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"  It&amp;#039;s 11 p.m. on a Saturday, and Rachel Weisz has just finished her second mesmerizing and soul-baring three-hour performance of the day, playing Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire at a theater in London&amp;#039;s West End. But before she gets to kick back and fall into the arms of the two men she most cherishes \u2014 her son, 3-year-old Henry Chance, and her fianc\u00E9, film director Darren Aronofsky, she has one more stop to make. After three standing ovations, the 38-year-old actress dashes out of the theater, jumps into a cab, and heads to a nearby hotel to a clothes fitting for REDBOOK&amp;#039;s cover shoot early the next morning. She obligingly slips in and out of dresses that range from sexy and slinky to pretty and polished and isn&amp;#039;t afraid to say what&amp;#039;s on her mind: &amp;quot;Do I look like a bit of a tramp in this one?&amp;quot; &amp;quot;Is this one too much of a frumpy, buttoned-up mommy look?&amp;quot; This is Rachel: smart, irreverent, passionate, and refreshingly honest \u2014 whether she&amp;#039;s talking about fashion or, as I discover a couple of days later, her films and family.  Over tea and sandwiches at a caf\u00E9, our conversation keeps coming back to the struggles and joys of being a working mom. Although Rachel is happier and more content than she&amp;#039;s ever been, she admits that not a day goes by when she&amp;#039;s not trying to figure out how to manage mommyhood, her man, and the work that has made her a star. This month, she appears in one of her most high-profile roles to date, playing Abigail, a mother who falls apart after the tragic murder of her daughter, in Peter Jackson&amp;#039;s film adaptation of Alice Sebold&amp;#039;s best-selling 2002 novel \u2014 and book-club favorite \u2014 The Lovely Bones. &amp;quot;What I like about Abigail is that she isn&amp;#039;t necessarily a heroine,&amp;quot; Rachel says. &amp;quot;She&amp;#039;s struck by tragedy and she just falls apart; there is something so truthful and human to that. It&amp;#039;s funny, because a lot of people thought that Abigail was an unlikable character, but it never even crossed my mind that she was. I&amp;#039;ve always just thought she is human and flawed \u2014 not unlike most women.&amp;quot; Not unlike Rachel herself. Despite her impressive getting-it-all-done dash about town two nights ago, she says there are some days when she feels like she just wants to pull her hair out and scream. (Long chats with girlfriends and hot baths go a long way toward keeping her sane.) And then there are other days, when the universe hands her a special pizza afternoon with Henry or a weekend away with Darren \u2014 and all the madcap mayhem fades quickly to the background. She can be right in the middle of her life, relishing every second.  Had you read The Lovely Bones before you stepped into the role of Abigail? I was probably one of the very few women on the planet who hadn&amp;#039;t! But once I got the role, I read it many, many times over. I underlined lines, highlighted them, made loads of notes in the margin, like a student might do with a college assignment. I don&amp;#039;t think the tone of the film is as dark as the book, but we&amp;#039;ve kept the book&amp;#039;s vein of humor. There&amp;#039;s a lot of joy, and the overwhelming feeling that I think you&amp;#039;re left with is, &amp;quot;Enjoy every minute while you can.&amp;quot; Which I think is quite nice. There&amp;#039;s very much a positive, &amp;quot;Seize the day&amp;quot; feeling to the film. Peter Jackson, The Lovely Bones&amp;#039;s director, has described you as &amp;quot;fearless.&amp;quot; Is fearlessness something you aspire to in your work? Really? Because I feel quite scared quite often. For example, taking on the role of Blanche in Streetcar, a role Vivien Leigh and other great actresses have portrayed, was absolutely terrifying. But fear makes life more interesting.  How hard was it to go from playing intense and dark roles like Abigail and Blanche, then switching into mommy mode? I think the only way you can successfully be a mum and an actress is by not carrying around the burden of the character. Between the time the director says &amp;quot;Action&amp;quot; and &amp;quot;Cut,&amp;quot; it&amp;#039;s all true for me. But when I stop saying the lines, it&amp;#039;s not true anymore. Had you not had your own child, do you think you might have played Abigail differently? Hmm, that&amp;#039;s a brilliant question. I don&amp;#039;t know. In The Constant Gardener, I played a pregnant woman, and I had not yet been pregnant. As an actress, it&amp;#039;s part of your job to be