really good actress. There’s probably a young female doctor or teacher out there that’d be inspiring, but in terms of people who’re well-known it’d have to be Cate. And I love Renee Zellweger. I think she’s very stylish and she always looks gorgeous. You know who my role models are? Elvis and Houdini. I’m a huge fan of both. And I still think Madonna’s amazing. She constantly reinvents herself and I just went to see her art show in New York the other day and that was great.

With Christmas around the corner, tell us, do you like to shop for clothes?
God no! I hate it, absolutely hate it. I can’t stand it, it’s such a drag. So I just tend to wear the same things all the time. I don’t like change anyways. I’m actually a bit of a jeans person, but my favourite designer is Narciso Rodriguez. He’s great. But basically I’m just not into clothes that much.

Do you have any strange habits?
I’m a bit superstitious about certain things, like what shoes to wear. If I wear the wrong shoes, the whole day may go wrong. Or if I don’t get to the bottom of the stairs before the door closes — stupid little things like that. Then I also have all the normal ones, like don’t walk under ladders and so on.

How do you relax when you’re not busy?
I wish I had some exotic hobby like doing yoga upside down on a tightrope, but I don’t. I just like good conversation, and I love seeing my friends and going out for a great meal.

Do you cook?
Not really. I’m learning, but I’m not very good at it. I’m obsessed with those big Japanese noodles — that’s my new hobby, eating those (laughs).

Are you a very organised person?
Good God no! I’m incredibly messy which drives all my boyfriends mad. There’s always stuff lying around my room everywhere. I try to organise my flat and buy furniture and keep it clean, but I’m not very good at things like that. I struggle with all that. I don’t have a very good homemaking instinct, although I want to. I’m really, really working hard on it now. It’s getting a little better, but it’s just not me, to be honest.

Goodness so many people to thank.

I share this with Ralph Fiennes, one couldn’t ask for more magical… more magical, committed actor.

Fernando Meirelles, the director. Extraordinary director with equal parts talent and humanity, such great humanity.

Simon Channing-Williams our producer who is othervice known as chief Simon by the Almoli (unsure about the spelling) tribe of northern Kenya for the great dignity and finesse in which you took, basically bunch of rich white people into some very very severely poor and depressed areas of Keanya and the dignity which you created the relationships with the people there. Thank you for that.

Thank you to all my girls, Stacy [I have no idea how to spell the last name], Jane Friend, Jenny Rowlings and everybody at Focus Features and thank you very much.

And Darren Aronofsky I love you, thank you.

Film star Rachel Weisz (Trinity Hall 1987) made her name in Bertolucci and has three new movies out this year. But Cambridge was a bruising experience.

You flex different muscles in student theatre. There were urban myths in Cambridge about power-crazed directors saying ‘Be a tomato’ or ‘Be a tennis ball’. They did put you through the wringer and subject you to more humiliating things than in the outside world. But I guess this was good preparation for the big wide world of acting. We were passionate about it and imagined playing on stages all over the place.

I did hardly any acting at school and I don’t come from a theatrical family - my father invents medical equipment. But at Cambridge I felt certain from the start that my acting was something to be continued. I was one of the Saxon girls in the first student production of The Romans in Britain. It’s a very violent play and there was a terrible hoo-ha about it. The author, Howard Brenton, came to talk to us and Mary Whitehouse sent some people down to the ADC and tried to ban it.

I had a boyfriend right through my time at Cambridge, Ben Miller, who was at one time president of Footlights. I acted with him in Removal, a play by a friend of mine, David Farr, who’s now director of the Gate Theatre. It was a very bad play but it was more pleasant acting with Ben than with a complete stranger. My worst performance was as the bride in Lorca’s Blood Wedding: so bad that my parents suggested - only half joking - that I should think of some other profession.

In my second term, four of us started our own theatre company, Cambridge Talking Tongues. There was another actress, Sacha Hails; David Farr was the director and Rose Garnett the producer. We devised six or seven plays with improvisations, writing and performing. At the end, we didn’t have anything written down - it was all in our heads. David typed the results out for me as a birthday present. They weren’t great text; they were plays about energy and performance. But some of the pieces did have beauty. They were two-handers and we went through the entire gamut of what two people could do on stage. It sounds pretentious, but I’d call them comic-tragic-absurd, in the world of Ionesco. They were very fast - French clowning technique and 100 mph dialogue - and very physical. We ended up covered with bruises.

In Slight Possession, the last of the plays, the third character was a stepladder: we hurled each other off it. I’m very proud of Slight Possession. We devised it in Cambridge but didn’t put it on there; we took it to the Edinburgh Festival after Finals and won the Guardian Student Drama Award. We then did it at the Cottesloe in the National Theatre. It was somebody else’s set but that didn’t matter; all we had to do was climb on the stage and put up our stepladder.

For one of my new films, I Want You, the director, Michael Winterbottom, made us do a lot of improvisation like that. It’s rather a dark film, set in Hastings, about obsessive love. I also have lead parts this year in Land Girls - which is a wartime comedy - and Swept from the Sea, which is set in Cornwall and based on Conrad’s short story, ‘Amy Foster’.

I read English and loved it. There are lots of lawyers at Trinity Hall and law involves a great deal of hard work, so they thought we English students had a very lazy time, lying about and reading Wordsworth. Cambridge English had turned away from Leavis by then, of course; we were all into deconstruction. My tutor was Peter Holland, who is now director of the Shakespeare Centre at Stratford. I was taught by Adrian Poole at Trinity in my third year, and Tim Cribb at Churchill, a great guy, for practical criticism.

I loved supervisions. It’s the old cliche: a room with a crackling fire in which clever men and women argue with you - even if they agree - to test your powers of reasoning. People say academics live in an ivory tower. I say good for them!

At one time I was thinking of carrying on to do a doctorate. Undergraduate dissertations are a very good way of getting deeper into a subject. In my second year I did one on Katherine Mansfield, and in my third year I did two more: ‘Haunted fiction: the pursuit and flight of the self in Henry James’, and ‘The politics of space’, on women writers in the Deep South. I’ve still got them.

I managed a First for the dissertations and in my Finals was just two marks off a First: my papers were re-read, which is what they do if you’re borderline. But I got a Third on my Tragedy paper! It was nerves. I didn’t answer the question, just regurgitated an essay I’d written before. By the last paper, I realised what you had to do, even though it was the Novel paper and I’d read hardly any novels.

Just three weeks before Finals, an ex-Cambridge impresario who had seen a picture of me in the Evening Standard said he wanted me to be in his film about Chekhov. He wined me and dined me at his London club and introduced me to film directors. He then said: ‘You might have to leave college without taking Finals’. But I didn’t … and I don’t believe the film ever happened.

I had a place at drama school afterwards but at the last moment decided not to go. I started to get television jobs, which at the time seemed amazing but with hindsight were junk. I had been in full-time education since I was four. At twenty it was time to start work.

© The University of Cambridge Development Office

(Rachel comes onto the stage to aplause, receiving a kiss and handshake from David, and then takes her seat)

DL: Welcome to the program.

RW: Thank you for having me.

