LOS ANGELES - Actress Rachel Weisz says she was deeply moved by the impoverished conditions she saw in Kenya while making her latest film.

"I had never seen poverty like that," Weisz told the Orange County Register in Sunday's editions. "It was extreme and tragic, and I felt a wave of guilt being a wealthy white Westerner walking through those slums filming a movie."

In "The Constant Gardener," the 34-year-old actress plays the wife of a British diplomat stationed in Kenya who accuses the pharmaceutical industry of exploiting developing nations.

Weisz says she was not distraught by everything she saw in Africa.

"I was struck by the spirit of the children, who clamored around us and welcomed us," says the British actress. "The condition in which they live is a tragedy, but their spiritual wealth is so much more powerful than the poverty. In the end, one wonders who should feel sorry for whom."

The film, adapted from a John Le Carre novel, co-stars Ralph Fiennes and opens Wednesday.