Rachel Weisz is the star of Agora!

By Marlow Stern

With her distinctive Eastern European looks and Cambridge education, Weisz is far from your typical Hollywood siren, and her stardom was anything but sudden.

It all began with “Chain Reaction,” a 1996 film where Keanu Reeves speeds away from a nuclear explosion on a motorbike. Weisz played a physicist who helps Reeves’ lab technician publicize the invention of bubble fusion using sonoluminescence – the emission of short bursts of light from imploding bubbles in a liquid when excited by sound – despite the U.S. government’s attempts to prevent the spread of this technology. Yes, it’s as ridiculous as it sounds.

After starring in a series of so/so art films – Bertolucci’s “Stealing Beauty,” “Swept By the Sea,” etc., Weisz got her big break appearing as a clumsy, brash Egyptologist in the garish 1999 blockbuster “The Mummy.” This opportunity led to more fascinating roles – opposite Ralph Fiennes in 1999’s “Sunshine” and alongside Hugh Grant in the 2002 coming-of-age comedy “About a Boy.” That same year Weisz met her current fiancé, the acclaimed film director Darren Aronofsky. And three years later, in 2005, Weisz reached the summit, winning the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role as humanitarian martyr Tessa Quayle in Fernando Meirelles’s African-set conspiracy film, “The Constant Gardener.” In 2006, Weisz was given another gift – son Henry Chance, with her partner Aronofsky. The couple currently reside in Manhattan’s East Village.

Weisz’s career has been a mixed bag, yo-yoing between schlocky Hollywood films – “Constantine,” “Fred Claus” – and interesting, smaller fare like “The Fountain,” directed by Aronofsky, and Neil LaBute’s underrated “The Shape of Things,” with Paul Rudd. And then there’s the occasional head-scratcher: remember the disastrous 2004 comedy flick “Envy,” with Ben Stiller and Jack Black? Neither do I.

Despite her odd choices, Weisz remains a courageous, talented actress who almost always delivers the goods. And, over a decade later, Weisz is back in ancient Egypt in the historical drama AGORA. Directed by Alejandro Amenábar (“The Sea Inside”), it tells the story of Hypathia (Weisz), a female philosopher in Roman Egypt who is wooed by her pupil, Orestes (Oscar Isaac), but falls in love with a slave, Davus (Max Minghella). Soon, however, she finds her atheist beliefs clashing with the rising tide of Christianity.

MMM sat down with Rachel Weisz to chat about the making of Agora, the film’s relevance to the religious conflicts of today, her upcoming Jackie O. biopic with partner Darren Aronofsky and so much more.

[Weisz arrives 15 minutes late]

RACHEL WEISZ: So sorry I’m late!

MANHATTAN MOVIE MAGAZINE: Oh, it’s fine. But I’ve always been curious: how do you correctly pronounce your name?

WEISZ: With a ‘v.’ Opposite of ‘virtue.’ ‘Vice.’

MMM: Ah, I see. So, how difficult is it for an actress of your stature to find intelligent roles in intelligent films?

WEISZ: [Laughs] Um… This is a kind of unusually… Yeah, I do a lot of reading. I think that’s the simplest way to answer it. You have to read lots and lots of things, and there might be a script that’s intelligent and doesn’t grab you. It has to grab you. This one grabbed me. It had to do a lot with who was directing it, the fact that it was a true story and it just seemed very challenging. I like things that are very challenging, difficult and scary. It’s more fun than doing things in your comfort zone. I’m REALLY bad at science, I should say. Like, really bad. I failed all my exams – we call them O-levels in England when you’re 16. I failed math, physics, chemistry, biology, so it was a struggle here to actually sound like I know what I’m talking about!

MMM: Did you struggle to wrap your head around the concepts you were trying to put across in the film?