DL: Tell us, the baby is about 5 months old, is that what it is?

RW: He’s 5 months today.

DL: 5 months old, and how is that going with you?

RW: Im loving it.

DL: Yeah

RW: I’m loving it, he’s very cute, he’s a sweetheart.

DL: Were you excited or aprehensive before the child was born?

RW: I was, I dont think I was scared. I was a little aprehensive and excited.

DL: Right

RW: I think both, and I think I always swore that I’d be the kind of parent that wouldnt have all those plastic toys everywhree..

DL: Right

RW: I go to people’s houses and see all these plastic toys everywhere, and I think “I’m not going to do that.”…

DL: Right

RW: But 5 months later you cant really see the furniture…

DL: Yeah

RW: From all the plastic toys.

DL: Right

(David laughs along with audience)

RW: You know what I mean?

DL: Its amazing. I do understand exactly.

RW: Yeah.

DL: I went through the same thing and I said, “No. NO big, ugly plastic stuff.” and now the house is just a dump.

RW: Right.

(Audience and Rachel laugh)

DL: Yeah, and I dont care.

RW: I dont care at all!

DL: Yeah.

RW: There’s a tiny little spot for adults to put, sit themselves down on the sofa and thats about it. Theres the jimberee, and the bouncy seat…

DL: Right

RW: And then theres the uh, Stack and Play and now we’re getting the excerciser. It just, its endless. Endless. Its like a kids assault course, you know, in the sitting room.

DL: Now, when you won your Academy Award, how far along were you with the pregnancy? Like, 7 months?

RW: 7 months, yeah, yeah.

DL: So, wow talk abou an exciting moment. Maybe even more exciting, you have your first baby about to be born…

RW: Yeah

DL: And you recieve the Academy Award. What was the evening like for you?

RW: The evening was, well, when your pregnant you, well, you wont know this..

(Laughter)

RW: But you you need to, it makes you need to pee alot. I mean, you need to pee like every 5 or 10 minutes.

(Laughter)

RW: So I was kind of skidaddling out of there every commercial break.

DL: Yeah

RW: So, I missed alot of the actual show.

DL: I’m thinking now maybe I am pregnant. How’d you know?

(Rachel laughs with the audience)

RW: You know David, you’ve got the glow.

(David laughs)

RW: You’ve got that glow.

DL: I bet I do.

RW: You do.

DL: So, your running in and out of the auditorium.

RW: Yeah, running in and out. Um, the moment when my name was actually announced, I can only compare it, it was sort of alot like being underwater.

RW: “And the winner is Rachel Weisz” (Rachel speaks this in a slow-motion like gibberish) It’s such a surreal moment.

DL: Yeah

RW: And then, I went up there and I think, cause I’m British, the more nervous and terrified you get as a Brit, the politer you get.

DL: Oh, well thats not a bad thing to do.

RW: Its not bad except, I think I ended up sounding a bit like a dimplomat’s wife, you know? I felt myself saying, “Well my husband and I are very grateful for your hospitality” You know?

(David and audience laugh)

RW: “You’ve been such wonderful hosts, thank you so much.” and you know, inside I was going..

(Rachel makes a screaming notion, word not understood)

RW: You know, so its uh, its that funny thing that happens to Brits.

DL: Yeah, It’s pretty exciting though, honestly. The combo of the two events. So your married now? Your not married?

RW: Unmarried

DL: Your unmarried

RW: Yes

DL: But you’ll probably get, are you getting married?

RW: I’m engaged

DL: Oh, Congratulations

RW: Thank you

(David and audience clap for Rachel)

RW: No, we just havnt had, we havnt really had time.

DL: Tell me about it, I understand.

RW: Yeah right? Its hard to find a slot

DL: Yeah, when are you going to find the time?

RW: Yeah, to plan the time for a wedding, u know?

(Band Leader Speaks) “Theres no time.”

DL: I mean theres invitations and you’ve got to pick a place and some stuff, its impossible.

RW: Yeah I know, I feel exactly the same way.

DL: And why bother honestly?

RW: I uh, actually, yeah.

DL: And the, is this the kind of thing, I mean, soon you’ll be married, or not soon?

RW: Um, no, not soon, I dont think so, no.

DL: Okay, well dont worry about it

RW: It’s not on the cards at all I just…

DL: Do you feel any pressure to be married?

RW: I mean, some, but I just kind of ignored it I think. Yeah. Do you feel any?

DL: No

RW: No.

(Audience laughs)

DL: I mean, at one time, yes. But now, you know, what are they gonna do?

RW: Yeah

(Rachel, David and audience laugh)

DL: Uh, now, tell me about the film “The Fountain”, and from what I understand from the movie, it pertains to the Fountain of Youth, is that it?

RW: Search for the Fountain of Youth, exactly.

DL: This is really an epic event, it expands thousands of years.

RW: It does

DL: Yeah, but more interesting to me, or as interesting is, its directed by your husband.

RW: Fiance, yes.

DL: Oh, your, sorry, Fiance, yes.

RW: Still not married. (Laughs)

DL: Dont tell your husband

RW: No.

DL: Have you worked together in those relationships before?

RW: No, no I’ve never worked with..

DL: I think that would be scary.

RW: yeah, I mean, It was scary in a sense, but then, I think the best way to explain it is, that I met the director and he met the actress.

RW: I think the person you are at work, tell me if you agree, is a very different person as who you are when your up in the morning making eggs in the house, right?

DL: Yes, yes. I think thats probably true, yea.

RW: You know, so it was like meeting a whole different person and he’s so good at it and talented. I thought it was kind of sexy. You know women find talent very sexy.

DL: So, oh. Thats my problem.

(Rachel laughs hard along with audience)

DL: So you were impressed to see your husband in a direct…

RW: In action, yes. It was very impressive.

DL: But I would wonder, because, directing is such an all consuming thing, and being a star in a film. And then having the pressure of your Fiance directing.

DL: I mean, did you ever get a second away from this project? Or was it all just really pressurized?

RW: It was preessurized, but we were both very focussed on what we were doing. I was focused on my job and he was focussed.

RW: His job was bigger than mine because he was controlling, you know, sailing the whole ship. So we were both kind of focussing on our thing.

DL: And the film is getting tremendous acclaim at festivals I understand. Is that correct?

RW: Yes

DL: Alright, were going to show a clip here. Its from “The Fountain” and it opens November 22nd. Can you explain what we’re going to see in the clip Rachel?

RW: yes, its a love story. and my character is dying of Cancer and she’s writting a novel called “The Fountain” and she hasnt finished it.

RW: So she’s asking Hugh Jackman, her husband, if he would finish it, after she passes.

DL: Whats it like? Your with Hugh Jackman in the thing there, and your Fiance is watching you and Hugh Jackman. Now that must have been trouble.

RW: Well, you know, theres one…

(Rachel laughs)

RW: I hear you. Theres one love scene, as we call them in the movies, and I pull Hugh Jackman into the bath and then we start making love in the bath.

RW: And uh, in fact, Darren got annoyed because I didnt. We were kissing, Hugh and I, in the bath, starting to make love. And suddenly I heard Darren shout, “Take his pants off!”

