Rachel Weisz speaks to Sally James about doing a double role in Dead Ringers and being an executive producer of the show. Read excerpts of the interview here:
Many will know Dead Ringers for the terrifying 1988 David Cronenberg movie. What can you tell us about this version?
I’m huge a fan of the original film. I remember seeing it years ago, and it has haunted me ever since. That’s really how the idea to turn the story into a television show about sisters rather than brothers came about. I loved the idea of playing two roles, and perhaps bringing the story to a new audience as well as others who, like me, loved the original. It’s a really fascinating psycho-sexual twisted thriller, with an element of dark humour to it.
Tell us about the two characters you play. How did you approach your double role?
I play sisters, Elliot and Beverly Mantle. They are both obstetrician-gynecologists in Manhattan and are the best at what they do. They are, however, very different from each other. While Elliot is more interested in science and pushing the boundaries of medical ethics, Beverly wants to open a birthing center. Personality-wise, Elliot is wild, mischievous and ethically a bit dubious. Beverly, on the other hand, is more thoughtful. The writer, Alice Birch, and I spent a lot of time talking about the two sisters as individual characters. That was how I approached playing them as well, which wasn’t too hard because they were psychologically so well-defined and layered from the very start.
Which one of the sisters did you enjoy playing more?
Both. They are beautifully written and so complicated. How did it work in scenes where both sisters are in the frame? We definitely did not shoot the scenes with me as Beverly one day and then Elliot the next. That would have been easier for me. It worked with us doing it all at once, and having to do everything twice, which, of course, meant everything taking twice as long. It was complicated, especially if both sisters were speaking to each other, which they are for the majority of the show. It was challenging, but you get used to it.
How long did it take for you to go through hair and makeup from playing one sister to the other?
It took a little while at the beginning, but like anything else, the more we did it, the quicker it got. After a couple of weeks of filming, we had it down to about 15 minutes, which is pretty quick for hair, makeup and costume change. It was really a team effort. After that, it was all about the technical things such as making sure I had the right eye line to be looking at the other sister, and to make sure we reset the scene each time.
How do you go about choosing your projects at this stage of your career?
It’s exactly how I have always done things. For me, it’s not about the genre, but the character. It’s about finding complicated, difficult, unruly women with appetite. Those are the characters I want to play.
Besides playing the two sisters, you were also involved behind the camera in Dead Ringers. Tell us about that.
I’m an executive producer on the show and I was involved with the development of the script, which is something I enjoy. I was in the writer’s room for six weeks, and then I participated in pre-production, as well as the choosing of directors. But when it came to filming, I was just an actor playing two roles. That was enough.
What is it about producing that you enjoy?
I like optioning material, discovering novels or memoirs and finding writers to adapt them. Working with writers is what I love the most about producing. Finally, why should people watch Dead Ringers? Because it’s deliciously mischievous, emotional, and darkly humorous. It’s a wild ride.