Rachel Weisz in 'New Pastures' by Pamela Hanson for Harper's Bazaar UK June 2020
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Actor Rachel Weisz is styled by Miranda Almond in ‘New Pastures’ with an interview by Lydia Slater for Harper’s Bazaar UK’s June 2020 issue. Photographer Pamela Hanson captures Weiss wearing Chanel ready-to-wear and jewelry in the bucolic surroundings of New York’s Planting Fields Foundation ahead of Marvel’s forthcoming film ‘Black Widow’.
Planting Fields Arboretum State Historic Park, which includes the Coe Hall Historic House Museum, is an arboretum and state park covering over 400 acres located in the village of Upper Brookville in the town of Oyster Bay, New York. The Planting Fields Foundation delights with the message that they are open, although they may take temporary pauses to control the visitors, in order to maintain social distancing.
The Skype interview opens with Weiss doing mommy care with her baby daughter. Minutes later, “with perfect timing we have come to expect from James Bond, Daniel Craig strides in, swoops down on his daughter and takes her away so we can chat in peace,” muses Slater.
Weisz shares the spotlight with Scarlett Johansson and Florence Pugh in ‘Black Widow’. She describes her co-stars as “massively talented, hard-working — they make it look very easy”, while admitting that being on set was “physical and quite exhilarating — I had to do some complicated things, like beating up a lot of people, and throwing them across the room and jumping on their shoulders.” The film is directed by Cate Shortland, whose work Weisz has admired for a long time.
Shortland is one of the few female directors Weisz has worked with over the course of her career, and the actor sees the difference. “Her female gaze was very particular and very refreshing — very emotional. She’s extremely instinctive, gentle, softly spoken but powerful.”
Emphasizing the need for on-screen representation of women in a variety of strong roles, the new mother is unusually blunt about women’s progress.
"The Eighties and Nineties were really shit for women," she opines. "But I used to watch a lot of black and white movies with my mum –Bette Davis, Joan Crawford, Katharine Hepburn, they were very powerful in the narratives. Bette Davis didn’t have super-powers but she’s powerful as hell.
"I do think it’s important for girls growing up to see stories where women are front and centre, and to see a female politician, or a female prime minister. It’s about identification, it’s seeing possibilities. We need more stories about women. We need more role models!"
Speaking about her future roles, Rachel Weisz will play Elizabeth Taylor during the 1980s, when she became an HIV/AIDS advocate in ‘A Special Relationship’.
The story will be told through the lens of Taylor’s friendship with her assistant Roger Wall. Based on the screenplay written by Academy Award-winner Simon Beaufoy (“Slumdog Millionaire”), the upcoming production will be helmed by the female directing duo Bert&Bertie (“Troop Zero”). Not knowing about the movie, we just referenced Taylor testifying to Congress with then Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi as an AIDS activist.