RW: And he came up…

(Rachel stops and starts laughing with everyone)

RW: He came up to me afterwards, angry because I hadnt done what you would do with your husband, you know. So um, yeah.

DL: Peculiar isnt it?

RW: It is.

DL: Your husband yelling at you to take another mans pants off. I’m sorry, not your husband.

RW: My Fiance.

(They both laugh)

DL: It’ll change when your married. He wont be yelling at you to take his pants off then. Okay, so now, I’m sorry. Lets get back to the clip

RW: Yeah

DL: Here it is from “The Fountain”. Rachel Weisz

RW: Okay

(Shows new clip)

DL: Ooo. Very touching. It’s The Fountain. Congratulations on the Academy Award and more so for your baby boy.

RW: Thank you.

DL: Thats a lovely thing.

RW: Thank you

(Shakes hands)

DL: Thank you very much. Rachel Weisz ladies and gentleman.

The End

Typed up by Heather

On this week’s show Dave Spikey tells Michael about his former life as a bio-scientist and how hospital humour has influenced his work as a comedian. Rachel Weisz discusses the profound effect filming her latest film in an African township had on her. Finally Sir Paul McCartney joins in and with the use of a guitar explains the origins of Blackbird.

Michael: Let me now rave now for a moment or two about a film called The Constant Gardener. Adapted from the novel by John le Carre, it’s a thriller about the exploitation of poor people in Africa by drug companies. It’s also a love story about a quiet gentlemen played by Ralph Fiennes and his wife, a vigorous activist played by my next guest. Welcome please, Rachel Weisz..(Applause)

Michael: And I think the film is absolutely marvellous. I was a great fan of the book, I thought it was a very complex book, how on earth were you going to make sense of this but by god that Meirelles, the Brazilian director who did City Of God, it’s wonderful. You can be very proud of it, I guess you are?

Rachel: Very. Very proud of it. And the director who as you say is Brazilian, it’s his first English language film so it’s incredible.

Michael: And a very good part for you too isn’t it, that’s a good part.

Rachel: It’s a great part.

Michael: I mean you don’t often come across parts like that do you?

Rachel: No.

Michael: As an actor you must seize on something like that?

Rachel: Absolutely, no I really chased it actually, I went after it, I wrote lots of letters to the director. I was very passionate about getting it.

Michael: Why was that particularly?

Rachel: I think all my life I’ve been fascinated by people in the world who are activists, people who are willing to die for what they believe is right, you know people who are prepared to put themselves in harms way to support a cause and I’ve always wondered what makes these people tick, what makes them so special. And so that was the challenge, getting into the skin of someone who was like that and as you say it was a real responsibility because these people exist, they’re working all over the world.

Michael: What’s interesting too is the love story because you’re so used to seeing nowadays butch guys, the macho thing, what’s lovely about this relationship between you and Ralph Fiennes is that Ralph is a very quiet gentle man and it comes across, well, gentle quiet is sexy isn’t it?

Rachel: Yes, yes.

Michael: And you see here, in this scene, it’s the first time you meet, he’s gone along to do a lecture on behalf of another man, you’re in the audience.

Rachel: Goodness me, you’re showing this!

Michael: It’s a good scene. This is the first time you clap eyes on each other and that sexual chemistry, you can see it about to happen. Take a look at this.Clip from The Constant Gardener

Rachel: And as you said they end up in bed about two hours later.

Michael: You can clear a room though can’t you?

Rachel: That’s the other thing I liked about this character, you know she’s an activist and a do-gooder but she’s not an angel, as you can see she’s a right pain in the arse actually, you know she doesn’t know when to stop and that’s her problem, she goes too far.

Michael: That’s her tragedy.

Rachel: And that’s her tragedy but if she didn’t go that far she wouldn’t be who she is and she wouldn’t uncover the injustices she uncovers.

Michael: I mean what it’s about is the exploitation of black Africa by pharmaceutical companies and the shots in the townships are quite extraordinary. Now first of all tell me, I mean there you are a big film crew with Winnebagos, on-site catering, all that and you move in to the middle of a township where they have all this squalor, was that how it was?

Rachel: No it wasn’t, it would have been impossible to film in that way. This is the first time anyone has ever filmed in this slum, it’s called Kabira.

Michael: In Kenya.

Rachel: In Kenya, just outside Nairobi. Interestingly if you look at a map of Nairobi it’s not there, it’s just green painted in but there a million living there, it’s a huge community.

Michael: A million?

Rachel: A million, yeah close on a million. There are no streets, no street names, no running water, no sanitation, no electricity, I mean it’s extreme abject poverty and we didn’t move in with trailers, walkie-talkies, lights and crew, we filmed more like a documentary crew.

Michael: Going in to those townships and I’ve been in to them as well, I mean you can watch all the documentaries you like in the world, you can see all the movies, but nothing prepares you for what they’re really like does it, nothing at all.

Rachel: Nothing.

Michael: I mean you’re confronted by people living in abject poverty, the kind of which you can’t imagine, as I say.

Rachel: No, and I just rattled off no water, no sanitation but to actually live without any running water and without any sanitation so there are just open sewers in the middle of the street it’s unimaginable and as a consequence of that there’s a very high level of disease, so it was shocking and shameful and it’s a tragedy but I think what really affected us all so deeply was the spirit of these people who had less than nothing but are warm and generous and hospitable and open, we were just so moved by them.

Michael: And you were ashamed by it too.

Rachel: Very ashamed.

Michael: The children particularly, when you think of your own children, your grandchildren the way you spoil them and the amount they throw away and you see these kids and they’ve got less than nothing and they’re just happy kids.

Rachel: I know, they make footballs from plastic bags wrapped together with string tied round, they were kicking these home made balls around, or they’d take a button on the end of a piece of string and pull it around like they had a pet dog, but they’re such happy, open, curious children. There’s a scene in the film where the children in the slum come running up to me and say, ‘How are you? How are you?’ And that’s a moment of documentary, that’s just what happens, they’re very curious they want to touch you, you’ve got different hair because you’re white and they want to feel your hair and they’re gorgeous children.

Michael: It had a very profound effect on everybody working on it because you’ve now set up this Constant Gardener Trust there, which is doing good work there, you’ve got a five year scheme providing schools, education and sanitation but of course when you do something like that what you become aware of is the enormity of the problem, you can only touch a bit of it can’t you.

Rachel: Absolutely. The reason we did it is we were all very moved, deeply moved and ashamed but the thing is our feelings don’t really help anybody so it was the producer Simon Channing-Williams started The Constant Gardener Charitable Trust and as you say they are small things we are doing, you can’t change the world but one of the messages in the film for me is that even if you can only do one thing or help one person it’s better than nothing and I think often in life we feel, ‘Oh what can I do the world is so big and bad and evil and corrupt, I’ll just be a drop in the ocean.’ Well I think lots of drops make an ocean.