WEISZ: I mean, basically, the only thing I had to figure out was that the earth moved around the sun and vice-versa, and it doesn’t move in a circle, it moves in an ellipse. It took me a long time to figure out what an ellipse was, but it’s basically a circle without a center… or it has two centers… Well, anyway! [Laughs]

MMM: Sacha Baron Cohen turned down a role in “Agora” because he thought the subject matter was “too prickly,” so what attracted you to such divisive subject matter?

WEISZ: He said prickly?

MMM: Yeah.

WEISZ: I think it was to do with religious reasons, mainly. Well, what interested me when I first read it was I felt it was a movie about today. It’s a contemporary movie, even though it’s set in the fourth century. What’s changed? We’ve got antibiotics, we can go to the moon and we have cars, but we’re still killing people in the name of religion. Fundamentalism still exists. Islamic fundamentalists are probably a more violent force than Christian fundamentalists, but back then it was Christian fundamentalists. In the Middle East, women aren’t allowed to be educated. In America, there are issues with teaching Darwinian evolutionary theory, so science versus Christian fundamentalism exists right now in America. What struck me was, “Whoa! This is so contemporary!” There are basic things that haven’t changed that we haven’t figured out.

MMM: But is it a divisive film?

WEISZ: I don’t think it’s an anti-Christian movie. I think it’s anti-fundamentalism. It shows some really beautiful aspects of Christianity – the idea of charity, feeding the poor, “blessed are the meek for they will inherit the earth.” The pagans were all enlightened but they thought it was cool to have slaves. That’s messed up. Christianity came along and you can see why it caught on. It’s a brilliant idea – everyone’s equal and we’re all god’s children. It happens to show a moment in history – which is true – where Christians aren’t just preaching but they’re a part of a militia. It was a time of violence.

MMM: You’re playing an ancient historical figure and there’s limited information about her. What surprised you the most about playing this character?

WEISZ: There is some source material but it’s pretty hard going to read. There are letters between herself and Orestes. I read some letters and I read – “The Chronicles,” is what it’s called. It didn’t help me find the characters. We know that she was a virgin; we know that she was killed by Christian fundamentalists; we know that she had pagans and Christians in her class, so she was tolerant of both; she was born a pagan but she didn’t really practice; we know her father ran the library and she edited Ptolemy’s texts with him. I’m not an academic. I’m an actor. My job was to make her flesh and blood. The way I got into it – because I was scared of all the science – was, I’m really passionate about my job, acting. So, if I could have the same passion for the stars as I do for acting, maybe she’ll be a warm, alive person.

MMM: The film was shot in Malta but did you get a chance to actually go to Alexandria?

WEISZ: No. Didn’t need to. They build it in Malta!

MMM: You also starred in “The Mummy.” Did making that film spark an interest in the place or period?

WEISZ: It’s funny. As an actor, you deeply immerse yourself in something and you know a lot about it, but your brain only has so much storage that you’re just onto the next and you dump out the last thing. So, it’s really interesting to dip into things. We had a historical advisor on the film called Justin Pollard and he wrote a book about what it was like to live in Alexandria at the time that was very vivid [“The Rise and Fall of Alexandria: Birthplace of the Modern World”], so I studied that. But I’ve never been to Alexandria, or Egypt.

MMM: This is a $73 million production starring an Oscar-winning actress and directed by an Oscar-winning filmmaker. It had trouble finding distribution out of Cannes despite all of these elements and the fact it was well-received at the fest. What do you think that says about the current state of the industry?

WEISZ: Right now, to even get a drama made for under $20 million starring a woman is extremely hard. Extremely hard. It’s because of the budget and it’s drama. Drama has become a dirty word now in the film industry. They’re almost impossible to get made and totally impossible to get sold.

MMM: And, ironically, it has the same distributor – Newmarket – as “The Passion of the Christ.”

WEISZ: Oh… Oh yeah! That’s right. It is ironic! I don’t think it’s going to be shown in the churches!

MMM: What are you working on next?

