CEBU, Philippines - As an Academy Award-winning actress whose husband is one of the most prominent actors in Hollywood, it would seem impossible for Rachel Weisz to keep her marriage to Daniel Craig private, and yet she’s managed to do so for four years.
The 45-year-old actress sat down with MORE magazine and explains that his immense fame makes it all the more important to stay under the radar.
“He’s just too famous. It would be a betrayal. You have to protect your marriage,” she reveals. “When you’re young, you tell your girlfriends everything. One of the great pleasures of not being an adolescent is that you don’t have to share everything. When you’re married, that door closes. The audience goes, and you’re in your own life.”
This type of revelation and wisdom is something that expands beyond her relationship—something she said she gained from age.
“Everybody’s aging, and we’re all going to die. Getting older, there’s a reality about mortality, but it’s hard to be young, too,” she says. “It’s hard to not know who you are. My 20s were painful at times. Now I have wisdom and experience—I know what interests me in a way I didn’t before. I’m much more focused on what matters to me. I waste less time. There’s a huge relief in that.”
Speaking of aging, although Weisz originally had a strong view against Botox, she’s realized overtime that all she really wants is for everyone to find their own happiness, and if that means getting Botox, then so be it.
“I once did an interview with a friend, and she said, ‘Don’t you think Botox should be banned, like steroids for athletes?’ I said, ‘Yeah, yeah!’
And that became this quote of mine, when in fact I think people should do whatever they like, whatever gets them through the day.”
One way Weisz has found her own happiness in her life is by taking more control over her career.
“Before, I was taking whatever came along. I’m getting more focused. I’m trying to choose the stories that I want to tell,” she says of her evolution as an actress. “I think everyone should take her career into her own hands, whatever her age. But me, I needed to have this much experience under my belt in order to do it. I’ve read a bunch of scripts at this point; I’ve made a bunch of movies. Now it’s about refining the search, saying, I want to shine a light on this. This matters to me.”
She hopes to break the gender boundaries and take on more intricate roles that are typically written for men in Hollywood.
“Men get the more complex roles. Things have become too glossy for women,” she explains. “We have to be ‘likable,’ which is not very likable at all. It’s hard to like someone who’s just sweet. You want a real person, one who irritates you and mystifies you and frustrates you and makes you cry. You want everything from a character. Not to just stand there and look nice. Likability is code for ‘Shut up and look good.’”