Like all good things, the cinematic oeuvre of Rachel Weisz has only gotten gayer over time. Her magnificent face, visceral intelligence, and fierce self-possession meant that in her early films, Weisz often played the unattainable object of some undeserving straight man’s yearning: Think of Hugh Grant pretending to have an entire son just to seduce her in About a Boy, ex-con Alessandro Nivola stalking her in I Want You, Paul Rudd donating himself to her as an experiment in heterosexuality in The Shape of Things. In the early aughts, she played the hot, brilliant dead wife to both Ralph Fiennes (The Constant Gardener) and Hugh Jackman (The Fountain), who both bent time and space to get back to her and ultimately destroyed themselves in her name, which is completely reasonable but not quite gay enough.
But in the last decade or so, Weisz has, mercifully, launched herself directly into the lesbian sun. She’s topped the queen of England in The Favourite, spit in Rachel McAdams’s mouth in Disobedience, and in her latest and gayest work yet, sensuously bitten her own neck in an overt suggestion of Rachel Weisz–on–Rachel Weisz action in the new Amazon series Dead Ringers. In the process, she’s become an object of extreme lesbian thirst who has been a root for at least 8 million queer women. All of it is a miracle, but none of it is an accident: Back in 2009, Weisz expressed her desire to be a “lesbian icon.â€
But Weisz’s movies have always been kind of gay, going as far back as The Mummy, a movie about a chaotically hot librarian who believes in reincarnation, and Definitely, Maybe, which is ostensibly a Ryan Reynolds–led rom-com for straight people but is more subtly about Rachel Weisz being a bisexual journalist who loves show tunes. Here are five performances that show Weisz’s decades-long ascent to queer perfection.
Spoilers ahead for the full plot of Dead Ringers.
The Mummy (1999)/The Mummy Returns (2001)
A movie in which a group of British and American people travel to Egypt, hack up their ancient tombs, release a horrible world-ending curse that turns the locals into zombies, fix the curse at the last minute, and are hailed as heroes.
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Who is she?
Evelyn Carnahan, a librarian and Egyptologist who also happens to be a reincarnated Egyptian princess embroiled in a millennia-spanning blood feud with a supernaturally powerful mummified high priest and his lover.
Is she described in a way that implies she is a mysterious bitch? “Your typical prudish nightmare,†per the script.
Is her job gay? “I may not be an explorer or an adventurer or a treasure-seeker or a gunfighter, but I am proud of what I am. I’m … a librarian!†she says to adventurer Rick O’Connell (Brendan Fraser). Librarians throughout film history have often been lesbian-coded — unmarried, uninterested in men, buttoning up their shirts all the way. Just think of the infamous scene in It’s a Wonderful Life: In the alternate reality where she hasn’t gotten married, Mary is “an old maid, just about to close up the LIBRARY!!â€, clutching her purse nervously to her chest and screaming at the sight of her should-be husband.
Is she notably not married? Evelyn is extremely single.
Is she planning on having no kids or using a man as a sperm donor and then discarding him? Though she does eventually have a kid in The Mummy Returns, she is iconically disinterested in said kid to the point that she loses him at least three times.
How is she further gay-coded? She saves himbo Brendan Fraser from near death. She tries to leap from a hot-air balloon and then defends herself by saying she was experiencing “memories from my previous life.†She says, “What is a place like me doing in a girl like this?†She has short curly bangs.
How is she straight-coded? She gives birth to a blond child with attitude problems. She rides a horse side-saddle. She has extremely thin eyebrows.
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Who falls in love with her?
Hot, dumb, big-boy adventurer Rick O’Connell.
Does she love them back? Yes, and as she often does, she makes the first move, announcing to Rick that she is going to kiss him.
Are there charged, yearning-laden glances between them from across a room? Evelyn is so distracted by her lust for Rick early on in the film that she walks around her room yelling at herself.
Does the love interest suggest that being without her is akin to physical torture or death? Many times in both films, Rick remarks that Evelyn and Alex (aforementioned annoying tangential son) are “all that matters to me.â€
Does she eventually have queer sex with her love interest? Nobody has any sex in these films.
Does she also have sex with a man in a bathroom, in a depressed way, to indicate that she is not entirely fulfilled by hetero sex? Unfortunately, this particular trope doesn’t appear for a while.
Are men in this film essentially obsolete? The film lionizes Brendan Fraser and centers on the drama wrought by several undead male characters, but Evelyn is just as integral to the plot — rare for a late-’90s/early-aughts action movie.
What happens to indicate that Rachel’s character is spiraling by holding in her true queer feelings? She asks her future stepmother (played by Patricia Velásquez, who later came out as a lesbian) to put on a gold bikini and duel in the public square in a scene charged with unspoken rage and eroticism. Evelyn is at one point strapped to a stone as her soul is nearly exchanged for her future would-be stepmother’s, who is writhing on a stone next to her.
