NAOMI WATTS
As most of you know from previous posts I am a picky, paticular bitch - in regards to Actors this translates to mean that there are few I respect. They parade their personal shit around to snag headlines and remind us that they exist. Letting people know what's going on behind clothes doors is never a smart idea. We all have skeletons in our closet's the difference between one person to the next is weather they want to exploit those skeleton's!!! Actor's should want to be judged on their work, but in a era of mobile connections - visibility seems to be what has become relevant.
Naomi Watts does not play that game. Work is Work and personal life is personal life. She gives her fans enough tidbits about her personal life to feel connected, but not enough to feel like it is our business to know what happens behind closed doors. If I was given the opportunity to do 10 interviews in Hollywood she would be on my list - I adore her.
Here is a little clip from 2008 - I can tell that we would be besties!!!!
Naomi Ellen Watts
Height
5' 5" (1.65 m)
Watts was born in Shoreham, Kent, England, the daughter of Myfanwy Edwards (née Roberts), a Welsh antiques dealer and costume and set designer, and Peter Watts, a road manager and sound engineer who worked with Pink Floyd.
Watts has one brother, Ben, a year older and now a photographer residing in the United States. Watts's parents separated when she was four years old. Her father died during her childhood. Following her father's death, her mother moved the family to Llanfawr Farm, on Anglesey in North Wales, where they lived with Watts's maternal grandparents, Nikki and Hugh Roberts. During this time she attended a Welsh language school, Ysgol Gyfun, Llangefni where she carried out her studies for several years. Watts described her mother (also an actress) as a hippie "with passive-aggressive tendencies" and no money, who used to threaten to send her and her brother to foster care in order to get her parents to provide for them.
Although her mother occasionally moved the family around Wales and England, usually to follow boyfriends, she always ended up returning to Llangefni, living there until Naomi was 14. Watts says that she wanted to become an actress since watching the 1980 film Fame. In 1982, the family moved to Sydney, Australia. Her grandmother was Australian, which made it easier to obtain the documentation necessary, since Watts and her family were entitled to Australian citizenship.
Of her nationality, she has said:
"I consider myself British and have very happy memories of the UK. I spent the first 14 years of my life in England and Wales and never wanted to leave. When I was in Australia I went back to England a lot".
"I consider myself very Australian and very connected to Australia, in fact when people say where is home, I say Australia, because those are my most powerful memories".
After moving to Sydney, she attended Mosman High School. She attended several schools, including North Sydney Girls' High School, where her classmates included Nicole Kidman, with whom she is still close. In 1986 she took a break from acting and went to Japan to work as a model, but the experience, which lasted for about four months, was fruitless as Watts did not have the physical requirements for a professional runway model and could only hope to be working in promotions, which did not excite her. Watts describes it as one of the worst periods of her life. Upon returning to Australia, she went to work for a local department store and from there she went to work as assistant fashion editor with an Australian fashion magazine. A casual invitation to participate in a drama workshop rekindled her passion for acting, and prompted her to quit her job and dedicate herself to succeeding as an actress
Here she is on Ellen - love them both
Career
Early work (1986–2000)
Watts's career began in Australian television, where she appeared in commercials and series, including the soap opera Home and Away, the award winning mini-series Brides of Christ and the family sitcom Hey Dad..! She was featured in a supporting role in the acclaimed 1991 Australian indie film Flirting, starring future Hollywood up-and-comers Nicole Kidman and Thandie Newton. As Watts made the transition from Australia to the United States, she landed a supporting role in the cult 1995 film Tank Girl, playing the part of "Jet Girl".
Finding quality roles in the Hollywood system at first proved difficult. She appeared in the short-lived series, Sleepwalkers and numerous B-list productions such as films like Children of the Corn IV. Much of her early career is filled with near misses in casting as she was up for significant roles in films such as The Parent Trap, Meet the Parents and Man on the Moon, roles would eventually go to other actresses. Gradually, Watts attracted supporting roles in films such as Dangerous Beauty.
Breakthrough (2001–2004)
In 2001, she starred in The Shaft directed by Dick Maas, which garnered poor reviews. Watts starred in David Lynch's highly acclaimed Mulholland Drive. The film premiered at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival, winning her the National Society of Film Critics Award as Best Actress and the National Board of Review award as Breakthrough Performance of the Year. The surrealist film attracted controversy with its strong lesbian theme. Having worked with director/screenwriter Scott Coffey on Mulholland Drive, they teamed up to co-produce her next film, the semi-autobiographical Ellie Parker, which grew out of the friendship forged between Watts and Coffey.
