You might assume that after “Dead Ringers,” even Oscar winner Rachel Weisz would reconsider tackling the responsibility of portraying two leading roles in a six-hour limited series again. But, you’d be wrong. Weisz says her experience playing gynecology physicians and identical twins Elliott and Beverly Mantle in the Prime Video series was “like childbirth. You do it again. Something beautiful was born, I think. But it was definitely very hard.”
Adapted from the David Cronenberg 1988 thriller of the same name and spearheaded by executive producer Alice Birch, this contemporary version finds the Mantle doctors experiencing true love (for Beverly at least) and intense investor pressure as they launch their own high-end and futuristic fertility clinic. The twins also endure a tense transatlantic visit from their parents and jealousy over their individual romantic partners. Throw in a dinner party with multiple characters at one table and, well, things got challenging for Weisz.
“All the dinner party scenes were very challenging for me and ‘me,’ the two me’s, and the rest of the cast. For Elliot, Beverly, and the cast, because there was just so much dialogue,” Weisz notes. “The end of episode four, the dinner party scene with the family, with the parents, then episode five in Alabama with Silas [Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine] and Marion Sims [Michael McKean]. Also, doing surgery whilst having rat-a-tat dialogue, was challenging. Doing a C-section at the same time as managing Alice Birch’s incredible dialogue that was always juggling and walking a tightrope at the same time.”
_____
The Playlist: I know that this was your idea as a project. Now that you’ve gone through the whole experience, was it as much work as both a producer and an actor as you thought it was going to be, or was it so much more?
Rachel Weisz: I think the work, just as an actor was more than I realized it was going to be because when you are reading something on a page, you’re just imagining two different people playing it. But obviously, I had to do both. It was much more challenging in reality doing it than it was thinking about it. But it was very joyous. The whole experience, as challenging as it was, it was also full of joy.
When you were talking to either the directors for an episode or looking at what was being shot during a week, would you say to them sometimes, “Hey, I’d rather do Elliot first today, or I’d rather do Beverly”? Did it matter at all to you?
We actually learned as a team, we learned from our mistakes. Elliot had to go first it turned out, because she sets the pace of a scene, she moves around a lot more. Beverly has to go second because she’ll fit into the spaces that Elliot leaves for her if you see what I mean. It didn’t really work that well when we started with Beverly and then try to get Elliot to slot into her.
When you were playing Elliot, did you feel like you had more freedom at first? And then when you were playing Beverly, did I know there was an actress who was playing or standing in for Elliot, but did you feel like you had to always be cognizant of knowing, “I can’t go there. I can’t go there,” because Elliot had?
That’s a brilliant question. Brilliant. I had never thought about it, but the way you answered it, I would just say it didn’t exactly feel like that. It felt right that Beverly was fitting in, I didn’t think, “Oh my gosh, I have less freedom now.” It’s just, Beverly is less free. She just is. It felt right.
When Alice was developing the series and you guys were all working on it, did you feel like you had to stick to the conceit from the movie that Beverly’s character was going to have to die, that she would have to go away? Was there any ever talk of going in a different direction with it?
I think we decided pretty early on that that was going to be the ending. Yes, there were thoughts of some maybe even darker things at one point. But then we settled on pretty early that was going to be the ending, and that’s what we were backing into.
Was there also an idea that Beverly is just not capable of experiencing happiness?
She wasn’t capable of happiness. When you were talking about Beverly feeling less free, she wants to be free of Elliott. Elliott doesn’t want to be free of her, but she wants to get away, but she can’t. And she’s trapped, and it’s the ultimate twin swap that Elliot, they can play each other brilliantly. And she thinks Elliot would do a better version of her than her, that’s why she says, “You’ll always be a better me. You always were a better me.”
I’m assuming the answer to this may be every day on set, but was there one scene, sequence, or episode that was more daunting in having to play both characters than others?
Oh, gosh. All the dinner party scenes were very challenging for me and “me,” the two me’s, and the rest of the cast. For Elliot, Beverly, and the cast, because there was just so much dialogue. The end of episode four, the dinner party scene with the family, with the parents, then episode five in Alabama with Silas [Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine] and Marion Sims [Michael McKean]. Also, doing surgery whilst having rat-a-tat dialogue, was challenging. Doing a C-section at the same time as managing Alice Birch’s incredible dialogue that was always juggling and walking a tightrope at the same time.
Here’s the flip to that question. Once the show was finished and you look back on it, is there one sequence or scene that you’re most proud of?
