Rachel Weisz and Alice Burch. “Twins have the same face, but a different vision of things.”

At first glance, it seems difficult to tell twins Elliot and Beverly Mantle apart. the heroines of False pretensesA contemporary version of David Cronenberg’s 1988 thriller (and adapted from the same book, twins, by Jack Ghisland and Barry Wood), share everything: drugs, romance, and an unrelenting desire to do what it takes, even if it means pushing the boundaries of ethics to put women’s health care first.

However, the twins, played by Rachel Weisz, in this adaptation written by Alice Birch, screenwriter: succession (2018) and Normal people (2020), have very distinct personalities. The actress and playwright premiered the show’s first episodes in competition at the Cannes Film Festival on Saturday, April 15. A chance to discuss with the duo how she constructed these roles of complex women, played to perfection by Daniel Craig’s wife.

Miss Figaro. – How do you feel about presenting your show at Kannesary and walking up the steps of the Palace of Festivals?
Alice Birch. – It’s so exciting to be here. We are working on this series. False pretensesfor so long, and we’re excited to bring it to the public.
Rachel Weisz. – When we started talking about this show in 2017, I never imagined that we would be at the Palais des Festivals today to present it. That’s pretty crazy.

David Cronenberg’s film is symbolic. there was never talk of a remake

Alice Birch

Alice, did you want the show to be different from the David Cronenberg movie of the same name? How deeply feminist is your show?
AB- Cronenberg’s film is so iconic and unique that it’s unlike anything I’ve ever seen. There was never any talk of making a remake too faithful to the feature film. I wasn’t very interested in that idea and I don’t think I would have done a very good job. The movie itself is already amazing. So we wanted the series to tell a new story, the heroines of which would be twins, although we owe it to David Cronenberg. Women are at the heart of our history. The twins are gynecologists, like the twins in the movie, but they are also obstetricians. They help give life to other women and that adds a new dimension to their characters.

Brilliant women

Rachel, how did you come to play these twins?
RW- I had time to think about them. I talked a lot with Alice about their differences, their peculiarities. Gemini are really two separate people. They have the same face, but a different vision of things. Alice invited me to writers’ meetings, and we spent weeks talking about the twins’ childhoods, their parents, what they like to eat, who they do or don’t sleep with, their careers, their ambitions… In short, their lives; I had a long time to feed my imagination. Then Alice gave me the script and I discovered their lines written on these wonderful pages.

We spent weeks talking about the twins’ childhoods, what they like to eat, who they sleep with, their careers…

Rachel Weisz

Alice, the dialogue in the show is particularly hackneyed. Why was it so important for you to work on this part of the script?
AB- So many people have contributed to the work on the psychology of the twins that has enriched their characters. I needed this job to write the script. We always knew we wanted to make them the brightest women around, doctors at the pinnacle of their professional careers, living fast and having a good time until things changed. Their characters work very well, so the dialogues came to me quickly.
RW- They came straight out of your imagination (and your fingers). It’s unbelievable.
AB- completely (Laughter) Between binoculars, aftershocks merge, they are so busy, so brilliant. They are so used to finishing each other’s sentences. It’s super effective and their lines felt natural to me.
RW- And then Alice wrote a play called Anatomy of Suicide, in which three stories unfold simultaneously on stage. So writing about binoculars was a joke for him.

In the video: Zabu Breitman’s interview at the Cannes Film Festival