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Cultivating the ideal role for Weisz
By BARRY KOLTNOW
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Rachel Weisz was in Los Angeles, shooting the supernatural thriller “Constantine” with Keanu Reeves. The mostly middle-of-the-night shooting schedule was exhausting, and time off was rare. When she finally did get a day to rest, she packed an overnight bag and flew to London.

Twenty-four hours later, she was back on the set in L.A.
No, the British actress had not suffered a sudden bout of homesickness.
She had heard that director Fernando Meirelles was in London, and Weisz needed to speak to him as soon as possible. The script of “The Constant Gardener” was that good.

Meirelles, the Brazilian filmmaker best-known for his celebrated “City of God,” had been tapped to direct “The Constant Gardener,” based on the John Le Carre best-seller, and rumor had it that he was still searching for an actress to play the pivotal role of the determined, outspoken activist Tessa Abbott Quayle.

The ill-fated character, married to a British diplomat (Ralph Fiennes) stationed in Africa, takes on the powerful pharmaceutical industry, which she accuses of exploiting underdeveloped nations by using its most vulnerable citizens as guinea pigs for dangerous new drugs and reaping excessive profits in the process.

The film, which unofficially kick-starts the fall season for Oscar-worthy movies, opened Wednesday.

“I knew I wouldn't have another day off for a while, so I needed to get to London immediately,” the actress recalls during an interview in her Beverly Hills hotel suite. “I wanted to work with Fernando because he's an extraordinary director, but it really was the character that got me on that plane.

“Sometimes, you read a script, and you believe passionately that you must play this character. And I needed to show that passion to him, although I think I downplayed my passion a bit because I didn't want to scare him off. I didn't want him to think I was crazy enough to be a problem.”

MESSAGE MOVIE

Weisz says she wasn't taking any chances. As soon as she got back to the set of “Constantine,” she wrote Meirelles a letter.

“I knew he was still meeting with other actresses, and I was dying inside,” she says. “I needed him to know how much I wanted this role. I suppose I was stalking him.”

The director says his meeting with other actresses was just a formality.
“Rachel was my Tessa, and she performed the part beautifully. She is amazingly human in this film. It would have been easy to play her as a caricature. The character isn't very likable in the beginning, and some people actually find her annoying. But Rachel pulls it off because she is so real, and her intelligence comes through on-screen.”

The film is clearly a love story and a thriller, which are both welcome themes in Hollywood movies. But it also is a message movie in that it takes a clear stand on pharmaceutical companies (they're the villains of this film), and that occasionally scares people in Hollywood.

The Cambridge-educated Weisz says she was drawn to the political message in the movie but does not necessarily endorse the message.
“It's not just a love story or a thriller, but it is really about something. It is a movie with a social conscience. Hopefully, it will show the people of Africa in a way they haven't been seen before.

“As for the specific politics, I have no idea whether this type of thing is really happening in Africa. I have heard that John Le Carre believes it is, and as an actor, I have an overactive imagination and can always imagine terrible things.

“But we must not forget that it is a fictional story. Thought-provoking, but fictional.”

‘SPIRITUAL WEALTH'

Weisz, who visited Africa once before as a tourist, says she was profoundly moved by what she saw when filming commenced in the worst slums of Kenya, where the story takes place.

“It's complicated,” the actress says. “On the one hand, I had never seen poverty like that. It was extreme and tragic, and I felt a wave of guilt being a wealthy white Westerner walking through those slums filming a movie.

“On the other hand, I was struck by the spirit of the children, who clamored around us and welcomed us. The conditions in which they live is a tragedy, but their spiritual wealth is so much more powerful than the poverty.

“In the end, one wonders who should feel sorry for whom.”