able to imagine just about anything \u2014 even if it&amp;#039;s not within your personal experience. I&amp;#039;m not an alcoholic, but I&amp;#039;ve been playing one in Streetcar. But does the reality of being a mother affect you? It affects just about everything. I mean, your heart opens up so much more when you&amp;#039;re a mum, don&amp;#039;t you think? If there was any protection there, it&amp;#039;s gone. Do you feel like you can reach emotional levels you couldn&amp;#039;t before you were a mom? I&amp;#039;m sure. I think being a mum and having a child has completely grounded me. It&amp;#039;s amazing, and I&amp;#039;ve never been happier in my life. Being a mum is just delicious, and Henry is so scrumptious I could just eat him up. We&amp;#039;ve been having these special treats all this week. I pick him up every day from school and we go someplace special. Today we went for pizza. We were sitting there and he said, &amp;quot;Mum, today I saw two people that were married.&amp;quot; And I said, &amp;quot;How did you know they were married?&amp;quot; And he said, &amp;quot;Because the man had a hat on that was tied underneath his chin.&amp;quot; What?! They come up with the most lovely and crazy things. It is so sweet and such a joy to watch them as they figure out the world. How has being a mom changed you as a woman? I&amp;#039;m sure a lot of moms say this, but oddly enough, I find I can get a lot more done since I&amp;#039;ve had Henry. You become better at managing your time. Suddenly, in 45 minutes, you can get twice as much done as you once did. So I&amp;#039;ve become a lot more organized. And I&amp;#039;m a much happier person since I&amp;#039;ve had Henry, and much more balanced. I feel I have an ultimate purpose beyond anything else in my life.  What&amp;#039;s the hardest challenge you&amp;#039;ve faced as a working mom? I think one of the things that moms aren&amp;#039;t allowed to talk about enough to one another \u2014 which is also a bit like Abigail in Lovely Bones \u2014 is the times when you&amp;#039;re pulling your hair out at home with the kids. Those moments when everything is crashing in and you just feel like you&amp;#039;re going to scream. I think there is sometimes too much pressure on us to be perfect moms, to be empathetic and loving all the time. I feel like women need to get together in regular groups and be able to say to one another, &amp;quot;Today I nearly jumped out the window.&amp;quot; Women need to be able to say that without being judged. It doesn&amp;#039;t make us less good or less human, just real. Every woman needs a good girlfriend to be able to turn to and say, &amp;quot;I just can&amp;#039;t deal with it all today.&amp;quot; Because even though children are the most precious things in the world, they are also set to test us. I think women are already stretched and pressured to be perfect, and it kind of drives me crazy. How have your priorities changed? We have to now make decisions as a family, what is best for all of us. For instance, when I was in Malta for four months last year working on [the upcoming film] Agora, Henry wasn&amp;#039;t even in preschool at that point, and he came with me. Darren had just finished shooting The Wrestler, so he brought his editor to Malta, edited the film while I was working, and helped look after Henry. We all met every night for dinner and then put Henry to bed together. We figured it out, and it took some planning, but so far we&amp;#039;ve been able to figure out the logistics of being together as a family. But definitely, the priorities change. What do you do to unwind from the whirlwind that is your life? [Laughing] Yoga \u2014 well, sometimes. Let&amp;#039;s put it this way: I&amp;#039;ve only found the time to do it four times during the run of this play, but it definitely helps. I do sometimes treat myself to some body work. My body gets so knotted up that I need someone to pummel those knots out. But really, for me, unwind time is just having the time to go have pizza with Henry, walking with him to the park, racing him to the swings. I know that&amp;#039;s really Mommy time, but I so love those moments with him. Let&amp;#039;s see, Rachel time.... I love hot baths. I mean hot, hot, hot baths where my skin gets bright red. Darren can&amp;#039;t even get in them.  