Rachel Weisz has confirmed that she is set to become a mother for the second time – but she’s not about to let the news distract anyone from the fact she’s taking centre-stage in one of this year’s most hotly-anticipated movies, Disobedience.

The film may have made headlines for the six-minute sex scene between Ronit (Weisz) and Esti (Rachel McAdams) – particularly as it sees the former delicately spit into the latter’s mouth – but the story is definitely worthy of your attention, too.

Ronit is a first-class photographer working in New York City, shooting the sort of people she never dreamed she’d meet. But, when she learns that her father has passed away in London, she’s forced to return home to the Orthodox Jewish community in which she grew up in. Feeling like an outsider in her own home, she soon finds herself reconnecting with faces from her past – and is shocked to learn that her childhood best friend, once a fellow rebel with a desire to change the world, is now a quiet and committed housewife.

However, as she and Esti spend more time together, it quickly becomes apparent that there is more to their friendship – and subsequent drifting apart – than anyone around them ever realised.

Teaching us an important message about overcoming our fears to embrace our true selves, Disobedience is the sort of quietly powerful movie that’s guaranteed to stay with you long after the credits roll.

And, speaking about the project to The New York Times, Weisz has suggested that the film will take on another significant role, too: that of allowing women to regain the spotlight – and their sexuality.

Weisz says: “I really enjoy all the thousands of movies I’ve seen about men.

“I mean, there are some great masterpieces. But there’s just a dearth of ones about women. I love women. Women are just really fascinating and different to men.”

The actress adds that she is sick of seeing women’s film roles reduced to mostly to wives, girlfriends and hookers.

“I think what happened was, women’s appetites were taken away from them,” she says. “As women got the pill, suddenly it’s like, ‘Let’s not let them be free in the stories.’ Once we had Barbara Stanwyck running around making trouble. Then the Seventies were worse and in the Eighties and Nineties, it got really scary.

“Transgression is delicious. You can be a force for good and sleeping with a married man. That’s what makes you a human. That’s what makes you, in stories, believable and relatable. I can’t bear just really good, idealised characters.

“Contradictory characters or illogical things about women are often taken out, and they’re simplified to either all good or bad and they’re never allowed to be just layered and complex.”

Weisz eventually, after some gentle probing from her interviewer, confirmed that she is expecting her first child with her husband, Daniel Craig. 

“I’ll be showing soon,” she said. “Daniel and I are so happy. We’re going to have a little human.

“We can’t wait to meet him or her. It’s all such a mystery.”

The actress – who is already a mother to 11-year-old Henry, with her ex Darren Aronofsky – kept her pregnancy announcement simple and succinct: it really was just those few lines.

And her decision to do so certainly makes sense. After all, surely her new movie is of more interest to fans?

We previously revealed that Disobedience is one of our must-watch feminist films of 2018 – and for good reason, too. 

Check out the rest of the list here.

Image: Getty