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Rachel Weisz
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Meet Rachel Weisz

-- Meet Rachel Weisz --

We're not sure Rachel knows it yet, but she's about to become really quite famous. Kate Winslet movie-star-style famous.

She's booked back-to-back to star in films for the next year but expects us to believe her when she says: 'Every day I worry it might all end. I might never get another job, ever again!'
We don't think so.

I'd like to thank you for making me listen to Led Zeppelin for the last two hours (at NW's cover shoot). I think I've lost the use of my left ear, though.

Rachel: (Laughing) I love rock music. Do you find it really horrible? Was everyone dying in there? I'm sorry.

Your mouth says 'sorry' but your eyes are laughing. Before my good will runs out, tell me about your film, Amy Foster.

Rachel: It was a real girly movie. It's such a beautiful story - nothing happens, no car chases, no special effects - it's just this romantic, emotional story about a woman who doesn't care what anyone thinks about her. I'd love to be like that.

What, abused, ostracised, falsely accused and tragically widowed? The only reason to be jealous of Amy is Vincent Perez, your co-star.

Rachel: Yes, he's unspeakably beautiful, almost too beautiful. At first I couldn't look him in the eye but after a few days, you don't notice it so much.

Even when you were filming the 'doing it in a pool of water in a candlelit cave' sex scene? It made quite a splash with me.

Rachel: It was quite funny actually, because the moment where I lost my virginity, I actually had to lose it to the cameraman - there wasn't room for Vincent to be there. So I climbed up onto the naked cameraman's knees and lowered myself onto his lap.

I suppose if you shag in water, there are none of those sticky 'Who sleeps in the wet patch' moments?

Rachel: (Pretend laugh) Hmm.

So, are you and Vincent still close?

Rachel: By the end of filming we were very close. We've seen each other since but, he's got a life, I've got a life, you just know that you can't carry that intimacy over into reality.

OK, back to acting for a minute. You've worked with Keanu, Vincent and Ewan McGregor. Tell me the Ewan giving you head story ...

Rachel: (Laughs throatily) That was a few years ago in a BBC costume drama called Scarlett and Black. In the last episode, Ewan gets guillotined and the last shot is of my character - who is a bit potty - unwrapping his head on her lap. Because they couldn't get a prosthetic head, they had to cut a hole in my skirt and Ewan had to lie under the skirt for hours with his head between my legs, sticking out of a box.

I feel faint at the thought. Are you still in touch with him?

Rachel: No.

From what I've read it sounds like you're big buddies with Keanu Reeves (Rachel made Chain Reaction with him). You said some unbelievable things about him, like: 'He's cleverer than some of the Dons at
Cambridge.'

Rachel: I realise now that I was a bit over-hysterical about him at the time. I was in a gushy mode and also
I was getting really sick of everyone saying he was just a himbo. He's not, he's very bright, but obviously he's not cleverer than any don. I think he's quite happy with people thinking he's stupid, so I don't know why I was doing his PR for him. It was a bit over the top, wasn't it?

Tell me, what did Keanu smell of? And Ewan? And Vincent?

Rachel: I think when I was working with him, beer. And whisky. I can't remember Ewan's smell. It was probably something healthy and male and sweaty. Vincent just smelt French, velvety and French.

So, you were a model at 14 and then went into acting. Was it a natural transition?

Rachel: No. Modelling's got nothing to do with acting. It's just about making clothes look good. It wasn't a natural progression. I think I was very bad when I first started - I was shit in Chain Reaction - I wasn't a natural at first.

Why didn't you give up then?

Rachel: Because I really wanted to get good at it.

Why?

Rachel: I just love it. More than anything in the world. I wake up totally excited about work. It's more or less all I think about. I'm obsessed with it, really obsessed. Acting for theatre is particularly exciting. It's like a drug that fills your veins.

So what brings you down?

Rachel: Watching rushes at the end of a day's filming can be abysmal. We all have mirror faces - so you never look at all how you think you look.

You say that but your face in Amy Foster was amazing. You conveyed all these emotions with your expressions. Do 'sad' for me.

Rachel: To make your face sad, you just feel sad and then your face becomes sad. I don't even have to think about a sad thing. I can feel sad in a second. (In a tribute to her acting, or my crap question, she instantly looks suicidal.)

You obviously do serious; what about funny?

Rachel: I'm doing a comedy at the moment. I love it. It's called My Summer with Des, it's a football thing and Des Lynam's in it. I play an angel who's sent to cheer up Neil Morrissey. He plays God and is really depressed so we just have lots of sex and watch football all summer.

How will you relax him for the sex scenes?

Rachel: I'm just going to look at him in the eyes and make him calm down.

I'm sure a former model, naked, smouldering at him will really help. Talking of erections, do you want to do the baby thang?

Rachel: I do. I have very bourgeois fantasies: house, kids, lovely husband. I'd love to do that. I feel very fertile. But I don't think I'm going the right way about it at the moment ...

Too much work?

Rachel: Yeah, no-one would want to marry me right now because I'd never be around.

Can you be a drama queen?

Rachel: Oh yeah. In relationships. I can just be very difficult. I can also be downright evil. If a man in the street: 'Cheer up love,' or 'Smile, love,' I'm instantly evil. There was one time I was in a greengrocer's and he said: 'Cheer up love, it may never happen,' and I turned round and said: 'Actually, my brother just died.' I don't even have a brother! And he just went: 'I am so sorry.' He was obviously gutted. (At this moment her father, a Hungarian inventor, rings up and they chat for five minutes.)

So what do your parents really think about your success?

Rachel: They're very proud. Particularly since they've seen a preview of Amy Foster. They're very harsh
critics and they've often said to me: 'That was shit, you were crap,' but this is the first time my father said to me: 'I think one day you'll be a good actress.'

If you were me and you'd come to interview you, what would you have asked yourself?

Rachel: Well the question I always ask myself is: 'What would I do if I didn't act?'

So, Rachel, what would you do if you didn't act?

Rachel: I don't know. I think about it all the time. You know, you try to think of lik an alternative fantasy, like would I be happy just cultivating the most beautiful rose - that's what a friend of mine always says - but that wouldn't make me happy. So the answer is 'nothing. There's nothing I would do if I didn't act.' I've only ever wanted to make films and now I am. So, right now, I'm sorry to say, I'm very satisfied. It's gross, isn't it?

-- From " New Woman Online " --

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