Michael: When I was in the township in Africa I met the Bishop whose diocese was two million people all living in this kind of area, in this kind of squalor. I asked him what his day was like and he said, ‘Let me tell you about my day. I get out of bed in the morning and if I actually thought what my job was I’d get straight back in to bed again!’ But going back on your life as an actress, I mean I read once you wanted to be a detective or a spy?

Rachel: I did, yes. For many, many years I didn’t want to be an actress at all, I wanted to be a spy.

Michael: How did you see yourself?

Rachel: Well I had lots of books, there was one simply called How To Be A Detective! (Laughs) I don’t know where I got it from and I used to learn all about codes, writing and sending secret codes and I don’t know why but I always thought I’d be in a raincoat and a hat. I wanted to be an international spy.

Michael: So there was no an urge from childhood to be an actress?

Rachel: No, it was definitely a spy. I suppose there are similarities.

Michael: Observing people.

Rachel: Observing people, I guess so.

Michael: And your next movie you’ve done with your partner?

Rachel: That’s right, yes, Darren Aronofsky who wrote and directed it, it’s called The Fountain and I star opposite Hugh Jackman and actually The Fountain, the title of it refers to the search for the fountain of youth and in many ways it’s about our society’s obsession with staying eternally young.

Michael: Now will you go back to Africa? Because the temptation is to be very moved by what you see and give money or whatever but not to physically to back and see, to pay the respect I suppose in a way, to see what your money has achieved, how your work has developed.

Rachel: Oh absolutely yes.

Michael: You are?

Rachel: Yes. We want to do a screening of the film in Nairobi and also in a very remote tribal area in the north and many of them have seen only a few films, there’s a company called Film Aid that goes up there and shows them a few films and I know that when they show this film because there’s a sex scene in it they have to cut that because it’s very disturbing to the communities to see a sex scene, they’re not used to it.

Michael: Is it, really?R: Yes, and I said what are you going to do with that and they said they were going to cut over it and put some bits of The Pink Panther! (Laughter) No, seriously because apparently The Pink Panther is a hot film up there, they love it.

Michael: That’s wonderful, so The Pink Panther appears for no reason at all.R: No reason but they don’t mind.

Michael: In the middle of a sex scene, you could be on to something big here you know! (Laughter) Anyway it’s a lovely film, very well done and I hope when the Academy Award comes round I’m sure it will get nominated and I hope you do well in that, Rachel Weisz thank you very much indeed. (Applause)

(Rach enters as audience applauds)

Conan: Thanks so much for coming.

Rachel: Well thank you for having me.

Conan: Your hair, is so short, is this for a role?

Rachel: Yeah, its all gone for a role, chopped it off.

Conan: Yeah, it’s very nice, very cool.

Rachel: Short

Conan: Yeah, very nice. Now I want to ask you a little bit about your personal life, that’s part of my job

Rachel: Okay, go ahead.

Conan: Now I know your not married, you’ve been on the dating scene, you know fairly recently, or not so recently. But you’ve been out there and you find that the US concept of dating is different than the British version. Is that true?

Rachel: Its very true. To begin with, in Britain, we don’t date. It doesn’t exist, the word, the concept.

Conan: What do you mean? There’s no such thing as I want to take you out for a date?

Rachel: No, we would never say that. A man might say to a woman or a woman might say to a man because its 2005

Conan: Right

Rachel: because we can ask men out too, um, ”Would you like to go out for dinner?”

Conan: Right

Rachel: Or go to the movies, but we would never say ”date” and so it would be very mysterious. It could be ” does this guy just want to be my friend?” or is he interested in being romantically involved. And you’d never quite know it’s just very mysterious.

Conan: So you could be married to someone for years (Rachel laughs) and never really understand what’s happening. I love that idea, yea.

Rachel: No, there comes a moment where they have the ”discussion”

Conan: Where someone can say we’ve been out to have uh,

Rachel: 5 meals

Conan: 5 meals

Rachel: 3 movies.

Conan: And I have considered this to be a romantic situation.

Rachel: Yeah

Conan: But that would be very awkward for the other person I think, wouldn’t it?

Rachel: Well it depends on how they feel, it might be a relief. They might say, ”I’m very glad you brought this up, I also feel this way about you and I’m glad that we’re now” we call it going out. You’re going out with somebody. (Laughs)

Conan: Right, right, so, it just seems very strange. But you could go out with somebody on the first date, and then so, nothing’s going to happen.

Rachel: Nothings going to happen, but then what seems strange to me, is that in America, it seems to me that you can date lots of people, all at the same time.

Conan: Oh yeah

Rachel: Yeah (audience laughs)

Conan: That’s the whole idea (laughs)

Rachel: (laughing)

Conan: USA! USA! Now uh ‘ (Audience cheers) No, but uh, one of our countries great inventions I believe.

Rachel: Its very interesting concept, because in England, it would be called ”two timing”.

Conan: Yeah, but here, you’ve screwed yourselves over because your saying you go out on these dates where you just like have, you know, I don’t know, like bangers and mash or whatever, and you, and there’s no talk of it being sexual at all, but then your not allowed to go and see anybody else either so.

Rachel: Well you don’t have to talk about it being sexual, you can just be sexual.

Conan: That is a HUGE risk. (Rachel and audience laugh) That’s a huge risk if your chatting with someone and they think just, you know like ”oh its my accountant, we’re just having a discussion” and he’s just like aarrhh (Conan makes funny face and grabs at air representing man after woman) you know, that’s, that’s scary I would think.

Rachel: Well you know, I think the mystery adds to the kind of ‘

Conan: Right

Rachel: Eroticism for English, uh, going out with each other system.

Conan: Sure, yeah it’s working for you guys.

Rachel: Yeah.

Conan: What kind of guys, if I’m not being, what kind of guy’s do you like? What’s your type? Do you have a type?

Rachel: Well I have been with one uh, guy for nearly 4 years

Conan: Right

Rachel: And I would say if he had a type, it would be um, a geek.

Conan: He’s a geek? (Audience laughs) Does he like it when you say, ”Oh, I like geeks like this guy” I mean does he look at you angrily over his comic book *says in funny voice* ”That wasn’t kind!”

Rachel: No, what he says over his comic book is, I’m not a geek, and I’m a nuvo dork.

Conan: Nuvo dork!

Rachel: Yes, Yes.

Conan: See, I wish there were cool distinctions like this ‘

Rachel: Yes.

Conan: When I was a geek.

Rachel: Yeah (laughs)

Conan: Before I became a jock. (Rach laughs harder) Ah, any who, so Nuvo Dork, that’s nice.

Rachel: He’s a nuvo dork. I like guys who aren’t ashamed to bring out their goofiness and silliness in front of large groups of people.

Conan: Right, right.

Rachel: So, I think ‘

Conan: I think it shows great ‘

Rachel: Strength of character..

Conan: Strength masculinity

Rachel: Absolutely! I think that what most people think of as ”Cool” like, men you know who sit around being ”cool” I don’t think that’s cool.

Conan: Right. I don’t think that’s cool.

Rachel: It’s not cool at all.

Conan: Its cool to act like a fool and a geek!

Rachel: I agree!

Conan: I agree too!

Rachel: It’s the new cool. It’s my cool.