Do Rachel and her queer love interest end up together, or are they destined to be kept apart, because that is how stories about queer women almost always end? Unfortunately, Evelyn and her ancient lust object/blood enemy are not able to consummate their mutual interest as they are trapped in an action movie from the late ’90s.
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How gay are The Mummy and The Mummy Returns?
It’s in the details: Evelyn unleashes “a creature we have feared for more than 3,000 years.†Women read books to the point of neglecting to get married. Grown men argue over a gold bracelet.
Definitely, Maybe (2008)
Ryan Reynolds plays Will Hayes, an ad exec and recent divorcé whose precocious daughter Maya (Abigail Breslin) forces her father to tell her the story of how he met her mother. For some reason, Will takes this as an opportunity to detail his entire sexual history to a 10-year-old. As he so often is in these movies, Ryan Reynolds is an affront to the concept of cinematic charm; as she so often is in these movies, Rachel is the best thing onscreen, a curious, confident bisexual woman who, for some reason, seriously dates Ryan Reynolds when she literally could date anyone else on earth.
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Who is she?
Summer Hartley, a self-described workaholic journalist who’s in a May-December relationship with her professor, Hampton (Kevin Kline), but inexplicably leaves him to be with Will, whose college girlfriend, Emily (Elizabeth Banks), she banged back at boarding school. When we meet Summer, it is just after Will explains he has a thing for “brunette librarians with glasses.â€
Is she described in a way that implies she is a mysterious bitch? Yes. On the list Maya keeps tracking the character traits of each of her father’s ex-girlfriends, she directly calls Summer a bitch. Will describes her as: “Heartbreaker. Opportunist. Double-crossing.†Kevin Kline says she is “rapaciously ambitious,†which is rom-com code for “bitch.â€
Is her job gay? “I’m writing these really dumb items for New York Magazine, waiting for my big break.†Writing this article puts me in that exact same category, and I am queer, so by the transitive property, yes.
Is she notably not married? Right before attempting to seduce him one final time, Summer tells Will, “I don’t need a guy. I never really did. You were about the closest I got.â€
Is she planning on having no kids or using a man as a sperm donor and then discarding him? She gets pregnant and dumps the guy, who is never seen onscreen.
How is she further gay-coded? She sings “I’ve Got a Crush on You†in the streets of Tribeca as a seduction tactic. (“I always wanted to be an actress who sang on Broadway,†she explains.)
How is she straight-coded? She never describes herself as queer or seems to date another woman after she boarding-school-bangs Emily.
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Who falls in love with her?
Everyone she meets, including Emily and Hampton and, yes, Will.
Does she love them back? All of them, yes.
Are there charged, yearning-laden glances between them from across a room? Â Unfortunately, there is a fair bit of mooning on the part of both Will and Summer.
Does the love interest suggest that being without her is akin to physical torture or death? “I can see where you’re going with this. You’re going to say something impossibly charming and sweep me off my feet, and I just don’t have time for the pain.â€
Does she eventually have queer sex with her love interest? Outside of having sex with her college gal pal — which isn’t seen onscreen — she doesn’t.
Does she also have sex with a man in a bathroom, in a depressed way, to indicate that she is not entirely fulfilled by hetero sex? Not this time. Though she does initiate her first kiss with Will a few minutes after meeting him, indicating a lack of satisfaction with her current sexual partner.
Are men in this film essentially obsolete? Despite the “I don’t need a guy, I never really did†moment, this whole movie centers on Ryan Reynolds telling a story about Ryan Reynolds.
What happens to indicate that Rachel’s character is spiraling by holding in her true queer feelings? Summer writes a detailed diary entry about her queer college conquests, then gifts the diary to Emily, who holds onto it for decades, only to send it back to Summer via her cishet boyfriend Will.
Do Rachel and her love interest end up together, or are they destined to be kept apart, because that is how stories about queer women almost always end? Summer and Emily are, tragically, kept apart by Will, the de facto beard for both women.
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How gay is Definitely, Maybe?
This movie is the epitome of white, straight culture, but it’s ranked slightly higher on the Weisz Gay Index than The Mummy because of its B-plot hinging entirely on two women falling in love at boarding school.
Disobedience (2017)
Rachel Weisz goes fully gay for her art for the first time in a movie about an oppressive Orthodox Jewish community where everyone talks shit about each other and nobody is allowed to be gay, do crimes, or smoke.
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Who is she?
Ronit, a queer New Yorker who has been cast out of her community for the aforementioned qualities and must travel back home when her father unexpectedly dies.
Is she described in a way that implies she is a mysterious bitch? Ronit is described as “looking very … [profoundly long pause] … New York.â€
Is her job gay? She photographs people with tattoos while making intense eye contact.