WEISZ: Well, since this film, I did an independent film with a first-time director called
Larysa Kondracki, which is a true story about a cop from Nebraska who went to Sarajevo in the late-90s as part of the U.N. Peacekeeping Force, and she uncovered a huge sex-trafficking scandal that was covered up by the U.N. It’s called “The Whistleblower.” She blew the whistle on the U.N.

MMM: Lots of sex there but, and excuse the transition, what was it like to play a character in this film that hadn’t had… sex?

WEISZ: Yeah, a virgin! It was impossible! Every day I struggled! [Laughs] We don’t know if she ever took a lover or not. Alejandro felt very strongly that her passion was for her work and that she didn’t have the time, space or inclination to take a lover.

MMM: I read that you filmed in Malta. What was that like?

WEISZ: Lived in a village called Marsaxlokk and it’s a fishing village. We rented a house and the whole family was there. It hadn’t changed much since the middle ages, in terms of the geography of it. The fishermen came in with the boats and he watched them repair their fishing nets in the morning. It was a really idyllic, beautiful little village. It takes a half hour to drive from one side of Malta to the other. It’s tiny. But they drive like the wind! They’re frustrated by the size of their island, I think. The roads are very dangerous. Great fish restaurants. It’s beautiful. I think the Queen goes on holiday there, if that makes anyone want to go! [Laughs]

MMM: And debuting your film at Cannes last year?

WEISZ: I only went one time before on one of my first films – this Bertolucci film “Stealing Beauty,” at the beginning of my life as an actor. It’s a great festival for international films. Unfortunately, you don’t get to see many of them. But it’s the Riviera. It’s very glamorous. There are people who walk along the street who pretend to be paparazzi and take pictures of everybody, and then you buy your paparazzi shot!

MMM: You mentioned your family earlier. Do you and Darren ever consult with each other on your respective film projects?

WEISZ: We definitely talk about our choices, and of course, geographically – since we have a child – where we’ll be on the planet. But, I’d say we make our creative choices in isolation. Separate. Because, if it turned out wrong and the other person said, “Do it,” it’s a recipe for disaster.

MMM: And you two are working together soon I heard?

WEISZ: Darren has a script about Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, and it’s the four or five days from the assassination to the funeral. Not a biopic. It’s a script he was sent and it’s setup. He’s cast me as Jackie. So, we’ll see. It’s going to be developed and it’s a really, really good script.

MMM: Is it similar in tone to something like “The Queen?”

WEISZ: I would say that’s a good… Yeah. Tonally, yes.

MMM: And what’s with the rumors that you’re starring as Bond’s love interest in the upcoming Bond film by Sam Mendes?

WEISZ: Yeah, that’s… I know, I know. That I know nothing about. I just worked with Daniel Craig and Naomi Watts on a Jim Sheridan film called “Dream House.”

MMM: What’s that about?

WEISZ: I’m married to Daniel Craig and we move into our dream house with our two little children and Naomi live across the street. We find out that there are murders that have happened in the house that we bought. Our dream house is not so dreamy! And that begins the… thriller? I don’t know what you would call it. And Jim Sheridan – what a blast! He’s a character.

MMM: Since you’re New York based, are you thinking about acting in any plays here soon?

WEISZ: I’ve been meeting with several New York-based directors to talk about doing a play here. I get offered a lot in London because I know the London scene more. I’ve never done one here and I need to!

MMM: Lastly, Darren has a reputation for being very forceful on set. So what’s it like when you’re working with him? Is it different?

WEISZ: Yeah. He’s no pushover! I wouldn’t say “forceful,” but he has a very strong point of view and he works his actors very hard.

MMM: Does that stand in stark contrast to life at home?

WEISZ: It’s exactly the same at home. [Laughs] No, of course not! He’s great guy.

AGORA opens on May 28th in limited release.

Tags: agora, darren aronofsky, interview, jackie o., marlow stern, rachel weisz