Rachel Weisz recounts dangerous incident on the sets of new film

Actor described My Cousin Rachel as a romantic, dark, suspenseful and mysterious thriller

British actor Rachel Weisz spoke with Reuters this week, discussing the politics of her new film, and recounting a dangerous, on-set incident involving a horse.



The 47-year-old, who found fame with her role in the action-comedy The Mummy in 1999, now stars in My Cousin Rachel, in which she plays a mysterious woman who is suspected of murdering her cousin's guardian.

Speaking about how she would describe My Cousin Rachel, she said,  "It's a romantic, Gothic, dark, suspenseful, mysterious thriller. That's a lot of adjectives, but I think it can handle that description. I stand by that."

Rachel revealed she found it challenging to monitor the horse she was riding. She not only found it difficult to learn to ride side-saddle, but her corset and voluminous dress hindered her as well. "The horse had been trained on Game of Thrones to die when you pulled his left rein very sharply which I didn't know," she said.

"So I cantered out of shot and stopped and pulled the left rein, and he very gracefully buckled his front legs and his back legs and died on his left side, which was the side I was on. It was a terrifying moment because I didn't know if I'd get crushed but I was fine."



For a period film, My Cousin Rachel has modern sensibilities. As to how some scenes were given a kind of a contemporary edge to them, Rachel revealed, "The novel was written in the 1950s so it had quite twentieth-century ideas. Women already had the vote, but a woman who believes in sexual freedom or financial freedom, doesn't think she should be a possession of her husband in the 1850s is really radical, so that's what makes the film have a kind of modern edge."

My Cousin Rachel released in UK cinemas on June 9.

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