Rachel Weisz: after years of being touted as acting's next big thing, Rachel Weisz is suddenly exactly that, teaming up with some of the most interesting directors and starring in some of their most thoughtful films. We predict she's just getting warmed up

Months before Rachel Weisz took home the Oscar for her haunting performance as Tessa Quayle in last year's The Constant Gardener, movie-industry insiders were buzzing about her work in The Fountain, directed by Weisz's real-life partner Darren Aronofsky. With that film set to reach theaters later this fall, and with Weisz currently in production on Wong Kar Wai's next project, we asked funnyman Mike Myers to check in on the woman behind what's shaping up to be a serious body of work.

MIKE MYERS: I know this is about you, but what's your favorite Mike Myers movie?

RACHEL WEISZ: Austin Powers!

MM: That question was actually a joke, but thank you! [laughs] That's the most conceited thing in the world, to ask about your own movie. Anyway, what's your favorite thing about New York?

RW: The first thing that comes to my mind is being able to get amazing food delivered to your house at any time, day or night. In England, forget it--you can't get deliveries like that.

MM: And your least favorite thing?

RW: The honking of the cars. In general I find the noise pollution difficult.

MM: Your favorite thing about London?

RW: Probably the architecture and all the parks.

MM: What's your favorite building in London?

RW: I think it would be the old Gasworks in King's Cross. It's right by King's Cross station.

MM: And your least favorite thing?

RW: I think gray skies. Even when it's cold and wintry in New York it's still sunny or bright, whereas in London, it's cold and it's gloomy.

MM: What is your favorite book?

RW: Off the top of my head that'd be The Member of the Wedding [1946] and The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter [1940], both by Carson McCullers.

MM: What about those books appeals to you?

RW: Well, the central character in The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter is a deaf-mute. It's very like Being There [1970] in lots of ways. There are four central characters around him and they all make him into what they want. It's about how we all make our own reality.

MM: When you read a script and decide to be in it, what do you dread and what do you get excited about?

RW: Well, whatever I read, the first thing I do is flick through to the character's description. It's my favorite thing because it's always quite ridiculous. You know, "Edith Summerville: 29 years old, brunette, full of joy, but a slight sadness in her eyes sometimes." You go, "Okay, I can play that." That's my favorite thing. And then I read through the rest of it with that in mind or not in mind.

MM: So is that what gets you excited?

RW: I guess I'm excited that maybe I'll come across some description that's a bit different. And I'm also excited by the idea of--if you read it and the characters are obviously written in a certain way that obligates the actor to play it in a certain way--not playing it that way?

MM: And so that excites you, walking the line of what they've written and what you suppose it could be?

RW: Yes. You said it very well. [laughs] If the woman is a bitch, and a sexy bitch, is there a way of finding humanity in that character?

MM: The idea that they're the hero of their own story.

RW: Exactly, yes! Did you just make that up?

MM: My mom used to say that.

RW: She's so right. Everyone walking around the planet is the hero of their own story.

MM: And they can justify to themselves every action that they make. Sidney Lumet said in his book [Making Movies, 1995], "Freaks are not the freaks we think they are. We are much more connected to the most outrageous behavior than we know or admit." Do you think that's true?

RW: I do. And I think it's the actor's job to get into people's skin and not judge them but to see things from their point of view,

MM: Mike Nichols used to say that his recurring direction is "I am like that when ..." So when you see a character do something that you couldn't possibly imagine yourself doing, just try to find the equivalent.

RW: Oh, that's so brilliant, because oftentimes you hear people say, "Well, my character would never do that." Or the director might say to you, "Your character would never do that." And I always think, We all do everything sometimes.

MM: What excites you when you're tackling a role, and what do you dread?

RW: I guess I dread being very obvious. And I get excited about going into places that you wouldn't expect.

MM: Well, Del Close, one of the original members of Second City, talked about the fact that you make your choices when they're appropriate. And the enjoyment is when they're appropriate but unusual, appropriate but exciting, appropriate but seemingly contradictory. Maybe what you dread is that your powers of creativity will let you down so that you are only making appropriate choices. Is it possible that you dread having buyer's remorse, where you've made your choice, so you're not in the world of possibility anymore?

RW: Well, I wouldn't say I have buyer's remorse, but I might have extreme doubt.

MM: Does that extreme doubt go to dread?