Acting career Film and television 1992–1998
In 1992, Weisz appeared in the television film Advocates II, followed by roles in the Inspector Morse episode “Twilight of the Gods”, and the BBC’s steamy period drama Scarlet and Black, alongside Ewan McGregor. Dirty Something, a BBC Screen Two, hour-long television film made in 1992, was Weisz’s first film, in which she played Becca, who met and fell in love with a traveller, Dog (Paul Reynolds), at the end of Glastonbury Festival. The opening scenes were filmed at the festival. Also starring as an older fellow traveller and sage was Larry (Bernard Hill).
Weisz started her film career with a minor role in the 1994 film Death Machine,[40] but her first major role came in the 1996 film Chain Reaction, which also starred Keanu Reeves and Morgan Freeman. While the film received mostly negative reviews–it holds a 16% rating on Rotten Tomatoes–it was a minor financial success. She next appeared as Miranda Fox in Stealing Beauty, directed by Bernardo Bertolucci, where she was first labelled an “English rose”.
Following this, Weisz found roles in the 1997 American drama Swept from the Sea, the 1998 British television comedy-drama My Summer with Des, Michael Winterbottom’s crime film I Want You, and David Leland’s The Land Girls, based on Angela Huth’s book of the same name.
1999–2003
In 1999, Weisz played Greta in the historical film Sunshine. The same year, her international breakthrough came with the 1999 adventure film The Mummy, in which she played the female lead opposite Brendan Fraser. Her character, Evelyn Carnahan, is an English Egyptologist, who undertook an expedition to the fictional ancient Egyptian city of Hamunaptra to discover an ancient book. Variety criticised the direction of the film, writing: “(the actors) have been directed to broad, undisciplined performances […] Buffoonery hardly seems like Weisz’s natural domain, as the actress strains for comic effects that she can’t achieve”. She followed this up with the sequel The Mummy Returns in 2001, which grossed an estimated $433 million worldwide, (equivalent to $633 million in 2020 dollars) higher than the original’s $260 million (equal to $404 million in 2020 dollars).
In 2000, she portrayed Petula in the film Beautiful Creatures, following this up with 2001’s Enemy at the Gates, and the 2002 comedy-drama About a Boy, with Hugh Grant, based on Nick Hornby’s 1998 novel.
In 2003, she played Marlee in the adaptation of John Grisham’s legal thriller novel The Runaway Jury, along with Dustin Hoffman, John Cusack and Gene Hackman; and starred in the film adaptation of the romantic comedy-drama play The Shape of Things.
2004–2009 Weisz in 2007
In 2004, Weisz appeared in the comedy Envy, opposite Ben Stiller, Jack Black and Christopher Walken. The film failed at the box office. Variety magazine opined that Weisz and co-star Amy Poehler “get fewer choice moments than they deserve.” Her next role was alongside Keanu Reeves in Constantine, based on the comic book Hellblazer. Film Threat called her portrayal “effective at projecting scepticism and, eventually, dawning horror”.
Her next appearance, in 2005, was in Fernando Meirelles’s The Constant Gardener, a film adaptation of a John le Carré thriller set in the slums of Kibera and Loiyangalani, Kenya. Weisz played an activist, Tessa Quayle, married to a British embassy official. The film was critically acclaimed, earning Weisz the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress,[66] the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress, and the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role.[68] UK newspaper The Guardian noted that the film “established her in the front rank of British actors”,[69] while the BBC wrote: “Weisz is exceptional: film star charisma coupled with raw emotion in a performance to fall in love with”. In 2006, she received the BAFTA Britannia Award for British Artist of the Year.
In 2006 Weisz starred in Darren Aronofsky’s romantic drama The Fountain. The San Francisco Chronicle found her portrayal of Queen Isabel “less convincing” than other roles.[73] That same year, she provided the voice for Saphira the dragon in the fantasy film Eragon; and rejected an offer to star in The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor due to script issues. The part eventually went to Maria Bello. Her subsequent films include the 2007 Wong Kar-wai drama My Blueberry Nights,[78] and Rian Johnson’s 2008 caper film The Brothers Bloom, alongside Adrien Brody and Mark Ruffalo. In 2009, she played the lead role of Hypatia of Alexandria in the historical drama film Agora, a Spanish production directed by Alejandro Amenábar. The New York Times called her portrayal “adept”, noting that she imparted “a sympathetic presence”.
