Rachel Weisz: male and female actors struggle to find worthwhile roles
The Jewish Oscar winner and star of The Favourite says it is still difficult for all actors to find well-written and complex storytelling.
Rachel Weisz has said it is still difficult for both male and female actors to find well-written and complex storytelling.
The Jewish Oscar winner, who will next be seen in The Favourite with Olivia Colman and Emma Stone, said it is particularly unusual to find multiple good parts for women in one script.
She told the Press Association: “At this present time in cinema and storytelling, it’s sadly quite unusual I think, for all three characters – that all three women, are so textured and layered and complex and have such different aspects to their character.
“They are not one thing, they are a million things each.”
Discussing the quality of scripts she receives, she said: “I think things are improving.
“Films in the 40s and 50s, they always had very complex strong women who could be vulnerable and villainous and regal and kind and all the adjectives that you could list.
“At the moment there is good writing for women, but I think if a man were sitting here he would say it’s hard to find good, complex writing even for men so I think fiction for humans is maybe not as interesting as it could be in cinema.
“It’s not just women, but we make up half the world.”
Weisz plays Lady Marlborough in the black comedy, opposite Colman in the role of Queen Anne, and described the Broadchurch star as “an astounding talent and one of the loveliest human beings”.
She added: “She’s so down to earth and she’s so generous and so kind, she’s incredibly funny, she makes me laugh so hard that I will sometimes be crying with laughter in between takes.
“Just collaborating with her and being able to be opposite her in a scene and tell a story with her it was a real honour and she’s very special and incredibly easy to be in love with as the Queen, it was a cinch being in love with her Queen Anne.”
Thank you for helping to make Jewish News the leading source of news and opinion for the UK Jewish community. Today we're asking for your invaluable help to continue putting our community first in everything we do.
For as little as £5 a month you can help sustain the vital work we do in celebrating and standing up for Jewish life in Britain.
Jewish News holds our community together and keeps us connected. Like a synagogue, it’s where people turn to feel part of something bigger. It also proudly shows the rest of Britain the vibrancy and rich culture of modern Jewish life.
You can make a quick and easy one-off or monthly contribution of £5, £10, £20 or any other sum you’re comfortable with.
100% of your donation will help us continue celebrating our community, in all its dynamic diversity...
Engaging
Being a community platform means so much more than producing a newspaper and website. One of our proudest roles is media partnering with our invaluable charities to amplify the outstanding work they do to help us all.
Celebrating
There’s no shortage of oys in the world but Jewish News takes every opportunity to celebrate the joys too, through projects like Night of Heroes, 40 Under 40 and other compelling countdowns that make the community kvell with pride.
Pioneering
In the first collaboration between media outlets from different faiths, Jewish News worked with British Muslim TV and Church Times to produce a list of young activists leading the way on interfaith understanding.
Campaigning
Royal Mail issued a stamp honouring Holocaust hero Sir Nicholas Winton after a Jewish News campaign attracted more than 100,000 backers. Jewish Newsalso produces special editions of the paper highlighting pressing issues including mental health and Holocaust remembrance.
Easy access
In an age when news is readily accessible, Jewish News provides high-quality content free online and offline, removing any financial barriers to connecting people.
Voice of our community to wider society
The Jewish News team regularly appears on TV, radio and on the pages of the national press to comment on stories about the Jewish community. Easy access to the paper on the streets of London also means Jewish News provides an invaluable window into the community for the country at large.
We hope you agree all this is worth preserving.
