Rachel Weisz explains why new queer thriller Dead Ringers was ‘biggest challenge’ of her career
Rachel Weisz in disturbing new Prime series Dead Ringers. (Prime Video)
There’s double trouble for Rachel Weisz in her latest project, as she plays “dangerously co-dependent” identical twins in the psychological thriller, Dead Ringers.
The six-part Prime Video series is based on the gory 1988 horror of the same name, which starred Jeremy Irons as identical gynaecologists who used their indistinguishable looks to take advantage of vulnerable women.
Rachel Weisz plays gender-swapped versions of Irons’ characters, Elliot and Beverly Mantle, who have questionable approaches to medical ethics.
“It was a big challenge, definitely the biggest of my professional life,” the actor told news agency PA.
She explained that although the twins are identical in looks, their personalities are completely different.
“Elliot’s really hungry and voracious, full of appetite, and easily bored, Beverly is quiet, patient and careful,” she said.
“They have different dreams, big dreams for changing the world of medicine.”
Weisz described Dead Ringers as a “twisted psychosexual thriller”, and early reviews have revealed that the show mixes graphic medical scenes with drug-taking and sex – including a plot where the sisters swap identities to share a female lover.
Things start to fall apart when Beverly begins falls in love with a female patient, Genevieve (Britne Oldford), who threatens to unravel all the twins have built.
Weisz praised writer and executive producer Alice Birch for creating “completely two separate people with psychological layers and depth and contradictions within them, which is what makes characters real to me”.
In an interview with Fangoria, both Birch and Weisz admitted having Elliot watch Beverly fall in love was one of the most difficult aspects of the series to execute.
“Those are the moments that were also the hardest to act. I felt Alice’s discomfort there,” Weisz said.
All six episodes of Dead Ringers drop on Prime Video on 21 April.
