Rachel Weisz Will 'Dissuade' Henry From Becoming an Actor

Nick Sadler/Startraks

Calling motherhood a “tremendous experience,” Rachel Weisz says in a new interview that it’s nonetheless a hard concept to grasp until it actually happens.

“People tell you about motherhood and you think, yeah, yeah, whatever,” the 39-year-old actress tells The Sunday Telegraph. “But it’s something you have to experience for yourself to know what it is.”

“It’s impossible to talk about it in any sensible way without sounding ridiculous.”

Having accepted the Best Supporting Actress Oscar while seven months pregnant with Henry Chance, 3 ½, in 2006, Rachel says that she hopes it is her son’s first and last brush with the Academy Awards!

“I hope he’s not an actor…I’d dissuade him as hard as I could,” she confides. “I say to people, ‘If there’s anything else you can think of doing, you should that,’ purely because the success level is so low. It’s very hard. The odds are so against you.”

From the sound of things, she might be fighting an uphill battle. Henry attended the curtain call for one of mom’s performances in London’s A Streetcar Named Desire, and liked what he saw! “He figured out bowing and getting claps,” Rachel reports. “So, yesterday, he put on his policeman’s outfit and bowed. That was the show.”

As for whether or not she and fiancé Darren Aronofsky have plans to expand their family of three, Rachel says “not right now.” She adds,

“I’m very busy and there’s so much I want to do. I feel I’m just getting going.”

Rachel’s new film The Lovely Bones is playing in select cities now and hits theaters January 15th.

Source: The Sunday Telegraph

Comments

So, none of that ‘shoot for the stars, dream big, you can do anything’ mumbo jumbo for her. . .

- Lily on December 14th, 2009

It’s something I see almost all celebs say… that they’d prefer their kids did anything but acting.

- Alice on December 14th, 2009

Ugh I get so annoyed when celebs say they don’t want their children to be actors and will try to keep them from doing it. Let your child be who they want to be! Acting does not necessarily mean they have to get into the Hollywood business. If they are interested then get them involved in the local theater or go to a college and do acting in college. Turn acting into a hobby but tell him to look for other interests as well. I just don’t see the need to completely say “You can’t be an actor” if that is the child’s passion.

- Laura on December 14th, 2009

I actually get annoyed with them say how difficult it is and then being in a lot of movies. She does not know what a difficult actor life is.. at least not by her own experience.

- lina on December 14th, 2009

What makes you think she does not know how it is to be a struggling actor Lina? You don’t get to where she is with out hard work, so don’t give me the nonsense that Rachel does not know anything because she does. And she has a right to try to persuade her kid to do something other than acting, its a hard business to get into with a lot of rejection. She has every right to do what she feels to warn her kid about it. It what a good parent does and she did not say that she would stand in his way, just persuade him not to do it.

Some of you guys are just too ridiculous for words. Very quck to attack someone with out the sense that maybe she has a point.

- Pat on December 14th, 2009

Oh my lord, does ANYTHING not start an argument with you people?

- Megan on December 14th, 2009

I think Rachel is right, there is much to the acting world than people actually get to see and i respect Rachel for at least being honest to her child than sugar coding it for him, unlike some parents who push their child into it with out any common sense of the pitfalls they might faced. If Rachel’s child wants to do it, then i don’t think she would stop him but he would be prepared for the worst thanks to her advice. Like Fran G said, Rachel is only doing what any responsible parent would do to protect their child.

- Pat on December 14th, 2009

It’s in the same realm for me as those who are in the entertainment business and say “well my kids don’t watch television”…but I can also see her point. It probably is a hard business but I am sure if he chose to do it she would support him. I think parents don’t want their kids to feel that sense of failure but I think failure is important and something to learn early on in life no matter what you choose to do.

- JMO on December 14th, 2009

i think that she realizes for every one, working, successful actor, there are two hundred unemployed actors going on massive cattle call auditions and not getting anything. and even many of the working actors are working in independent films or whatnot and are certainly not making millions. she was in her 30s before she really started getting a lot of bigger roles (at least in the states), so she knows what it’s like to struggle some. her son will probably only ever see the glamorous side of acting, the big movies and big paychecks, etc, so perhaps she is attempting to dissuade him from thinking that that’s what it’s all like.

anyways-many parents i know (mine included) discourage their children from entering into the same profession as them, whether it be because the job has too many drawbacks or because the parent is afraid the child isn’t following their own path or whatnot.

- noam on December 14th, 2009

As an out of work actor, i say that Rachel is spot on with her views. Acting, while a dream for me is also heart breaking and not many actors succeed or get their big break. What Rachel is doing is what every parent should be doing, giving her child a realistic view of the world. Good for her.

- Pat on December 14th, 2009