NEW YORK — British actress Rachel Weisz won an Oscar for her role in The Constant Gardener, playing an activist whose husband sets out to discover the truth behind her murder.

In The Whistleblower, she portrays real-life law-enforcement officer Kathy Bolkovac, who went to Bosnia on a peacekeeping mission and discovered U.N. officials and others colluding with contractors in human trafficking.

Weisz, 41, talked recently about her work and life.

You found out about this film in 2006. Why did it take five years to get to theaters?
I was pregnant, and I thought it was an incredible piece of writing and a great script and important story, but I think, because I was pregnant, it was a little too harrowing for me to deal with at the moment.

But I just never forgot it. I was haunted by it.

What was it about the story that captured you?
It is one of my favorite genres of a film, a kind of thriller that is a David and Goliath story about an ordinary woman doing extraordinary things, like Silkwood and Erin Brockovich. (They are) just moms who are doing their jobs and come across an injustice and just go after it.

Are you interested in international politics?
Not particularly. I would much rather play a woman who does something really extraordinary and interesting than a woman who doesn’t.

But then I love things about human politics. I am immensely inspired by stories like Kathy’s. She wasn’t there to make trouble. She wanted to help people.

What’s different about working on a smaller, low-budget film versus a larger one?
The amount of scenes we had to shoot per day was very, very big; it was faster than TV. But no one was there to make money; everyone there was really passionate.

Have the paparazzi become more bothersome since your marriage to Daniel Craig?
Not really, no. I mean, yes, I didn’t really get photographed at the airport, and now I do. I think — touch wood — there is a way of staying pretty unhampered, believe it or not.