Weisz: 'I begged for masturbation scene'

Rachel Weisz has claimed that director Alejandro Amenabar rejected her idea to show the "deviancy" of her character in Agora.

The Constant Gardner actress plays real-life fourth-century Egyptian philosopher Hypatia of Alexandria in the Spanish historical drama.

Weisz told The Sunday Times: "There's a style of acting that can come with period films where everybody just freezes up.

"But they were drinking and f**king and doing maths or whatever else they were doing. They were just people."

She added: "I actually told Alejandro they should shoot a scene where she was looking at the stars and masturbating.

"I suggested a PG version, where her hand just went out of frame, and you're watching her come, looking at the stars.

"He wouldn't go for it. I begged him. I wanted to know about that stuff. What's up? What's her sexuality? Where's her deviancy?"