Just Passion From Rachel Weisz

Actress Rachel Weisz is back in theaters, co-starring with Ralph Fiennes in the big screen adaptation of John Le Carre's best selling thriller "The Constant Gardener."

She told The Early Show co-anchor Harry Smith that it was a role she fought to get, pointing out that Academy Award-nominated director Fernando Meirelles ("City of God") is Brazilian and not familiar with her work.

Since her breakthrough in 1999's "The Mummy," Weisz has shown her versatility in a variety of films, including "About A Boy," "Runaway Jury" and "Constantine." But what sealed the deal was the passion she conveyed for the script.

"I had a lot of passion for the project and the role," she says. "I really wanted to play this part. I suppose my passion came across to him."

In the film, she falls in love with Justin Quayle (Fiennes), who is a diplomat. But she has a mission to accomplish and ends up dead.

"I think it's a love story about opposites," Weisz says. "He is a mid-level diplomat, very reserved and cold. I play someone very passionate who likes to rock the boat. I'm kind of an activist. I seek out some very serious malpractices of a pharmaceutical company who is testing drugs in Africa."

According to the film's production notes, after Tessa Quayle is brutally murdered, Fiennes' character is determined to clear his wife's name and "finish what she started." He ends up putting his own life at risk.

"I'm so proud of it. I think it's a tremendous film," Weisz says. "It was more moving and more exciting and more thrilling than my wildest dreams of it were."

Also exciting in her life is her recent engagement to director Darren Aronofsky ("Requiem for a Dream").

"It was actually in Times Square," she says. "New York is far too busy to notice proposals going on around them. I mean, it was one woman who noticed, and she was by the traffic lights. She just said, 'Congratulations.' "

Fast Facts About Rachel Weisz:

• Born in London, England on March 7, 1971
• In 1993, she co-starred with Ewan McGregor in the BBC miniseries "Scarlet and Black." The following year, she earned praise for her performance alongside Rupert Everett in the London stage revival of "Design for Living."
• In 1996, she made the move to the big screen in two very different films: in Bernardo Bertolucci's "Stealing Beauty," and in Andrew Davis' "Chain Reaction." In the former, she was the spoiled daughter of a painter involved with a married lawyer who enjoyed nude sunbathing while in the latter she was a scientist teamed with Keanu Reeves in an effort to save the world.
• In 1997, she offered a cameo as a bohemian Jewish girl who entrances Ben Affleck in "Going All the Way." And she had her first real reading role as a servant who becomes involved with a shipwrecked sailor in Beeban Kidron's period drama, "Swept From the Sea."
• In 1999, she starred as a clumsy librarian opposite Brendan Fraser's adventurer in "The Mummy." And she played opposite Ralph Fiennes as an adulterous wife involved with her dashing brother-in-law in the epic "Sunshine."
• In 2001, she worked with Joseph Fiennes in the WWII drama, "Enemy at the Gates." Weisz was also seen as an abused woman who joins with another victim of violence to extract revenge in "Beautiful Creatures;" and reprised her role as the spunky book lover in "the Mummy Returns."
• In 2002, she became a single mom and potential love interest for immature cad Hugh Grant in "About a Boy."
• In 2003, she turned femme fatale for the neo-noir con-game flick "Confidence." And she re-teamed with her "Confidence" co-star Dustin Hoffman — along with John Cusack and Gene Hackman — to star in "Runaway Jury."
• In 2004, she worked with Ben Stiller in the comedy "Envy."

  She was most recently seen in Francis Lawrence's "Constantine," co-starring Keanu Reeves, and will soon be seen starring in her fiancé's much-anticipated third feature, "The Fountain," with Hugh Jackman.