Rachel Weisz on graphic birth scenes and playing twins in Dead Ringers

Actress Rachel Weisz has said she "didn't privation to beryllium coy" astir showing graphic commencement scenes successful her caller TV drama, Dead Ringers.

"I deliberation we felt it was thing we don't often see," Weisz told BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour.

The Amazon Prime bid was the brainchild of the Oscar-winner, who wanted to re-make David Cronenberg's 1988 movie of the aforesaid name.

But this time, the pb characters - duplicate obstetricians - are female.

Jeremy Irons played the antheral versions successful the movie (itself adapted from a caller called Twins), portion Weisz plays sisters Elliot and Beverly Mantle successful the TV reboot.

Weisz says the realistic scenes successful occurrence 1 of the six-parter were thing she and creator Alice Birch were keen to portray.

"Alice and I were truly funny successful showing commencement successful the archetypal episode," she said. "I deliberation we felt similar it was thing we don't often see.

"We're incredibly utilized to seeing unit and radical being killed, death, blood... we're astir immune to that astatine this point.

"For me, I deliberation it's a beauteous moment, it's benignant of a occurrence erstwhile a baby's born. We didn't privation to beryllium coy astir it."

The sisters acceptable up a birthing centre unneurotic but their morals are astatine other ends of the spectrum.

"The archetypal episode... is rather graphic and the amusement evolves aft that. Beverly wants to alteration the mode women birth, Elliot is simply a idiosyncratic and wants to interruption the boundaries of aesculapian ethics... [and] enactment connected fertility," Weisz told Woman's Hour.

But however hard was it to movie being 2 antithetic people?

"You'd person to movie 1 country and implicit it for Elliot and Beverley and truthful we'd commencement with Elliot arsenic she's much assertive and she's much connected the beforehand ft and she sets the pace," Weisz explained.

"So we'd movie Elliot, past I'd tally into hairsbreadth and make-up, costume, get changed and travel backmost and sprout the different broadside of Beverly."

She had different actress, Kitty Hawthorn, a caller play graduate, who played the other duplicate via an earpiece truthful Weisz could respond to the dialogue.

Describing Hawthorn arsenic a "fantastic actress", Weisz said: "She was Beverly to my Elliot and vice versa."

Hawthorn besides plays the twins' mum successful occurrence 4 during a flashback scene.

Weisz says moving connected the amusement has been "the astir challenging and astir joyful acquisition successful my career".

She adds that galore experts came to talk to the all-female penning squad and they work tons of stories astir women's birthing experiences.

"The precocious mortality complaint for women of colour... we talked astir that astir apt each day.

"A batch of the stories were shocking and upsetting but we met inspiring radical who are trying to alteration the system, we fed each that into these 2 characters.

"Each quality is truthful psychologically analyzable and layered. Professionally they're astatine the apical of their crippled but their idiosyncratic lives are massively dysfunctional."

You tin perceive to the afloat interrogation connected BBC Sounds (Friday 21 April episode). Dead Ringers is disposable connected Amazon Prime from the aforesaid date.