The London-born actress first came to public attention in the BBC's adaptation of Scarlet And Black in which her nude scenes with Ewan McGregor caused something of a stir.

Since then she has appeared in Chain Reaction, opposite Keanu Reeves, Second World War film The Land Girls and the re-make of The Mummy which sees her cast as an action heroine - a genre she is getting used to.

In her most recent film Enemy At The Gates, Weisz spent months being covered in mud and bruised while playing a sniper in the beleaguered Russian army during the siege of Stalingrad.

In The Mummy Returns she punches and kicks her way through the action - and even learned the Japanese sword-fighting martial art Sai, for her fight scenes with Venezuelan actress Patricia Velasquez, who plays the Mummy's love interest.

"I suppose I'm doing things that aren't traditionally feminine, whatever that means," admits Cambridge-educated Weisz. "It's technically difficult and Patricia and I spent four or five months learning it, like in the mornings or after filming and in lunch breaks.

"As a child I was the best tree climber in our neighbourhood, I was like a little monkey. I've never been afraid of hurting myself or a little physical discomfort," Weisz says.

The fight scenes between the two women are reminiscent of Ang Lee's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and although Weisz claims she enjoyed the filming, co-star Velasquez admits she and Weisz were not keen on it at first.

"When Rachel and I first read the screenplay and saw we had to fight we were not impressed," she smiles. "We thought it would be just gratuitous. Then we saw that what they had in mind was really quite spectacular."

Weisz smiles when she recalls reading the script which sees her once more teamed up with Brendan Fraser, as a librarian battling dark Egyptians forces. She admits even now she finds the concept amusing.

"I thought it was funny - a librarian in an action movie. Like someone stuck in the wrong genre," she says.

Despite her rise to fame, Weisz remains remarkably down to earth. She is ambitious but has resisted a permanent move to LA and, refreshingly for a Hollywood actress, confesses to having recently turned 30.

"Turning 30 has come as something of a relief," she says. "I've felt a lot better as a person. The older you get the more capable you get at managing life."

Although Weisz appears to be managing her life just fine, she has never been entirely comfortable with life under the media spotlight. After enjoying high profile romances with Men Behaving Badly actor Neil Morrissey and American Beauty director Sam Mendes, she discovered for herself what it was to be the object of media interest.

"I think actors have a choice of drawing attention to themselves or living on the outskirts," she says firmly. "I prefer being as far from the centre of celebrity as possible."

She claims to be on good terms with her exes. She still talks to Morrissey, whom she met while filming the football comedy My Summer With Des, on the phone and says: "He's one of the most good-hearted people I've ever met. I felt really sorry for him during that business with Les Dennis's wife."

Weisz is currently single and with her current heavy workload she admits it would be difficult to give the time needed to a relationship.

Following on from The Mummy Returns, she will be returning to the London stage to play an art student in the black comedy The Shape Of Things.

"You get to do it from the beginning, to middle to end in one night," she says, reflecting on her love of the theatre. "You can't go back on it. As an actor it's very challenging and very powerful."

But after completing the run, she'll be straight back in front of the cameras as Hugh Grant's love interest in About A Boy and will star in the biopic Marlowe based on the life of Shakespeare's contemporary Christopher Marlowe.

She is even about to lose her trademark dark locks - turning bottle blonde to play a Marilyn Monroe-esque gangster's moll in the upcoming Beautiful Creatures, a small independent production being touted as a British Thelma And Louise.

"This character's a huge disappearing act because I'm so not like her. She hides beneath her looks because she's frightened. She's an abused trophy girlfriend," she says.

And With Weisz currently calling the shots in Hollywood, playing second fiddle to a man is not something you could accuse her of.