Conan: I’m going to start doing that soon! I’m going to start acting foolish in front of people! (Laughs) So uh, well that’s nice. That’s good, I think that’s good for uh, there’s probably some nerds watching at home right now who think, ”that’s great, Rachel Weisz thinks..”

Rachel: He’s also a red head.

Conan: What do you mean also a red head? (Rachel and audience laugh)

Rachel: Oops!

Conan: We’re talking about dorks and geeks!

Rachel: I’m sorry!

Conan: You should say (makes funny face) ”And one thing he has in common with you, is your hair!”

Rachel: That’s the only thing ‘

Conan: (laughing) And he’s also a red head.

Rachel: Yes, sorry, excuse me, excuse me.

Conan: Well this segment’s over!

Rachel: His hair and his type..

Conan: Right

Rachel: You share ‘

Conan: Right

Rachel: But he’s not a jock like you.

Conan: (laughs) We’re going to edit this and only use that part. (Rach laughs) And repeat it ‘ yeah. Alright, I wanted to ask you quickly, and this is something the movie uh, Constantine, uh is, is out right now, and this is, this is kind of a different movie, there hasn’t been a movie quite like this ‘ do you want to describe it for us?

Conan: Cause its sort of, well you go ahead ‘ its using religious themes, but in sort of almost a private detective thriller way isn’t that right?

Rachel: Yes, it kind of has a noir tone, um and it is a thriller, but it’s also supernatural. But it is housed within these great big religious themes and ideas about Heaven and Hell and purgatory..

Conan: Right

Rachel: And um, yeah, its very exciting, and I think it is, it is unusual.

Conan: But you watch the movie and you think like, well this is sort of like the classic detective genre, but using these, which is I think a good idea, using these spiritual ‘

Rachel: Exactly

Conan: Theological ideas. We have a clip here, is there something you can tell us about it that sets it up?

Rachel: Um, well Keanu and I in this uh, noir, detective kind of way, are trying to investigate the uh, the demons that are trying to break through into Earth, and then suddenly, I get pulled through a building. (Laughs)

Conan: That old chestnut. Right.

Rachel: That old chestnut.

Conan: That again! All right, lets take a look at this clip from Constantine.

Rachel: By a demon.

(Shows the clip of Rachel getting pulled through the buildings, and audience applauds)

Conan: That’s good! Keanu reacts so quickly too! That’s ‘ not me, you know? I like how quickly Keanu Reeves reacts in that scene. Your pulled through a wall and he’s like, ”I better go after her!”

Rachel: Yeah, yeah, he’s not surprised in the least.

Conan: (mocking Keanu and his voice) I’d just be like, ”She was pulled through a wall! ‘ WOW!” and then hours later, ”Shouldn’t you go get Rachel Weisz?” (Mocks Keanu again) ”She was pulled through a wall!” (Conan laughs) That’s why I’m not in those films. (Rachel laughs) Constantine is in theaters now! Rachel Weisz, thanks so much for being here.

Rachel: Thank you Conan.

Credit: Nefertirievy

[They show a clip from Confidence]

Conan: Please welcome, Rachel Weisz!

Conan:You look amazing.

Rachel: Oh, thank you!

Conan: Nice to have you here.

Rachel: Nice to be here.

Conan: I have to ask you about that clip, because we were watching that clip today from the movie. It’s a very intence scene between you and Dustin Hoffman. And this clip was edited for television, I guess. I don’t know, but I heard that he really, when you were shooting for the movie put his hand right on your chest, is that right?

Rachel: That is correct.

Conan: And that was not in the script for Dustin Hoffman to do, he “improvised”. He improvised that little nugget, didn’t he?

Rachel: Yes.

Conan: Tell me about that!

Rachel: I have never work with him before, it was the first time. He doesn’t do anything like stick to the script, he improvises whole time. This was just one of his many improvisations, for putting his hand on my chest.

Conan: It’s a good story:”I was improvising!”

Rachel:Yeah, haha ha!

Conan: It’s Dustin Hoffman, so I’m thinking he’s had so much stature, he is such famous actor, so you have to go with the trust in that situation.

Rachel: Yes, yes. I think that when Dustin Hoffman touches your chests it’s art.

Conan: It’s art?

Rachel: Haha, yes it’s art.

Conan: So, if I did it I would be shot immediately?

Rachel: Yes, yes, yes.

Conan: So, I’m not gonna do it.

Rachel: No, no.

Conan: Right. Thank you. But I.. I…(the audience is laughing out loud). I thought I had a possibility… “I too am an artist!” No, but yeah, he is the exception.

Rachel: Yes. When I was about.. I think I must have been ten or eleven, my parents, who were very stright about what kind of movies I saw with like sexual context. When I was a teenager, they took me to see..mm, I think it was Don Giovanni, the Mozart opera that was made on the Film. And it was essentially porn. I mean, looking back on it now, it was just Don Giovanni fornicationg with tons and tons of women.

Conan: It was their represention, it sounds like a rage version from Don Giovanni?

Rachel: No, it’s true to Mozart, but they just showed like more stuff you would normally see in an opera.

Conan: So, people were naked up there?

Rachel: Yes, people were stark naked up there, having sex all over the place, and I was, you know eleven years old. And I remember saying to my parents after the show:”oh, that was a little shocking to me”. And they said:”No, no, it’s art.” You know, it was Mozart. It’s that weird thing that happens like art and porn to meet. You know what I mean? (she looks at Bob sitting right next to her)

Conan: Yeah Bob, help us out!

Bob: You know, I’m actually clueless.

Conan: Yeah it’s the…(the audience is laughing out loud)

Conan: (looks at Bob) Bob, why do you keep dragking this show to the gutter?!

Bob: I have no idea.

Conan: You keep holding us down to your level. No, you’re watching. It’s classical music to it, if there was *wakowakozakowako* (Conan makes funny noices) to it, it would be porn.

Rachel: Right, if you have 70’s bass-line, it would be porn.. Not that I’ve seen any of course.

Conan: No, I don’t think anyone of us have.

Rachel: Right, Bob? Har har har har!!! (she’s laughing out really loud)

Bob: Of course not, except perhaps as research.

Conan: Yes.

Rachel: For base-get-ball?

Bob: For base-get-ball. You have to understand your characters’ motiovations, that’s how I feel.

Conan: Exactly. And as a sports announcer watching porn helps you eventually.

Bob: In case of rain emergency.

Conan: Alright, now listen Bob, please! Rachel, I apologize. I didn’t want him to stay in here, but this is just how kind of filthy man he is.

Bob: I stay over here.

Conan: Yeah, you stay right there. Now, in this film you’re playig a pickpocket. You actually had to learn how to be pickpocket.

Rachel: I did, yeah.

Conan: Where do you learn to be a pickpocket, I would love to know?

Rachel: It’s a good guestion. Unfortunately I couldn’t meet any real pickpockets. They were not interested to come out of the woods to train me. I met a… he’s a magician in L.A. who had been studying pickpocketing. He said it is the ultimate passive-aggressive act, and the slang for it is “kissing the dog”.