It doesn&amp;#039;t sound like you&amp;#039;re a high-maintenance sort of girl. I&amp;#039;m not in a materialistic way. I don&amp;#039;t need to have a big bathtub so I can create some lush spa environment. I can&amp;#039;t be bothered. I never light candles because I don&amp;#039;t want to start looking for matches or have to think about setting candles up around the tub. I just want to take a very hot bath. And I can&amp;#039;t bear loud clubs or restaurants. I&amp;#039;d much rather sit in some quiet, out-of-the-way, unglamorous place and have an intimate conversation with a girlfriend. Do you have a lot of close girlfriends? My best friend who I grew up with in London is still here, and she has two sons. To just be able to sit with her and laugh and catch up or watch my son play with her sons is the most beautiful experience to me. She and I have so much history together; we have our own shorthand, so we can get to the heart of everything in about one minute.  Would Darren agree that you&amp;#039;re low-maintenance? [Laughing] Darren might say I&amp;#039;m a little more high-maintenance. But I don&amp;#039;t want jewels or clothes or material things, and he knows that about me. I&amp;#039;m definitely quite obsessional, though, and that can require some handling. What are you obsessional about? I just think about things a lot. I worry about Henry, I worry about my work. I am definitely a worrier. I really need to talk about what&amp;#039;s on my mind. Men don&amp;#039;t seem to need to do that like women do; I don&amp;#039;t know what men do with all of that [emotional stuff]. I think sometimes we expect our partners to be like our girlfriends, but they&amp;#039;re not, are they? Nor do they want to be. Sometimes, if I show Darren a new T-shirt I bought, he&amp;#039;ll go, &amp;quot;The shirt is great, you look great, go ask your girlfriend what she thinks.&amp;quot; But he&amp;#039;s the one who&amp;#039;s going to see me in that T-shirt most of the time, and I want to know what he thinks! So poor Darren. He does have to put up with my show-and-tell, and he&amp;#039;s really, really bored by it.  How does Darren help provide balance in your life? I don&amp;#039;t think balance is something you get from someone else; it&amp;#039;s something women have to find from within. For me, finding balance is still a work in progress. Darren provides the foundation, but I&amp;#039;m still figuring out my own juggling act. I think for women, finding that balance is very important. Some might think it&amp;#039;s self-indulgent, but it&amp;#039;s very important because once you&amp;#039;ve figured out how to chill, it makes you a better mom and a better wife.  How do the two of you make time for yourselves and the relationship? [Laughing] That&amp;#039;s another one that&amp;#039;s still a work in progress. We recently went to Maine by ourselves for a couple of days, and all we did was talk about Henry, and I cried about how much I loved and missed him. But it was great for us to be away together like that, and I was the one who suggested it. Even though it&amp;#039;s always hard to get away, I think it&amp;#039;s really important to do that as a parent. You get perspective on things when you&amp;#039;re away from your child, and in a way, your love for them becomes even deeper. It&amp;#039;s also important for your partner, for him to know he&amp;#039;s still a priority. Children need to know that Mommy and Daddy are still in love with each other, and that everything is alive and well in that department.  You and Darren have been together for eight years but haven&amp;#039;t married. Will you? We are engaged, and Darren and I are completely committed to &amp;quot;until death do us part,&amp;quot; although we haven&amp;#039;t made it official with the paperwork yet. It&amp;#039;s not for any political reason or that we&amp;#039;re waiting for this or for that, but maybe one day we will have an official ceremony. Does Henry just assume the two of you are married? [Laughing] Well, I don&amp;#039;t know for sure, because he thinks if a man wears a hat tied under his chin then he&amp;#039;s married. What&amp;#039;s one of your favorite things to do with Henry? I love to cuddle him and kiss him, and I&amp;#039;m obsessed with his smell. I love to bury my face in his neck and just hold him and smell how delicious he is. I know in a few years he&amp;#039;s going to say, &amp;quot;Mommy, stop kissing me!&amp;quot; So I&amp;#039;m making the most of it now.  What are some of the best things Henry has taught you? To sing and joke more \u2014 he has an unbelievable sense of humor. I&amp;#039;ve learned more patience; he&amp;#039;s definitely taught me to go more with the flow. I&amp;#039;ve also definitely fallen even more in love with his father. Henry&amp;#039;s also reinforced how little I know about science. He recently asked me how a battery works, and I had absolutely no idea. I usually say, &amp;quot;Why don&amp;#039;t you ask your dad?&amp;quot; "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.redbookmag.com/life/interviews/a5561/rachel-weisz-interview/>