Rachel Weisz has returned to screens after nearly three years with the release of Netflix‘s black comedy Vladimir.
The Oscar winner is brilliant in the role of a tenured English professor caught between her husband’s campus sex scandal and a dangerous obsession with her younger colleague Vladimir (played by 29-year-old Leo Woodall).
As the episodes go on, it’s impossible not to notice 56-year-old Rachel’s sculpted face that is just as flawless as her performance.
Her age-defying appearance was even worked into the show’s script, with the university president’s envious wife asking Rachel’s unnamed protagonist to spill her skincare secrets in one scene.
While her character M sheepishly reveals she ‘bought a device on sale’, a cosmetic surgeon has revealed the actress actually has a ‘structural insurance policy’ against visible signs of ageing.
Harley Street plastic surgeon Dr Julian Silva told the Daily Mail that the reason Rachel looks younger than ever in her 50s is down to the Golden Ratio.
Dr Silva said he uses the mathematical blueprint for facial symmetry to assess beauty and Rachel’s proportions ‘rate close to optimal’.
However, the ‘poster girl for youth’ may have had a little extra help, added Dr Julian Silva as he noted subtle tweakments that make her look ‘even more vibrant than she did in her 20s’.
‘If she has undergone procedures, they have been executed with extreme precision and restraint. She hasn’t changed her face; she has simply preserved the best version of it,’ he said.
Rachel Weisz has returned to screens after nearly three years with the release of Netflix’s black comedy Vladimir. (Pictured at the premiere of Swept from the Sea in 1997)
As the episodes go on, says Maanya Sachdeva, it’s impossible not to notice that the 56-year-old’s face is just as flawless as her performance
Among the procedures the star may have opted for are a temporal brow lift, dermal fillers, eyelid surgery or a hidden incision blepharoplasty, a mini facelift and skin tightening treatments.
Dr Silva noted her smooth forehead could be the result of micro-doses of Botox to relax the muscles ‘just enough to erase the lines’ while maintaining full emotional expression.
He added: ‘There is also a subtle elevation in her brow line, suggesting a temporal brow lift or regenerative treatments that prevent the “hooding” we typically see as the skin loses elasticity.’
According to the cosmetic surgeon, her cheeks appear fuller and more sculpted than ever, adding: ‘While most people lose mid-face volume by their 50s, Rachel’s cheeks remain high and firm.
‘This suggests subtle volume restoration, potentially through bespoke dermal fillers or fat transfer (or, less likely, cheek implants), which mimics the natural plumpness of youth without the “overfilled” look common in Hollywood.
‘While the under-eye area is usually the first to show age, Rachel has almost no loose skin or bags’, he added.
‘This refreshed look is often achieved through a hidden incision blepharoplasty (eyelid surgery) with or without volume (fat transfer or fillers), which smooths the transition between the eye and the cheek, creating a bright, rested appearance that defies her busy filming schedule,’ Dr Silva continued.
Finally, a sharp jawline is usually the hallmark of good underlying bone structure.
‘However, to maintain this level of contour at 56, one might look toward deep plane facelift techniques or mini-lifts that reposition the deeper tissues of the face rather than just pulling the skin,’ he suggested.
Combined with skin-tightening treatments like radiofrequency microneedling, it ensures the neck and jawline remain ‘snatched’ and youthful.
A plastic surgeon observed that Rachel (pictured at Oscars party in March 2002) now looks ‘even more vibrant than she did in her 20s’
Her age-defying appearance was even worked into Vladimir’s script, with an envious character asking Rachel’s protagonist to share her skincare secrets
Harley Street plastic surgeon Dr Julian Silva told the Daily Mail that the reason Rachel looks so young, even in her 50s, is down to the ‘Golden Ratio’
However Dr Silva noted that subtle tweakments, such as eyelid surgery and mini facelifts, may have helped Rachel achieve her youthful look
‘Rachel’s look is the gold standard of modern aesthetics,’ Dr Silva said.
‘She proves that with the right maintenance, the ageing process isn’t just slowed but elegantly reversed.’
It comes after the Daily Mail’s critic Deborah Ross said Rachel delivered a career-best performance in Vladimir as she gave the show a five-star rating.
The eight-part show is based on Julia May Jonas’ eponymous novel, with Ross praising the Netflix adaptation as a ‘darkly comic exploration of desire that is so sly and incisive and delicious’ she wishes she could watch it for the first time again.
Vladimir follows Rachel’s character, a creative writing professor ‘M’, as she grapples with the fallout on campus when her husband John (played by John Slattery), also the head of the department, is accused of sleeping with his students.
To complicate matters, M develops an unhealthy obsession with Vladimir, a rising literary star and M’s newest colleague.
Ross said: ‘It’s a clever unpicking of the generational divide that never gets heavy as this is essentially a complex character study of a woman who is vain, manipulative and self-absorbed but is also suffering what all women suffer as they get older.
This woman will not go quietly into the night, and Weisz is truly superb.
You can’t believe everything her character says, but you can believe her to be psychologically true.
You can even believe she’s a woman on the wane even though Weisz so isn’t. I was mesmerised, spell-bound, transfixed and also….gripped.’
Before Vladimir, she was seen in Dead Ringers, a six-part adaptation of director David Cronenberg’s 1988 psychological thriller of the same name, which starred Jeremy Irons as twin gynaecologists operating an infertility clinic.
Set in New York, Rachel – who is married to former 007 Daniel Craig – plays both Elliot and Beverly Mantle, twins who share everything: drugs, lovers and an unapologetic desire to do whatever it takes.
They team up to push the boundaries of medical ethics -in an effort to challenge antiquated practices and bring women’s health care to the forefront.
The key to the plot is the relationship between them, she explained.
She said: ‘Beverly is altruistic, thoughtful, careful, and kind. She wants to change the way women give birth.
‘Elliot is very, very different. She’s not altruistic and she’s pushing the boundaries of what’s ethical.’
‘It’s quite deliciously mischievous at times. Emotional. Moving. And there is some humour, also – darkly, darkly humorous,’ Rachel told the Hollywood Reporter.