Episode five that Karyn Kusama directed, I think is an extraordinary episode. We leave New York and we go to Alabama, and it’s like a southern, horror, gothic, campy, and then really dark suspense tale. I think that seeing that the tone of episode five is really very pleasing to me. I’m quite a fan of southern gothic horror, that episode seems pretty great to me. I love all of them, but that one just seems to be very, very different from the others.
You’ve said in other interviews that you were part of the writer’s room, as a producer, or you were checking in. Do you remember where the idea came from to do that episode in the series?
Yeah. I was in the writer’s room all day, every day for six weeks. And it was the greatest joy and honor to be amongst these incredible imaginations and be asked to also contribute my imagination. I loved it. We always knew that they were going to go to the South because that’s where [the “father” of gynecology] J. Marion Sims is from. I don’t remember now why that idea came up. But there was a time when they were going to go visit a twin convention in Ohio.
And as part of the writer’s room, was there anything in particular that was most important to you about Elliot and Beverly that you wanted for them as characters?
For them to be completely codependent and for them to revolve around each other, but for them to be very different from one another. Their psychologies are incredibly different, and I think the writing really, really created that.
How did you find Alice Birch as the showrunner or head writer for the show?
I was a fan of her writing. I’d seen the film “Lady Macbeth” that she’d written and adapted, and I read a play of hers called, “Revolt. She Said. Revolt,” which I thought was incredible. And there was something about the energy and the fearlessness and the integrity of her writing that just really struck me as being the right tone and the right energy for the show.
Were Sean Durkin, Karyn Kusama, Karena Evans, and Lauren Wolkstein on a list of directors you’d wanted to work with, or did they just naturally come up in conversation?
Sean was somebody I’d wanted to work with for a long time, and so was Karyn. And Sean came on very early as an executive producer. And Alice, himself, and I set about hiring the heads of departments and the other directors I did not know. Karena Evans directed episode three and I think she’s a major, major talent. I think she was like 23 or 24 when we met her. She’s very young. And she was an actress, and she’s, I think, a brilliant director and brilliant understanding, acting. She gave me some of the best acting notes I’ve ever had. She was very, very good. And Lauren Wolkstein, and I’d never worked with before either. Those two I didn’t know them before, but Sean, I’ve wanted to work with for a very long time.
The show has such a unique aesthetic to it, especially an aesthetic we don’t see that often even on prestige television. Was that important to you in having people like Sean come on board along with the production designer and cinematographers? Did you want it to have a specific look?
Yes, it was. And I think it starts looking quite real first episode. And I think that was important for the storytelling, that you believe in this hospital, and you believe these women are doctors because they have a dream, which is both of their dreams are very, very big, and the tone becomes more and more “heightened and operatic and bananas,” as Alice Birch would call it, as it progresses. Hopefully, you go on a journey with them and you really believe that this crazy stuff is happening. We always knew that it was going to start more grounded and evolve and get more heightened.
This might be the obvious question, should I assume you never want to play twins or a pair of the same character in the same project again?
I have no rules about the future of anyone’s imagination, thinking of me for any stories. I have no rules. I’m open to everything.
It was not so hard that you would not attempt to do it again.
It’s like childbirth. You do it again. Something beautiful was born, I think. But it was definitely very hard.
Just out of curiosity, I know you’ve produced other things, but being so involved in this project, has it made you want to produce more film and television. Is that a priority for you now?
Yes. As I mentioned, I love collaborating with writers, to get to spend time in their company, and daydream and imagine things alongside them. I’m not a writer, but I’ve spent my life telling stories and being part of stories. Yes is the answer. I’d love to do more.
Here’s the thing, you say you’re not a writer, but you sound like a writer. I don’t know if I’m convinced that you’re not a writer.
I’ve got to learn to touch type. [Laughs.] I didn’t learn in school. It’s really useless my school, they should have taught me how to, I should have learned. But I’ve got one, anyway, I’ll learn to touch type. I don’t know, maybe never say never, but right now, to work with some of these incredible writers in our writer’s room, and especially Alice Birch, it’s been such a joy, really.
Last but not least, I know that the industry’s in a weird place right now, but do you know what you’re doing next? Are you waiting for a project to potentially shoot, or have you wrapped anything recently?
No, I haven’t. I just was ushering “Dead Ringers” out into the world. And there are various things in development that are on pause right now because of the strike, but various states of readiness. And some are more ready than others. But we’ll wait until the strike is over. Hopefully, it will resolve and get back to work.
“Dead Ringers” is available on Prime Video
