Name: Rachel Hannah Weisz Date of Birth: 7th March 1970 Place of birth: London, England Special moves: Acting Films include: The Mummy, Enemy at the Gates, About a Boy, Constantine, The Fountain, The Constant Gardener

What you probably already know:

Everyone loves Rachel Weisz. Serious. She’s appeared in films which span an extraordinarily wide range of genres, ensuring she’ll be in your DVD collection whether you’re a fan of action (The Mummy), rom-coms (About a Boy), sci-fi (Constantine). war films (Enemy at the Gates) or dramas (The Constant Gardener, for which Weisz won the 2005 Oscar for Best Supporting Actress). Weisz is also a prolific stage actress with several significant Tennessee Williams roles to her credit, and as if that wasn’t enough she’s just married Craig. Daniel Craig.

Before becoming a real life Bond girl Weisz spent several years engaged to Darren Aronofsky, with whom she has a son. Her willingness to fill in for Cate Blanchett opposite Hugh Jackman saved Aronofsky’s ambitious sci-fi film The Fountain, and Weisz went on to make other challenging films including The Lovely Bones (in which she played the mother of Saoirse Ronan’s murdered teenager) and the forthcoming based-on-true-events drama The Whistleblower, which is sadly without a UK distributor at present. Basically, she’s done almost everything you’ve ever wanted to watch.

What you might not know:

Whilst she’s still best known for starring opposite Hugh Grant and Brendan Fraser in About a Boy and The Mummy, Weisz has spent the past few years beavering away on a variety of passion projects and relatively obscure films. She was praised for her performance in Wong Kar-wai’s 2007 road romance My Blueberry Nights, in which Jude Law and Natalie Portman also starred, and starred in Alejandro Amenábar’s Agora as the fourth century Greek astronomer Hypatia of Alexandria. Bet you didn’t see that coming. Weisz’ dedication to the role was such that Amenábar actually made her suppress some aspects of her performance, memorably refusing to include a scene proposed by Weisz in which Hypatia would have had a jolly good wank whilst looking at the stars.

So, what’s next for Rachel Weisz? Assuming The Whistleblower finds a distributor, her next film will be David Hare’s MI5 drama Page Eight. Also on the cusp of release are Dream House, in which she stars with Daniel Craig, and Terence Davies’ adaptation of the Terence Rattigan play The Deep Blue Sea (also starring Tom Hiddleston and Simon Russell Beale). And if that weren’t enough, Weisz will soon be seen with Anthony Hopkins and Jude Law in 360, a psychosexual drama from Fernando Meirelles (City of God), AND with Ben Affleck and Rachel McAdams in Terrence Malick’s untitled next film. She just won’t stop; it looks like Weisz’ diverse army of fans will be kept happy for some time to come.

Rachel Weisz quote:

“I have absolutely no empathy for camels. I didn’t care for being abused in the Middle East by those horrible, horrible, horrible creatures. They don’t like people. It’s not at all like the relationship between horses and humans.”

What to say at a dinner party:

“With three promising dramas due out this year alone, Weisz has finally shaken the populist stigma of her early blockbuster work to receive the acknowledgement she deserves as a serious – and seriously talented – actress.”

What not to say at a dinner party:

“She’s certainly had some interesting boyfriends…”

Final thought:

We’re not quite sold on Page Eight yet, but if anyone can save it it’s Rachel Weisz. Check out the trailer and make up your own mind…

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