What’s better than one Rachel Weisz?
How about two Rachel Weiszes, and they’re twins, and they’re queer, and they’re codependent, and they’re two of the most brilliant doctors on Earth? That’s what the upcoming Prime Video miniseries Dead Ringers is about, and it’s going to be your favorite show of the spring.
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Weisz, who stars as twin doctors Elliot and Beverly Mantle in the new version of the classic 80s movie from David Cronenberg, revealed what we can expect from the new series.
Wesz called the series a “psychosexual thriller that’s twisted and darkly comedic and camp and voyeuristic,” adding that “the show does intersect with some serious questions, but I hope people are entertained and moved and find it funny – it’s very funny.”
To film the scenes between the twins, Weisz would film the scene from one side as one sister, then go back into hair, makeup, and costumes, and film the same scene from the other side. Eventually, it became “second nature” for her to switch between the two.
“I don’t even know which one was more fun or which was more difficult, because they were both challenging and both joyous,” she said about playing the brash and wild Elliot and the reserved Beverly. “And both just gorgeous, gorgeous, aberrant, strange, unusual women to inhabit. I love them both.”
While the original Cronenberg film starred Jeromy Irons as twin fertility doctors, this new six-hour series puts the focus on women by having the doctors be women, and their goals much loftier: a complete revolutionizing of how babies are born.
It also means that Weisz, and showrunner Alice Birch, were able to dive deeper into the sisters’ twisted relationship with each other.
“In the show, I think we really got to investigate how their sisterly obsession unravels over six hours,” Weisz said. “You see them coming together very tightly, and then they unravel in a pretty twisted way. You get more of that very dysfunctional, intertwined world — a few hours more.”
Dead Ringers premieres April 21 on Amazon Prime Video.