Conan: Pickpockets call it “kissing the dog”? Why they call it kissing the dog?

Rachel: It’s like a poem, when you hear it. It’s hard to understand, but basically the idea is because you go up to your victim and it’s a very gently act. You steal from them very gently. You could be smiling at them and picking the pocket at same time. The idea, I guess, is that to kiss the dog in the mouth is unpleasant.

Conan: It’s not that bad. Overtime it gets better.

Rachel: (laughing out loud)

Conan: Bob, please!

Bob: I didn’t say a word!

Rachel: This guy, he’s a magician, he’ll go to corporate dinners and gets business men on to the stage. And he’ll say: “Dude I’m gonna get your watch, belt and wallet”. And they are like: “No, you’re not”. But he does, he did it to me, he managed to…

Conan: That’s amazing. I’m almost convinced that I could feel, if my wallet was leaving my pants, I would feel it. I’ve got a big wallet that have receipts from the late 80’s on it, you know. I’m almost convinced I could feel it, but I guess you don’t.

Rachel: No. It’s all about misleading them, by touching them some very else.

Conan: Rachel, that would work!

Rachel: Oh, I set myself in to that, didn’t I?

Bob: Dustin Hoffman got her wallet and necklace, but she didn’t know that.

Conan: Yeah, he took your home IN L.A. and everything.

Rachel: Dustin is amazing to work with. He really is. It’s electric to work with someone who improvises the whole time.

Conan: He’s famous for doing that too.

Rachel: Yeah, yeah.

Conan: Let me ask you, before you go. And I’m asking because Bob is here. I know that you’re going to your first baseball game ever tonight.

Rachel: Yes, I’m going to see the Yankees.

Conan: He is a world expert on baseball. Anything to ask from Bob before you go to the game?

Rachel: I actually understand the rules a little bit, because as far as I know, please correct me if I’m wrong, it’s based on english girls game rounders. What girls have been playing in England few hundred years.

Bob: Yes, It’s based on it.

Conan: No, no, no! Our national sportgame isn’t based on english girls game!!

Rachel: Bob?

Conan: No!

Bob: It has some of its roots in that.

Conan: Some of its roots. Get out, buddy! U S A, U S A!! Is it based on girls game?

Rachel: Yeah, we used to play it in school.

Conan: How many bases?

Rachel: Four. How many you have?

Bob: Four.

Conan: No, we have really three bases. I never count homebase.

Bob: Well, that’s why you never score.

(Conan gets really pissed off and is staring at Bob very meanly. The audience is laughing and Rachel looks sympathetic.)

(Rachel comes out)

C-” How are you?”

R- ” I”m well how are you?”

C- Its very nice to meet you. Youre a bombshell.”

R- (Gives face) Oh, well (laughs)

C- ” Yeah.”

R- ” Thank you, you”re a natural, you dont need any lessons what so ever?

C- ” No, not at all.”

R- ” We were watching you backstage, she is a natural bombshell, you are, look at her. (towards audience)

C- ” Tell America.”

R- ” She’’s a bombshell.”

C- Now, I have seen lots of your films, first one that I saw you in I think, was The Mummy and I was like Who is this gorgeous girl who gets to kiss Brendan Fraser all the time?”

R- (Gasps) Oh, I know.

C- ” So lucky”

R- ” I”m so lucky.”

C- “I love those movies.”

R- “Yeah, both were very fun.”

C- “I love those movies, I love that Oded Fehr, is that his name?”

R- ” Yes, that is his name.”

C- “Oh my god is he dreamy”?

R- “Yeah”

C- Oh, the evil, no he’’s the good guy?

R- He, he is good in the end, you dont know for a while and then yeah, he is good, he’’s a good guy.

C- Hes sexy, Um, so lets tell everybody, your from England originally?

R- Yeah, I”m from London, England.

C- Right, but you do an American accent perfectly.

R- I do um, yeah in these movies, I do, these new ones yeah, yeah.

C- You were great in Confidence.

R- Thank you.

C- Totally, youve got some really good Kharma, but, um so you live in between London and New York

R- (laughing) Good Kharma?

C- Yeah, youve got good film kissing Kharma, um so you weird concept. (laughs)

C- You”re in New York as well now?

R- Yeah

C- Do you like it?

R- I do, yea I love it, I love it yeah

C- Isnt it nice?

R- Its a great city.

C- What do you think, ooh, that reminds me, I forgot it in my purse but I brought you a crunchy bar from England.

R- Oh thank you. (laughs)

C- Sorry (laughs) Don you think England has better Chocolate?

R- Actually there are only two things about England I think are better, is the tea, and the chocolate, yeah.

C- Yeah

R- Everything else in America is far better.

( Audience cheers)

R- America! (laughs)

C- What do you find are the biggest differences in people?

R- Um, well, I would say, like in England, everybody pretends to be very very humble, like if your ambitious, you have to pretend your not, kind of like you know when youre in school and youre maybe revising for an exam, you have to pretend like “Oh I know I can do any work”, its like its not cool to be working hard.

C- But I always never did any, but anyway

R- But when youre, when your growing up in England, its like that you, you have to pretend I”m..

C- (says in accent) Oh, no, no, I”ll never be anything

R- Yeah, yeah, “I dont care at all, I”m bumbling along, I dont really care”, you cant be ambitious its very..

C- But America, its like I”m going for it, right?

R- Totally, yeah, people aplaud that, which is, that is the American dream, which is a good thing, I like that.

C- Yeah.

R- The other big difference is dating, we dont do dating.

C- You dont?

R- No, it doesnt exist.

C- You just marry?

R- (laughs) We kiss, we marry, and that it, no no, its just the concept doesnt exist.

C- Of dating?

R- No, we dont date, it doesnt happen, we go out with someone, like what I figured out dating means, it means that you can like see tons of people all the same time, its like a really.. C- crunchy bar from England.

C- Yeah, so you just date the one person huh?

R- Yeah you do.

C- But what now your in America, you can date-date.

R- I could try, it would be very confusing, I dont understand how you can do more than one at the same time.

C- I never dated more than one person in my entire life.

(Commercials) C- Were back with Rachel Weisz, British girl, becoming big American movie star. Um, youre new film Confidence, you were lucky you got Ed Burns, Andy Garcia, and Dustin Hoffman.

R- I know, what more could a girl ask for? (laughs)

C- And that s pretty good because you and Dustin Hoffman have incredible chemistry, even though your sort of on opposite sides.

R- Yeah, it was just, yeah chemistry is just something that happens, you can”t really plan it or design it, and we have this kind of weird scene, where he sort of seduces me, and he has his hand on my breast, and its just all dark and weird and the air just goes zing and the thing is about Dustin, is that he improvises, that s why he’’s such a great actor cause he doesn”t stick to his script, so, he’’s saying stuff and your going “Oh my god, you just Oh” you get completely thrown

C- You can see that you were completely thrown, is that the clip we have?

(Shows clip, but its not that one)

C- Oh, so sexy! So you”re the only woman in this whole film?

R- Yeah

C- And whats it like being around all those guys?

