NET-A-PORTER Limited
NET-A-PORTER Limited

Rachel Weisz Is Red Hot at ‘The Whistleblower’ Premiere, Talks Character’s Uniform


Rachel Weisz
Photo: Getty Images
Rachel Weisz stuns in Valentino at the NYC premiere of her new film.

In The Whistleblower Rachel Weisz plays a U.N. police officer fighting human trafficking in postwar Bosnia, and she sees a bit of action in the role. “I like to run, so it was fun,” she said with a laugh at the Cinema Society screening on July 27.

“There’s one big chase sequence through the woods where I had to run like crazy, and the International Police … ” Weisz began, and then paused. “You said FashionEtc? The uniform is not a great look, I have to tell you,” the Oscar winner shifted, warming to the topic.

“The International Police task force uniform, you know, we tried to tailor it a little bit, but they’re like big, baggy pants and huge shoes—what do you call it when it’s, like, everyone wears the same thing?”

Standard issue, maybe? “Yes, standard issue, thank you,” Weisz said. “Big, really clumpy boots, and they weighed like 40 pounds or something, so just running was extremely hard in these boots,” she added, and then summed it up: “I would say it’s not my finest fashion moment.”

However, Weisz’s look for the screening—red Valentino dress, Miu Miu shoes, Bulgari jewels, and Judith Leiber clutch—was pretty far from a cop’s uniform.

The movie is based on the actual story of a woman named Kathy Bolkovac, who attended the screening. What was it like having Rachel Weisz portray her on the big screen?

“I think that she nailed the message, and the spirit and what was embodied in my character,” Bolkovac said. “Obviously, we’re two different people. She’s a gorgeous, beautiful, petite actress and I’m a… tall, gorgeous, beautiful cop,” she said, laughing.

Following the screening at the Tribeca Grand, Dior Beauty and DeLeon hosted a party at Jimmy, the rooftop space at the James Hotel, where Weisz’s husband of just over a month, Daniel Craig, slipped in unnoticed, like, uh, 007. The two held court in a corner for a while, chatting with partygoers, and then Craig plopped a baseball cap on his head and they made their escape hand-in-hand.

Fellow Englishman Gerard Butler also made a low-key entrance at the party; he just walked in with no fanfare and chatted with acquaintances in the balmy night air by the pool.

Anna Wintour, Matthew Settle, Patricia Field, Hamish Bowles, Olivier Theyskens, and Lorenzo Martone were among the guests.

Late in the evening we spotted androgynous model Andrej Pejic, who has been working a lot this summer, doing fashion shows in Brazil and walking for Gaultier in Paris.

Pejic says he’s been busy shooting covers during July, for “lots of different European magazines.” As of now he hasn’t yet booked anything for the upcoming Spring 2012 New York Fashion Week, and figures he won’t know anything until the beginning of September. “Or just before,” Pejic added.

We can’t wait ...