British stage and film actress Rachel Weisz stood out from the pack of emerging U.K. actresses in the 1990s with her exotic, decidedly un-British looks, as well as the fierce intelligence of a woman who had been on a fast track to academia before early stage success altered her path. Weisz founded an innovative comedy group at Cambridge, but her film career mainly centered on ambitious, independent dramas until Hollywood invited her into the fray with roles in several comedy and adventure blockbusters. Alternately cast as the deceptively smart sex bomb, the pensive outsider, and the fierce
