Rachel Weisz on Yorgos, dodos and PG Tips

Beverly and Elliot Mantle are double trouble.

The British obstetrician-gynaecologists are vaunted practitioners within New York’s bougie baby Establishment. Twin talents, they’re in demand by the city’s well-heeled and celebrity-adjacent for blue-chip pregnancy care, pioneering IVF treatment and birthing experiences that are as unlaboured as humanly possible.

But the sisters are only visibly identical – they differ in their drug habits, sexual preferences and willingness to push the ethical boundaries of medical science. Both, though, are up for swapping identities to get out of sticky operating-theatre and consulting-room experiences. And/​or pull in bars.

This is the bonkers-but-brilliant premise of Dead Ringers, Prime Video’s six-part remake of David Cronenberg’s cult 1988 body-horror. Back then Beverly and Elliot were played by Jeremy Irons. Now, these same-but-different leaders-in-their-field are played with surgical precision by Rachel Weisz, the 53-year-old British acting queen, who’s also an executive producer on the show.

The result is a deliciously psychosexual, camp-fabulous, reliably bloody thrill ride through both the birthing canal and the sewer of contemporary morality.

The drama, on which the showrunner is writer Alice Birch (Normal People, Conversations With Friends), was Weisz’s idea, making Dead Ringers the first TV series the Oscar‑, Bafta- and Olivier-winner has starred in since appearing alongside Ewan McGregor in 1993 BBC adaptation Scarlet and Black.

“I’ve seen the film many times,” begins Weisz. She’s Zooming in from a London hotel, although she’s based in Brooklyn, where she lives with husband Daniel Craig and their four-year-old daughter (she also has 16-year-old son with ex- Darren Aronofsky, who directed her in The Fountain). ​“Cronenberg is a master storyteller of that massively uncomfortable, often funny and incredibly dark tone. Then one day I was just thinking about stories, thinking about things that I was interested in telling. And it was a daydream at first: what if the identical twins were women?”

Initially, she was drawn to the characters rather than any themes – of parenthood, fertility, maternal expectations, the pressures on procreation – that might speak to our times. As she puts it, the Mantles are ​“dysfunctional, intertwined, co-dependent siblings who are professionally at the very top of their game… They’re brilliant, they’re flying high, they’re wealthy, they’re privileged. They’ve sort of got it all.”

“They want to change the face of medicine,” continues Weisz of characters for whom she should be twice-nominated next awards season. ​“Beverly’s dream is that all women should be able to give birth in a safe, soft, lovely environment. Elliott’s dreams are a lot wilder and push up against the boundaries of medical ethics.

“And then, when you talk about relevance and nowness, a lot of the scientists that we met were talking about things that are just within arm’s reach. So we call it near-fi instead of sci-fi. It’s tomorrow as well as today.”

Weisz’s pioneering of the near-fi genre is just another notch on her already hugely impressive CV. There are the blockbusters: The Mummy (1999) and The Mummy Returns (2001), with Brendan Fraser. Marvel and comic book shizzle: Constantine (2005), Black Widow (2021). Classic romcom: About a Boy (2002). Arthouse raves: take your pick, but we’re going for The Lobster (2015) and that Bafta-winning turn in the brilliantly barmy The Favourite (2018) with Olivia Colman. Thrillers: The Bourne Legacy (2012) or The Constant Gardener (2005), which won her that Oscar. And knottily complex indie dramas: shout out to 2017’s brilliant Disobedience, about forbidden love in North London’s Orthodox Jewish community.

What else? Let’s ask her…

The film/​TV show/​actor that made me want to get into acting is…

I don’t know if I thought about it consciously at that moment because I was a kid. But one of the earliest performances I saw that I really loved was – it’s not a fashionable answer, it’s an old Technicolor movie – Elizabeth Taylor in National Velvet [1944]. She dresses up as a boy jockey and wins the Grand National.

The first time I performed on stage was…

In primary school, I was the Dodo in Alice in Wonderland. I think I had one line. With [Cambridge University theatre troupe] Talking Tongues we went to Edinburgh Fringe with a show called Slight Possession. We didn’t have names. It was [uni friend] Sasha Hales and myself playing women in floral dresses with bare feet who were each other’s lover. It was about the ways in which people try to possess each other in relationships. The third character was a stepladder that we climbed up and pushed each other off. It was deliciously violent. There’s a quote on the poster – I’ve got it framed – from The Scotsman, and it says ​“giants of the Fringe”. I was very proud of that.

My plan B was…

At the back of my mind I was thinking about directing documentaries. I love documentaries. I never did anything useful towards making that happen. But it was a daydream. Could that still happen? Yeah, why not? I just need to land on a good subject.

The biggest lie I ever told to get a part was…

I don’t think I ever have. There’s that thing you’re meant to do: ​“Can you ride horses?” ​“Yes.” ​“Can you ice skate?” ​“Yes.” But I’m so boring, I don’t think I have lied. So I’ve never got a part on a lie yet. But give me time.

My most embarrassing moment on a set was…

In The Mummy – or it might have been The Mummy Returns – I remember doing a stunt. I had to jump across a big hole in the ground. I slightly missed and broke my thumb. That wasn’t fun. Not for me anyway. I’m so happy for Brendan for winning the Oscar for The Whale. I thought it was a stellar performance, and very moving.

The person who taught me most about acting was…

[The Lobster and The Favourite director] Yorgos Lanthimos always says: ​“Say it faster.” That’s really good direction. ​’Cause you can just slow down when you’re acting. So, just say it faster. That stuck with me.

The person who left me most starstruck…

Proper starstruck, I would say Lou Reed. I met him in New York at a dinner, and then at the Royal Albert Hall. Was he pleasant to me? That’s not the first word that comes to mind! But he’s a mammoth 20^th and 21^st century poet and genius.

The best costume I’ve ever worn…

Blanche in A Streetcar Named Desire [in the Donmar Theatre’s 2009 London revival, for which she won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress] had great little tea dresses. But I would say [my character] Sarah Churchill’s shooting costume in The Favourite – they were like men’s jodhpurs. That was pretty outrageously badass.

The one thing I have to have in my trailer is…

PG Tips. Everywhere. I’m very serious about my tea. Like, really serious.

My dream role is…

One that will come from Alice Birch’s imagination.