R- Well, it was, I like men so it was fine, but the thing that happened, after about two weeks they kind of forgot that I was a girl, and they started to hang out as if there were only guys there, so I found out how men behave, when women arnt around. (smiles)

C- Disgusting?

R- Its disgusting. (Big laugh) Its their language, is like people say you know women have foul mouths, we don”t talk as dirty as guys do.

C- No, really?

R- No, I don”t think so. People say you know women have foul mouths, we dont don”t talk as dirty as guys do.

C- No, really?

R- No, I Idont don”t think so.

C- Isn”t that depressing! Its like you.. Oh, look at youre beautiful earings (reaches over and touches them)

R- Thank you

C- Um, ok, now tell us about your other film, The Shape Of Thngs, adorable Paul Rudd

R- Aw, isn” t he so gorgeous? Yeah

C- You play sort of, how would you describe her?

R- I play, shes a kind of, punky graduate art student and she falls in love with Paul Rudd, who’’s this kind of slumpy, fat guy and she gives him a makeover

C- Right

R- Um..

C- It is aweful when your dating someone and you look at them and youre just like “Oh what I”m going to do with you”.

R- That” s what this movie is about, how couples try to change each other in relationships.

C- And they do and they go too far.

R- Yeah

C- Um ok, your going to really think I”m insane, but when I found our that your name was, because of they way its spelled Rachel Weisz, I though it was Rachel Weisz.

R- Yeah R- Yeah, its pronounced like that

C- So, I kept on thinking like Adal Vice

R- ( Smiles and gets cute voice) Yeah

C- (Sings) “Rachel Weisz” So, um your going to think I”m insane, but we wrote you a song. ( laughs)

( Rachel looks at band surprised)

C- You have to listen very carefully ok?

R- Yeah (turns towards band)

Song: Rachel Weisz, Rachel Weisz, we”re so happy to greet you, dark and svelt, you could melt, any mummy who”d meet you. The men weve seen kissing you on screen, that you grant his major, and Miss Weisz, theres no price, on making out with Brendan Fraser.

( Rachel and Caroline are laughing throughout song)

R- (Applauding) Thank you, Thank you. They used to sing that years

C- When you were little?

R- When I was really little.

(Goes to commercial)

C- I want to thank my guest, Bill Bedomy, and Rachel Weisz, and go see Confidence!

Credit: Nefertirievy

David: Great Pleasure to meet you.

Rachel: It’s a great pleasure to be here.

David: I did not see the ”Mummy” movies, but I loved you in ”Runaway Jury” I thought that was a tremendous casting, a great cast, Gene Hackman, yourself, Dustin Hoffman and John Cusack.

Rachel: I know, an honor to work with those guys.

David: Where did you make that movie?

Rachel: New Orleans.

David: Oh that’s right.

Rachel: Yeah

David: Was it fun?

Rachel: Incredible city, yeah I really, really loved it there.

David: And where did you make the ”Mummy” movies?

Rachel: ”The Mummy” ah, the first one we made in Morocco and England, and the second one we made all in England, they made kind of a jungle in England to look like Morocco.

David: The problem with mummies is what?

Rachel: Uh, (laughs) the problem with mummies is they wont just die..

David: That’s right.

Rachel: They just, they keep coming back to life and chasing girls mainly, they like to chase girls.

David: Uh, and you yourself are from…you live in London is that right?

Rachel: No, I moved here…

David: Moved here? Right.

Rachel: I moved here 3 years ago. Here being, yeah New York City.

David: You live right in the city?

Rachel: Right in the city, yeah. (Audience applauds)

David: Have you uh, have you had a chance to go up to Central Park and see the uh, the Gates thing?

Rachel: I wish I could have, I’m working in Montreal, and I’m actually here for just tonight..

David: Oh thank you very much

Rachel: To come see you, yeah. Just to see you. Have you seen the Cristo show?

David: Uh no, I have not seen it.

Rachel: Oh, I’m dying to see it. It sounds beautiful. But I do love to go and see art shows in New York. The last time I was here I saw a show that Timothy Greenfield Sanders did, he’s a photographer and he did this incredible exhibition, very beautiful, classical portraits. Huge portraits actually of adult film stars, I think is the, uh, proper way…

David: Yeah

Rachel: To…describe it. Yes, and (audience laughs) yes and so he did one picture of them in their street clothes in a certain pose, like that (demonstrates) and then he did a matching picture of that of them naked without their clothes on, you know, standing like that. And I actually went to the opening night exhibition party and I got to meet all the adult film stars.

David: They are the ones featured in all the portraits.

Rachel: All the ones featured in the portraits were there and I’ve never actually met any, any adult film stars before.

David: Yeah, nor have I.

Rachel: Yeah, (laughs with audience)

David: And how did that seem?

Rachel: Well you know, it was really fascinating. I think I, I think I ended asking them the same questions that people ask me. You know ”What do your parents think about what you do?” and they were really interesting about it. And I met in fact, a couple, two men, uh, gay adult film stars and they met on a job. And um (audience laughs and she joins) Yeah

David: That’s nice, they met at work.

Rachel: Yeah, they met at work, and they work sometimes with other people, but they prefer to work with each other.

David: Sure, I can understand that. (Audience and Rachel laugh)

Rachel: And then I went back to Montreal, and I’m renting an apartment there, from a man who’s, uh, a gay landlord.

David: Mmhm.

Rachel: And um, I asked for cable, and so I’m flipping through the channels of cable, and he’s getting uh, lots of ah, gay adult..

David: Yeah, I see

Rachel: Adult films on his thing

David: Right

Rachel: So I actually ended up seeing the work of the people that I’ve met. (Audience and Rachel laugh)

David: Wow!

Rachel: Yeah, it’s a small, small, small world.

David: Yeah, it certainly is. (Rachel laughs) And were you impressed with the work?

Rachel: Well, it was beyond my wildest dreams David, yes. (David laughs) Like nothing I’ve ever seen before.

David: That’s an interesting idea though for an art exhibition I guess, with the portraits.

Rachel: Yes, a very classical treatment, on a less classical subject.

David: Were there women there also?

Rachel: Yes.

David: And what were the women like when you talked to them?

Rachel: They were, they were very, very sweet, and they were talking about um, acting. I was talking about the fact to them that I have to reveal my emotions..

David: Right

Rachel: As an actress and they were telling me about how they have to reveal their bodies and (David laughs) you know. We’re both, faking it you know? (David and audience laugh) I must tell you that all my girlfriends are so jealous that I’m getting to be on the show tonight and that I’m sitting here next to you.

David: Really?

Rachel: (laughs) yeah. My friend Tina has got the biggest crush on you.

David: Well I’m terribly flattered. (Looks at audience and waves) Tina. (Rachel and audience laugh). Ah, so you said you’ve been in New York City for 3 years, is that what you said?

Rachel: 3 years, yes.

David: Have you had the chance to see other parts of the country? You did the film in New Orleans. Have you been able to drive around at all, on road trips? That kind of thing.

Rachel: Yeah, well actually, I’ve been to New Orleans before. Once on a road trip, before, this was before I lived in America, with my girlfriend Mel. And we drove, we started in New Orleans, and we drove all the way to New York.