Is she notably not married? “And you’re not married!†says one of her family members in the middle of dinner. “If I stayed here for one more year, I would be married off to whoever, and after ten years in some loveless marriage, I might have ended up killing myself,†Ronit says.
Is she planning on having no kids or using a man as a sperm donor and then discarding him? Ronit has no kids and says she “doesn’t want them.†She also tells her family members, “Perhaps people should stop having so many children!â€
How is she further gay-coded? She smokes a cigarette indoors while drinking coffee in a leather jacket at a shiva. She lives in an attic. She sleeps on a bench in an airport, no problem. She eats pussy.
How is she straight-coded? She has “not really†been with other women since a teenage love affair.
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Who falls in love with her?
Esti, her childhood best friend and onetime lesbian lover played by Rachel McAdams.
Does she love them back? Esti wants Ronit and Ronit wants Esti, and there is no standing in their way (except for all of the standing in their way that happens).
Are there charged, yearning-laden glances between them from across a room? Every single time Esti and Ronit are in a room together, they are either staring into each other’s souls, boring a hole in the other’s back, avoiding each other’s eyes, or fucking. There is one entire scene where Ronit walks backwards while Esti walks forwards, and they just stare at each other the whole way.
Does the love interest suggest that being without her is akin to physical torture or death? “When you left, I was ill. In the head,†Esti says. “What happened to you?†Ronit asks. “YOU happened to me!!!†Esti says.
Does she eventually have queer sex with her love interest? Ronit spits in Esti’s mouth not once, but twice, and it is the closest queer Jewesses will ever get to heaven.
Does she also have sex with a man in a bathroom, in a depressed way, to indicate that she is not entirely fulfilled by hetero sex? Early on, after receiving the news of her father’s death from home, she has dissociated sex in a bar bathroom with a faceless rando.
Are men in this film essentially obsolete? Ronit’s dad dies in the first scene, and Esti’s husband, Dovid, is essentially a plot device invented to stand in the way of Ronit and Esti’s lesbian lust.
What happens to indicate that Rachel’s character is spiraling by holding in her true queer feelings? She randomly rips her shirt off with her teeth at a skating rink.
Do Rachel and her love interest end up together, or are they destined to be kept apart, because that is how stories about queer women almost always end? Ronit and Esti have their queer freedom, but not together. Esti is carrying Dovid’s baby and wants to forge her own path.
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How gay is Disobedience?
The entire movie is about how gay these two women are and how compulsory heterosexuality ruins lives. There are also at least four shots framing Esti, her husband, and Ronit as a detached threesome, the camera suggesting over and over that they should thruple.
The Favourite (2018)
Yorgos Lanthimos’s film follows the tragicomic exploits of a physically and emotionally crumbling Queen Anne (Olivia Colman), who is halfheartedly overseeing a war and wholeheartedly engaged in a toxic lesbian love triangle.
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Who is she?
 Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough, the queen’s adviser and longtime secret lover.
Is she described in a way that implies she is a mysterious bitch? Nicholas Hoult calls her a “cunt†within five minutes of the movie beginning.
Is her job gay? She storms around in 18th-century men’s riding outfits, shoots pigeons, makes difficult wartime decisions, and manipulates the country.
Is she notably not married? She’s married, but her husband is a cuck who’s never home (he is defending England on the battlefront, but still).
Is she planning on having no kids or using a man as a sperm donor and then discarding him? Sarah appears to have no children and doesn’t entertain the notion — when the queen asks her to pet one of the bunnies she’s raising as stand-ins for the 17 babies she’s lost, Sarah refuses to engage in the delusion.
How is she further gay-coded? She tells the queen she looks like a “badger.†She tells a male adviser, “Your mascara is running. If you’d like to fix yourself, we can continue this later.†She fucks the queen.
How is she straight-coded? She does not want to be gifted an entire palace by the queen, an extremely dull and heterosexual reaction. She attempts to raise taxes nationally.
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Who falls in love with her?
Queen Anne, who has loved her since childhood.
Does she love them back? The nature of their mutual love isn’t entirely clear — does Sarah love Anne, or is she merely using her? “I think she loves the queen,†Weisz told me in an interview a few years ago. “But she also loves England.“
Are there charged, yearning-laden glances between them from across a room? The queen throws a tantrum from across several rooms whenever Sarah isn’t catering to her every whim.
Does the love interest suggest that being without her is akin to physical torture or death? The queen threatens to hurl herself out the window when Sarah isn’t paying enough attention to her, standing in her nightgown hovering over the rocks below.
Does she eventually have queer sex with her love interest? Sarah tops Anne dramatically after an argument over a ballroom dance.
Does she also have sex with a man in a bathroom, in a depressed way, to indicate that she is not entirely fulfilled by hetero sex? There is one chaste kiss between Sarah and her husband before he marches off to war.
