RACHEL WEISZ: On life, mortality and everything in between

British actress Rachel Weisz won an Oscar earlier last year for her performance in "The Constant Gardener" but says she has yet to find out if the award will have an impact on her career. "I was seven months pregnant when I won and now I have an almost a year-old baby, so ask me in another year," Weisz says.

In the meantime the actress can be seen in a pre-pregnancy film made with director Darren Aronofsky, who also happens to be Weisz's longtime partner and father of her baby Henry. "The Fountain" is as visually stunning as Aronofsky's last film, "Requiem for a Dream," and is part contemporary love story, part historical epic and part science-fiction fantasy and centers on the plight of a woman dying of cancer and her grief-stricken husband (played by Hugh Jackman), a doctor and research scientist who is desperately trying to save her life. Parallel to this narrative, Jackman also appears as a conquistador in 16th century Spain (and Weisz as the Spanish queen) and a 26th century astronaut traveling to a distant, dying nebula.

Weisz, whose other credits include "The Mummy" and "About a Boy," talked to us about the ambitious new film during a stopover at the Venice Film Festival. Q: Since you and Darren Aronofsky are a couple you've presumably been following the development of The Fountain for years?

A: Yes, I guess I was in an unusual situation. When I first met Darren he was going to make this movie with Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett, which didn't happen of course. So, yes, I've lived with the idea of the film for five years and he was massively passionate about it and it was so hard to get it made. I was watching him fight and struggle to make his dream of this film come true, so I'm very happy for him and very proud now it's done. Q: Having been on the sidelines like that, did you think it was the least he could do to put you in the film?

A: It was never his intention to put me in the film [laughs]. I honestly think it was Hugh Jackman who suggested I'd be good for the role.

Q: The film goes backward and forward between three different time periods and doesn't go out of its way to explain what's going on. Is it going to be hard for people to follow?

A: No, because I think at heart it's a very touching love story. For me the most poignant thing about the film is the woman I'm playing saying to her husband, take a walk with me, I want to go and see the first snow, and he's too busy. I think it's those sorts of things we're going to regret on our deathbeds, that our lives are finite and often we neglect to be with the people we love when we have the chance and neglect being conscious of each moment. So often we live in the past and the future and spend our time worrying about things we can really do nothing about.

Q: Your character in the film, Izzi, faces her imminent death with great composure and even humor whereas her husband can't accept what is happening. Do you think there's a gender difference in our attitudes to these things?

A: Well, I certainly think it's typical of men to want to fix things and find solutions, perhaps even when there is no solution to be found and in relation to the story in The Fountain, the woman finds wisdom five hundred years before the man does [laughs]. She figures out that she's going to die and she's finally okay with it whereas Hugh Jackman's character wants to save her and is distracted from making the most of the small amount of time they have left. Q: Is it oppressive making a film about death?

A: I think the film's about life more than it's about death, but it's wasn't oppressive at all. Oddly enough comedy is very hard to do, whereas this film, although the story isn't funny at all, but we had a lot of fun making it. Of course that was partly to do with working with Darren, who is very good at working with actors, and partly to do with Hugh Jackman. The film depended on an alchemy between us and I think something happened as soon as we began rehearsing and Hugh and I were just very open to each other. He's got such a range: he plays this swashbuckling, romantic conquistador and then this driven scientist and then this very contemplative person in the distant future and I think he performs each character with complete conviction. As to the subject matter of the film, I do think it effects your imagination even if not in a gloomy way. I spent a lot of time thinking about the issues the film raises. Q: Such as what happens after we die for example? Do you have an opinion about that?

A: Where I coincide with the movie I suppose is that I think in terms of ashes to ashes and that when we die our bodies will return to the earth and a tree will grow and a bird will eat the fruit and so on. I think we'll be recycled. Q: Hugh Jackman's character in the film lives for hundreds of years. Do you think that's possible or desirable?

A: If you lived for thousands of years I think everything would have to grow exponentially. I mean, you'd have to go to school for 700 years. It would be too much and the world would get overpopulated unless we all stopped having babies and I can't imagine a world without babies. I just don't think living forever works for humans. Q: You had an unusually close-up view of this film for years but I wonder if the end result surprised you at all? It's quite remarkable in terms of its look for example.

A: It completely surprised me because when you read a script you have your own idea of what it's going to look like and I would never have dreamed up anything like this in a million years: the colors, the visual effects, the way that's it edited and the music. For me it was as if I knew nothing about it when I saw it, it was very startling. I think Darren is an auteur - and my definition of that is someone who makes a movie that no one else could have made. There are plenty of movies in the world that are good or bad or okay, but anyone could have made them. But there are only a few movies out there that only that particular director could have made. The Fountain is Darren's vision of the world and it's his unique way of telling a story. Q: The initial reaction to the film seems to be very divided and people get quite stirred up about it. What do you make of that?

A: That the film is breaking new ground. You know, Darren's previous films, ? and Requiem for a Dream are thought of as cult movies now and people will say he's a critical darling, but he was often panned by the critics in the early days. I think if you're doing something new and different, then you're always going to divide people. I think that's cool. Q: Since you're partners off-screen, are you and Darren always talking shop outside work or do you make it a rule not to?

A: Yes, we have a list of guidelines…. No, I'm just joking. Making The Fountain, we were very preoccupied with what we were doing individually. He was managing this huge film and I was really focused on this demanding role. I think we just worked and we slept when we weren't working and then we worked and slept and worked and slept. Q: Has having a baby changed your life?

A: Yes, absolutely. Everyone everywhere is having babies all the time - it's a very commonplace event - but when it happens to you, it's a miracle. And probably like other people who have babies, I find I worry about him much more than about myself. It changes your focus. You know, you're always checking that they're breathing as well. Q: And when will you return to work?

A: I'm going back slowly. I just did a role in the new Wong Kar Wai film, his first English language film, which is called My Blueberry Night. Then I'm doing a comedy in New York with Ryan Reynolds called Definitely Maybe. It's being made by Working Title who also made Notting Hill and About a Boy. I'm happy I'm doing a comedy and I'm even happier that I can take Henry with me to the set every day.

THE FOUNTAIN opens in Philippine theaters this February 28, from 20th Century Fox.