Weisz Talks About Mummy

"None of us wanted to do a sequel if it was set the next day," Weisz notes. "We all wanted to do it only if the story, if the characters had moved on and progressed, if there was something new for us to play as the characters. Brendan’s character is a bit less goofy and, as I said, mine is less wide-eyed and innocent. There are some amazing flashbacks to ancient Egypt. Patricia Velasquez, who was the beautiful girl at the beginning of The Mummy, has a leading part now in The Mummy Returns. And we have this big chick fight. We had to spend five months training in this Japanese martial art (that involves manipulating a sword in each hand.). The special effects (once again via Industrial Light and Magic) are even more impressive this time. I suppose that makes the movie more awe-inspiring and scary. I don’t know. It’s still pretty funny, too. Tonally, The Mummy Returns is pretty similar to the first one. It’s an action-adventure/horror movie."

As much as Weisz enjoyed reuniting with director Sommers and Fraser and the rest of the cast and crew, it’s unlikely that Weisz will turn up in a second sequel. She’s not a fan of sequels and prefers not to repeat herself if possible. "I’ve pretty much done it," says the actress, who turned 30 on March 7. Though it could be argued that The Mummy put Weisz on the map, the truth is that she’s essentially doing now what she did before The Mummy achieved blockbuster status. Pre-Mummy, the Cambridge-educated Brit appeared in several plays and such films as the sci-fi/horror outing Death Machine, Stealing Beauty, Chain Reaction, Swept from the Sea and The Land Girls. Post-Mummy, Weisz starred in a West End production of Suddenly Last Summer and then took to the screen in the recent WWII drama Enemy at the Gates, the offbeat documentary This Is Not an Exit: The Fictional World of Bret Easton Ellis, and also the just-released dark feminist thriller, Beautiful Creatures.