Are men in this film essentially obsolete? Every man in this movie is an impediment to eroticism, financial freedom, international peace, social progress, and good taste.
What happens to indicate that Rachel’s character is spiraling by holding in her true queer feelings? She threatens to blackmail the queen with their sensual love letters, then hurls them into a fire and begs for her forgiveness.
Do Rachel and her love interest end up together, or are they destined to be kept apart, because that is how stories about queer women almost always end? The queen’s other secret lover, Abigail (Emma Stone), becomes her new “favourite,†and Sarah has to leave London because the queen is pissed at her.
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How gay is The Favourite?
Extremely. Men throw oranges at other, more naked men. Abigail poisons Sarah. Abigail hits herself in the head with a book. Sarah slaps Abigail across the face. Abigail marries a man (Joe Alwyn), then ignores him. Sarah is dragged through the forest by a horse while wearing menswear.
Dead Ringers (2023)
Rachel Weisz and Rachel Weisz star as Elliot and Beverly Mantle, a pair of brilliant, queer, codependent gynecologist twins who are so obsessed with one another they’ve never spent a single night apart. They plan on raising a child together and swap identities in order to fuck each other’s patients. The show follows their slow descent into psychosexual madness. But before that, the twins do a lot of fun queer shit.
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Who is she?
Elliot is a rapacious, omnivorous lush with a God complex; Beverly is a repressed, anxious lesbian with a morality complex.
Is she described in a way that implies she is a mysterious bitch? Multiple characters call Elliot a cunt over the course of the show. Their own father calls them “awful girlsâ€; their mother tells Beverly she will be a “terrible mother.â€
Is her job gay? Being a gynecologist is not in and of itself a gay profession, but being a lesbian gynecologist who has sex with and falls in love with her patients is.
Is she notably not married? The twins are both single and treat sex like a hobby. They make it clear to each other, their parents, their sexual conquests, their colleagues, and the world at large that all they need is one another.
Is she planning on having no kids or using a man as a sperm donor and then discarding him? When the show begins, Elliot is trying to impregnate Beverly with the help of a sperm donation and some ethically questionable tactics.
How is she further gay-coded? The entire show feels like a loving troll of Rachel Weisz’s queer fan base. In the first scene, Rachel Weisz looks at other Rachel Weisz and jokes, “I love putting my tongue on her tongue and my tongue in her cunt — and for a man’s pleasure? Perfect.â€
How is she straight-coded? Elliot enjoys asking men to pull their dicks out in public; sometimes she utilizes them for her own pleasure.
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Who falls in love with her?
An actress (and patient) named Genevieve (Britne Oldford) falls in love with Beverly, incidentally dismantling the entire foundation of the sisters’ relationship.
Does she love them back? Beverly does fall in love with Genevieve, but can’t let herself feel happiness because she believes she is only half of a person and cannot experience true joy without her sister.
Are there charged, yearning-laden glances between them from across a room? Most of the yearning glances in this show are between the sisters.
Does the love interest suggest that being without her is akin to physical torture or death? While Genevieve and Beverly do not quite reach this level of intensity, Elliot and Beverly do. They ultimately realize the only way they can feel “anything close to happiness†is for Elliot to assist Beverly in suicide and for Beverly to “climb inside†Elliot.
Does she eventually have queer sex with her love interest? There is a lot of queer sex in this show, much of it between Genevieve and Beverly.
Does she also have sex with a man in a bathroom, in a depressed way, to indicate that she is not entirely fulfilled by hetero sex? This is kind of Elliot’s whole thing.
Are men in this film essentially obsolete? The all-female writers’ room “forgot†to write men into the show.
What happens to indicate that Rachel’s character is spiraling by holding in her true queer feelings? The entire second half of the series is centered on Beverly and Elliot’s unraveling as they realize they cannot live with or without one another. Elliot pushes a homeless woman off a roof, stops showering, and orders a ton of blenders to the apartment; Beverly lies on the floor of her Brooklyn brownstone and alienates her perfect girlfriend.
Do Rachel and her love interest end up together, or are they destined to be kept apart, because that is how stories about queer women almost always end? This all depends on your definition of “love interest†and “together.†After the assisted suicide, Elliot takes on Beverly’s life and personality. “There was always supposed to be one of us,†they agree.
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How gay is Dead Ringers?
The show centers on an intensely queer romance, but it’s also queer dialectically in that it correctly suggests the only person good enough for Rachel Weisz is Rachel Weisz, that the only woman who deserves to be topped by Rachel Weisz is Rachel Weisz, that the only person who should impregnate Rachel Weisz is Rachel Weisz, and the only woman who should dramatically subsume and take on the identity of Rachel Weisz is Rachel Weisz.
Photos: Everett Collection (O’Connell, Emily); Film4 Productions (Esti, QueenAnne); Prime (Genevieve)