Rachel Weisz

Rachel Weisz
Rachelweisz.jpg
Rachel Weisz, 2006
Born Rachel Hannah Weisz
7 March 1970 (aged 38)
London, England
Years active 1993–present

Rachel Hannah Weisz (pronounced /ˈreɪtʃəl ˈvaɪs/ "vice") (born 7 March 1970[1]) is an Academy Award-winning English actress.[2] She gained wide public recognition after her portrayal of Evelyn "Evy" Carnahan-O'Connell in the Hollywood films The Mummy and The Mummy Returns. In 2001, 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 (2006) won her the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, along with other major motion picture awards.

Contents

Early life

Weisz was born in Westminster, England, and grew up in the Hampstead Garden Suburb.[3] Her mother, Edith Ruth (née Teich), is a Vienna-born Austrian teacher turned psychotherapist.[4] Her father, George Weisz, is a Hungarian-born inventor whose family fled to England to escape Nazi persecution. Weisz's father is Ashkenazi Jewish and her mother has been referred to as either Catholic,[5] Jewish,[6][7] having Jewish ancestry,[8] and being of part Italian descent.[9] Weisz was raised in a cerebral Jewish household[10] and refers to herself as Jewish.[11][12] Weisz has a sister, Minnie Weisz, who is an artist.

Weisz was educated at North London Collegiate School. She was then sent to Benenden School and eventually settled 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

Screen

Having already worked for television, with 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. Although she received favourable critical recognition for her work to this point, her breakout into wide audience recognition came from a popular serio-comic 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 higher than the original, and About a Boy (2002) with Hugh Grant. Since then, her other film work has included 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. For this performance, Weisz won the 2006 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress,[13] 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 recognised 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.

The same year, she starred in The Fountain and also provided the voice for Saphira in the much-criticized film Eragon. Her 2008 films include the Wong Kar-wai-directed drama My Blueberry Nights (in which she played an "anti-Southern belle")[13] and director Rian Johnson's upcoming The Brothers Bloom, in which she plays a wealthy American woman targeted by two con man brothers (Adrien Brody, Mark Ruffalo).[13] She will also play the lead in the multi-million motion picture Agora, which is currently set to be released in 2009.

Stage

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. Her other 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) at its, then, temporary location in London's Kings Cross. In 2009 she will play Blanche du Bois in a Donmar revival of A Streecar Named Desire[14].

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 is engaged to American film-maker Darren Aronofsky. They have been dating since 2002. They have a son, Henry Chance, born on 31 May 2006 in New York City.[15][16] The couple reside in the East Village in Manhattan. They are considering getting married in a traditional wedding ceremony at the oldest synagogue in New York.[10]

Filmography

Year Film Role Other notes
1995 Death Machine Junior Executive
1996 Chain Reaction Dr. Lily Sinclair
Stealing Beauty Miranda Fox
1997 Bent Prostitute
Going All the Way Marty Pilcher
1997 Swept from the Sea Amy Foster
I Want You Helen
1998 The Land Girls Ag (Agapanthus)
1999 The Mummy Evelyn "Evy" Carnahan
Sunshine Greta
2000 Beautiful Creatures Petula
This Is Not an Exit: The Fictional World of Bret Easton Ellis Lauren Hynde
2001 Enemy at the Gates Tania Chernova
The Mummy Returns Evelyn Carnahan O'Connell/Princess Nefertiri
2002 About a Boy Rachel
2003 Confidence Lily
The Shape of Things Evelyn Ann Thompson
Runaway Jury Marlee
2004 Envy Debbie Dingman
2005 Constantine Angela Dodson/Isabel Dodson
The Constant Gardener Tessa Quayle
2006 The Fountain Izzi
Eragon Saphira (voice)
2007 Fred Claus Wanda
My Blueberry Nights Sue Lynn
2008 Definitely, Maybe Summer Hartley
The Brothers Bloom Penelope awaiting release
2009 The Lovely Bones Abigail Salmon post-production
Agora Hypatia post-production
Dirt Music Georgie Jutland pre-production
2010 Sin City 2 Ava Lord pre-production

Awards and Honours

Weisz gained numerous honours for her work in The Constant Gardner, 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.[17] Weisz also received the BAFTA LA British Artist of the Year award in 2006.

References

  1. ↑ There are conflicting sources for the year of Weisz' birth. The British Film Institute and others give 1970 BFI | Film & TV Database | WEISZ, Rachel; a Guardian article gives 1971. Her birth was registered in March quarter of 1970 in Westminster
  2. ↑ IndieLondon: Definitely Maybe - Rachel Weisz interview - Your London Reviews
  3. ↑ Aslet, Clive. Design for living, The Daily Telegraph, 14 April 2007. Accessed 6 May 2008.
  4. ↑ Rachel Weisz biography
  5. ↑ Lane, Harriet (1999-06-13). "Toast of the tomb", Guardian Unlimited. Retrieved on 2007-05-23. 
  6. ↑ Goodridge, Mike (2006-11-16). "The virtues of Weisz", ThisIsLondon. Retrieved on 2007-05-23. 
  7. ↑ Vulliamy, Ed (2006-02-03). "The Guardian profile: Rachel Weisz", Guardian Unlimited. Retrieved on 2007-05-23. 
  8. ↑ Hiller, Jordan (5/03). "What’s Movies that bang - The Shape of Things (2003)", Bang It Out. Retrieved on 2007-05-23. 
  9. ↑ http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P1-43680041.html
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 Joseph, Claudia. Rachel's Weisz guy. 5 June 2005.
  11. ↑ Forrest, Emma (2001). "Rachel Weisz", Index Magazine. Retrieved on 2007-05-23. 
  12. ↑ Brooks, Xan (2001-01-09). "Girl behaving sensibly", Guardian Unlimited. Retrieved on 2007-05-23. 
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 Wise, Damon (2007-05-24). "What’s Wong with this picture?", Times Online. Retrieved on 2007-05-23. 
  14. ↑ http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1092107/BAZ-BAMIGBOYE-Rachel-Weisz-Kate-Winslet-Judi-Dench-more.html
  15. ↑ "Oscar winner Rachel Weisz has baby boy", USA Today (2006-06-01). Retrieved on 2007-05-23. 
  16. ↑ Silverman, Stephen M. Rachel Weisz Has a Boy. People.com. 1 June 2006.
  17. ↑ Academy Invites 120 to Membership. Oscars.org. 5 July 2005.

External links

Awards and achievements
Preceded by
Cate Blanchett
for The Aviator		 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress
2005
for The Constant Gardener		 Succeeded by
Jennifer Hudson
for Dreamgirls
Preceded by
Natalie Portman
for Closer		 Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress - Motion Picture
2005
for The Constant Gardener		 Succeeded by
Jennifer Hudson
for Dreamgirls
Preceded by
Cate Blanchett
for The Aviator		 Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Supporting Actress - Motion Picture
2005
for The Constant Gardener		 Succeeded by
Jennifer Hudson
for Dreamgirls
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress

Jennifer Connelly (2001) · Catherine Zeta-Jones (2002) · Renée Zellweger (2003) · Cate Blanchett (2004) · Rachel Weisz (2005) · Jennifer Hudson (2006) · Tilda Swinton (2007)

 · (1928–1940) ·  · (1961–1980) · (1981–2000) · (2001-present)
Persondata
NAME Weisz, Rachel
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Campbell, Kenya
SHORT DESCRIPTION English actress
DATE OF BIRTH March 7, 1971
PLACE OF BIRTH London, England
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH