Rachel Weisz's anti-authority past

Rachel Weisz struggled with ''anti-authority issues'' when she was a teenager and acknowledges she was a difficult pupil.

Rachel Weisz struggled with "anti-authority issues" when she was a teenager.

The 'Oz: The Great and Powerful' actress acknowledges she was a disruptive pupil and was even "asked to leave" one school when growing up in London.

She told the Sunday Telegraph newspaper: "I was asked to leave North London Collegiate, but my mum doesn't like me to say I was expelled.

"I didn't try to burn down the school or anything like that; it was just anti-authority issues. I didn't think the teachers had the right to tell me what to do.

"I would just disobey, talk in the classroom, get very bad grades.

"I was not a good person to have in the classroom, to put it mildly."

The 41-year-old actress eventually turned her life around and went on to study at England's prestigious Cambridge University, which she largely credits to an English teacher, Miss Gough, at her next school, Benenden and St Paul's.

She added: "I was very nearly asked to leave that school, too, for ongoing disobedience – the French teacher refused to teach me – but Miss Gough, who later became headmistress, completely inspired me.

"She saw through me and she scared me and I guess none of the other teachers did that. We read a lot of poetry.

"I started to read everything and ended up studying English at Cambridge."

Rachel – who married James Bond star Daniel Craig in June - also said they have both been hitting the gym, although she's not planning on having muscles to match him anytime soon.

She said: "We've been to the gym together but we do very different training."