David: Wow

Rachel: And we had the greatest time. Memphis, I think, was my favorite place. I got to go to Grace land.

David: Yeah

Rachel: It was just spectacular.

David: What were your impressions of Grace land?

Rachel: Ah, it was kitschier than I could ever have imagined. You know that great big leopard skin bed. And the uh, tour guide was very uh, was quite comical actually. But the house is beautiful. I’m a huge, huge Elvis fan.

David: Yeah, were there many people there when you were there?

Rachel: No, there weren’t. On the tour we went on, it was just me, Mel and one other person. I think it was low season.

David: Mhmm.

Rachel: Yeah. (Laughs)

David: Low Elvis season.

Rachel: Yeah, We went to, in fact, Dolly…it must have been a holiday because we went to Dollywood and it was closed.

David: (laughing)

Rachel: Oh, and you know what else David? We went to um, we saw, we saw Al Green.

David: Oh, Al Green?

Rachel: We saw him preach in his church.

David: He’s a tremendous singer, Al Green.

Rachel: The most charismatic.

David: And this was like, on a weeknight? You go to his church? What day was it?

Rachel: No, it was Sunday.

David: Oh it was Sunday. So, Sunday morning service

Rachel: Sunday morning service.

David: Oh that must have been a wonderful experience.

Rachel: Ohh it was incredible. I don’t know if you, have you been to his church?

David: No

Rachel: It’s not a big, fancy church. It’s a very simple little church with a tin roof. I mean so un ‘’show biz”.

David: Yeah.

Rachel: Yeah, and uh I went with my girlfriend Mel and we sat in the back. We weren’t obviously part of the congregation, so we were sitting quite meekly at the back.

David: Mhm.

Rachel: And Al Green was singing and preaching and it was so beautiful and then he said, he said something about you know ”Hands up everybody who wants something from the lord.” And you know the whole congregation put their hands up. We didn’t, because you know we didn’t feel part of the congregation and he said, ”What you two girls in the back, you don’t want nothing from the lord?” and we were like, ”Oh no, yeah sorry, we do, we do!” (David laughs with audience) Yeah. Al Green, he spoke to us.

David: That’s a great experience.

Rachel: It’s a great experience.

David: Now uh, if a person was to come to your country and do something comparable, would they find anything similar like that? I mean.

Rachel: Like, Al Green?

David: Like, Al Green or Elvis Presley’s birthplace? Well not his birthplace but his home?

Rachel: No, I’m trying to think of icons. Ah, you can visit Lady Di’s grave. Its actually been closed, cause I think the fountain’s flooded or something awful like that. No we don’t have anything.

David: Well I guess if you go to Liverpool there were the Beatles.

Rachel: Yeah, the Beatles the Hacienda night club, yeah. (Audience applauds) Do, do you know why Al Green turned back to God and stopped being an entertainer?

David: Well, uh, Paul do you know about him?

Paul: Well is it a riddle? Do you know why?

Rachel: Well someone told me a really odd story about somebody throwing hot grits on him in a pub.

Paul: Yes, Felecia said she’s heard the same story.

Rachel: Huh, it doesn’t make sense.

Paul: Yeah, what is it? Hot grits? Yeah that’s all I could get out of her.

David: Well he had misbehaved, and I believe his wife or girlfriend, maybe both. (Rachel and audience laugh) Uh cooking the hot grits and saying ”Here Al, take this” then Al saw the lord.

Rachel: Yeah, I see now, yeah, yeah it makes sense now.

David: Now, what kind of things, I know your terribly busy with the film work, what do you do, uh, just regularly for fun without traveling or that kind of thing, here in the city?

Rachel: Here in the city? Um, I’ve been taking some lessons.

David: What kind of lessons?

Rachel: Ah, I took some cooking lessons, actually just one so far.

David: And what did you learn to cook in one lesson?

Rachel: I learnt to cook Miso soup. It was a couple called Lee and Dee and they actually came to my house and taught me.

David: Lee and Dee?

Rachel: Lee and Dee.

David: And they came and told you how to make Miso soup?

Rachel: Miso soup and Salmon and uh, Squash. I feel so ashamed that I don’t know how to cook. I can make omelets and chicken already.

David: Well that’s it, that’s enough.

Rachel: Its not enough, I feel, I’m ashamed.

David: Well you have the soup now. The Miso…what is Miso?

Rachel: It’s a paste made of soybeans and chick pees and you grind it in a Sire Bachi, which is a Japanese pastel and mortar.

David: Yeah

Rachel: Yeah

David: Did it turn out nice?

Rachel: I beg your pardon?

David: I said did it turn out nice?

Rachel: It did. It turned out very well. Yeah so, cooking lessons, um, some singing lessons.

David: Singing lessons, good.

Rachel: Yeah, cause I sing you know, in the bath like anybody else, but I’m not that good, so I thought I’d learn to sing properly.

David: This movie, it uh, and I mean this in the most positive sense of the word, its certainly creepy, isn’t it?

Rachel: Its creepy. Demons, Demons, Demons.

David: And you just think everything’s fine and then all of a sudden. Like in the beginning, they got this wacky deal that this young demon hops right out of a thing and goes into a mirror, and its just berserk!

Rachel: Yeah

David: Yeah and then, just hang on because that’s just the beginning.

Rachel: Yeah, there’s no controlling those demons.

David: No.

Rachel: Keanu has a go. They are, they are wild.

David: Yeah, that’s right and they seem to get bigger and nastier.

Rachel: They do.

David: And in this film, you play twins.

Rachel: Yeah I do, yeah, that’s partly why I wanted to be in the movie. I’ve always wanted to play twins.

David: And what does that do as an actress, do twins act differently enough to be a challenge? Or do they act the same?

Rachel: Um, you know, one had really long hair and one had short hair. (Rachel and David laugh) They weren’t too different. Their situation’s a little bit different, but. Yeah.

David: All right now lets take a look at the clip here. Now tell people what we’re going to see. Is the movie maybe a little bit too creepy? Or is it just creepy enough?

Rachel: I don’t think anything can be too creepy.

David: Oh yeah? You ought to come over to my house. (Rachel laughs) All right, so it is creepy but in a good way, and uh, but people like to be creeped out in a film don’t you think?

Rachel: I think people enjoy it. You know, people pay to be scared.

David: Yeah that’s right.

Rachel: Yeah.

David: So the scene we’re going to see here now..

Rachel: Um, it’s a moment where I’m trying to figure out all the shenanigans and I actually get pulled through uh, a building a huge office box by a huge demon.

David: A demon.

Rachel: Yeah, a demon grabbed me.

(Shows the clip)

David: (Audience applauds) Wow you see! Exactly what I was talking about. You look lovely in the movie.

Rachel: Thank you.

David: You have great hair.

Rachel: Thank you!

David: Great pleasure to meet you!

Rachel: Pleasure to meet you!

David: Continue to enjoy yourself and great success.

Rachel: Thank you!

David: Rachel Weisz ladies and gentlemen.

Credit: Nefertirievy