Rachel Weisz's "artists-I-want-to-work with" list isn't especially lengthy, and the 32-year-old actress and Revlon model isn't about to tempt fate by saying which names that list contains.
Beyond, that is, the name of writer/director Neil LaBute, director of "In the Company of Men," "Nurse Betty" and "Possession." When presented with the opportunity to star in the premiere of LaBute's play, "The Shape of Things," in London, Weisz didn't simply agree — she practically set off fireworks. Signing up to play the same role in "Shape's" film adaptation was another no-brainer. Weisz even became a producer, since she already had a relationship with Working Title films.
"If Neil had said, 'Will you be my personal assistant?' I would have said yes," says Weisz whose name is pronounced "vice." "As much time as you can get with Neil, the better, so any way I could colonize his time was a bargain for me."
Weisz wasn't the only one already committed. The entire cast of "Shape's" original production, including Paul Rudd, Gretchen Mol and Frederick Weller, re-upped for the film, which is playing in Salt Lake's Broadway Centre Theaters. Putting the play on film, the actors claim, was like extending the run of the play.
And Weisz's character, Evelyn, was a lady the actress was in no hurry to relinquish. "It doesn't happen that often where you read something and you feel like you would do anything to get this part," says Weisz. "She's kind of an ingenue age, the young female lead. But when do women ever get to play these kinds of roles? Very, very rarely."
Evelyn Ann Thompson — whose initials, the play points out, spell the word "eat" — is a graduate art student whose relationship with a besotted English major Adam (Rudd) begets extreme and unusual consequences. The two characters meet as Evelyn is preparing to deface a statue in the college museum where Rudd's character works as a security guard. A discussion on the nature of art and censorship ensues, and Adam — an overweight and thoroughly ordinary guy — asks Evelyn out. The introduction of Adam's friend Philip and Philip's fiancee, Jenny, complete the foursome.
LaBute premiered the play in May 2001 with Weisz as the only non-American in the cast. The production featured a Smashing Pumpkins score and had no curtain call. Weisz called it a "rock 'n' roll play" and, when asked if it's a comedy, says, "Definitely!" The film version is practically a line-by-line adaptation, with more scenery but no additional characters.
In both versions, Evelyn is the story's engine, the character who sets the action in motion. The movie may not get extensive distribution, but if enough people see it, Evelyn's antics could spark water-cooler dialogue comparable to admire-her-or-hate-her ladies like "Fatal Attraction's" Glenn Close or "The Last Seduction's" Linda Fiorentino.
LaBute has created some thorny characters in the past, from "In the Company of Men's" pair of office drones who set out to break a woman's heart out of sheer boredom, to the bed-swapping yuppies of his "Your Friends and Neighbors." Evelyn may be a distant relation of the "Company of Men" pair, or, depending upon your perspective, she may be the only character with any real sense of value.
"I'm often leading people through the briar patch with some good-looking host saying, 'It's not much further,' while the thorns are ripping their clothes," says LaBute, "I think Rachel's got all the things that Evelyn needs. Beyond the physical endowments and this beautiful face, she has to be sort of beguiling. On top of that, she's really smart, and Rachel has this radical side to her."
Critics weary of the "boys club" antics of LaBute's characters have frequently accused the director of misogyny. Incorrect, says his "Shape of Things" leading lady.
"To me, Neil is a moralist. He's like an intellectual punk," says Weisz. "He writes really extreme tales about flawed people who do flawed things."
And Evelyn?
"The only thing I would say," says Weisz, who is reluctant to reveal the twists and turns of her character, "is that she definitely believes in art.
"In England, I felt like I had more people on my side," she adds. "Griffin Dunne came backstage and said, 'Your head on a plate.' That's what's interesting about Neil's writing — it sets off a debate. If I were trying to sell this movie, I'd say it's like the ultimate date movie. See it with your partner.
You're either going to leave and split up, or you're going to get closer together."
Her raven hair shoulder length and pulled back, Weisz pours herself tea during an interview at a Beverly Hills hotel. She is soft-spoken and unfailingly polite. Born in London, she now lives in New York but has spent a lot of time in L.A. recently on film shoots. In town for work and publicity, she planned a jaunt to Venice on her free day.
She takes on an American accent in "The Shape of Things" and the recently released noir caper movie "Confidence," and in both her upcoming films, "The Runaway Jury" and "Envy." Except for the latter film, directed by Barry Levinson and co-starring Jack Black and Ben Stiller, her recent roles have all been about grifts, cons and schemes.
"One of the reasons I did 'Envy' was because I love doing comedy," she says, "I felt like my role in 'The Mummy' was comedic, but because I was English in it, Americans don't think, 'Oh, she can do comedy.' "
Directors also have a tendency to place her in period films. "I look kind of old-fashioned," admits the star of such films as "Sunshine," "Land Girls" and "Enemy at the Gates." "I can do contemporary, too, but I definitely have a very period face."
To date, "The Mummy" and its 2001 sequel — which cast Weisz as the librarian love interest to Brendan Fraser's soldier of fortune — have been Weisz's highest-profile roles, but she has been working since the early 1990s, primarily in low-budget British or independent films. LaBute knew her work primarily from the 1998 Michael Winterbottom film "I Want You."