In 2002, she starred in one of the biggest box office hits of that year, the English language remake of the Japanese horror film The Ring. The following year, she starred in the film Ned Kelly opposite Heath Ledger, Orlando Bloom, and Geoffrey Rush, as well as the Merchant-Ivory film Le Divorce with Kate Hudson. Her performance opposite Sean Penn and Benicio del Toro in director Alejandro González Iñárritu's 21 Grams earned Watts her first Academy Award nomination as Best Actress. She said of the nomination, "It's far beyond what I ever dreamed for - that would have been too far fetched".
She produced and starred in the well-received independent film We Don't Live Here Anymore. She reunited with Sean Penn and Don Cheadle in The Assassination of Richard Nixon, teamed up with Jude Law and Dustin Hoffman in David O. Russell's ensemble comedy I ♥ Huckabees, and starred in the sequel to the Ring, The Ring Two.
Career success (2005–present)
She then starred in the much-anticipated remake of King Kong (2005) as Ann Darrow. The role, immortalized by Fay Wray in the original film, proved to be Watts's most commercially successful film yet. Helmed by The Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson, the film won high praise and grossed $550 million worldwide.
... you’d better know why you’re here as an actor ... I’m here to work out my shit, what my problems are and know who I am, so by cracking open these characters perhaps that shines a light on it a little bit better.
Watts starred in The Painted Veil with Edward Norton and Liev Schreiber, released in December 2006. She has since finished the films Funny Games (a remake of the 1997 Austrian film by director Michael Haneke) with Tim Roth, and David Cronenberg's Eastern Promises with Viggo Mortensen.
The press has labeled her the "queen of remakes" because she has starred in so many of them; she is scheduled to star in the remake of Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds (1963). Watts has stated only that there have been "discussions" about the remake.
In January 2010, she was cast for the thriller film Dream House, which will be directed by Jim Sheridan. She also appears in the drama Mother and Child, which screened at the Sundance Film Festival.
Humanitarian work
Watts became a goodwill ambassador for UNAIDS, it helps to raise awareness of AIDS issues. She has used her high profile and celebrity to call attention to the needs of people living with this disease. Watts participate in events and activities, including the 21st Annual AIDS Walk. She is presented as an inaugural member of AIDS Red Ribbon Awards. She has participated in campaigns for fundraising.
On December 1, 2009, Watts was meeting with United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and joined the AIDS response at a dramatic public event commemorating World AIDS Day 2009. During the event, she said:
It has been both unfortunate and unfair for HIV infection to be considered a shameful disease, for people living with HIV to be judged as blameworthy, and for AIDS to be equated with certain death. I have personally seen that dignity and hope have been strongest among those whose lives were changed by HIV.
Personal life
Her father's manic laugh can be heard in Pink Floyd's "Speak to Me" and "Brain Damage" and her mother's comments can be heard in "The Great Gig in the Sky" and "Money" from The Dark Side of the Moon. Watts is pictured in her mother's arms with her father, brother, the band, and other crew members, in the hardback/softcover edition of drummer Nick Mason's autobiography of the band Inside Out.
Watts dated Stephen Hopkins in the 1990s and actor Heath Ledger from August 2002 to May 2004. Since the spring of 2005, Watts's partner has been the actor Liev Schreiber. She confirmed in an interview in late January 2009 that Liev had in fact given her a ring, but that neither of them wanted to rush into marriage. This would confirm that they are engaged but had no serious plans for marriage at the time. Yet rumours that they had been married in a secret ceremony surfaced when a video of her and her family, which featured them planting trees for the Jewish National Fund in Israel, also featured Liev referring to her as his wife came out in early June. Liev, known to play tricks on the media, had once before called her as such in 2007 but later revealed that it was all a joke. Since there has been no proof given other than Liev's word in the video, it is unclear as to whether or not he is telling the truth or simply playing another joke.
The couple's first son, Alexander "Sasha" Pete, was born on 25 July 2007 in Los Angeles, and their second son, Samuel "Sammy" Kai, on 13 December 2008 in New York City. After a temporary hiatus from acting, she returned to work with The International, her first project since becoming a mother.
Watts is a close friend of Benicio del Toro, with whom she co-starred in 21 Grams. Watts is friends with actress Isla Fisher, and is godmother to The Mentalist's Simon Baker's oldest daughter, Stella. She is also best friends with fellow Australian actress Nicole Kidman, after having met when they were in their teens during an audition. Watts even moved in with Kidman for a time as nanny to the children of Kidman and her then husband Tom Cruise when Watts's own career had yet to gain commercial success.
After filming The Painted Veil, she became attracted to Buddhism, claiming, "I have some belief but I am not a strict Buddhist or anything yet. There was a lot of excitement and energy there."
Naomi's Best known work
Mother and Child 2010
The International (2009/10)
Funny Games U.S. (2007)
Eastern Promises (2007)
The Painted Veil (2006)
Inland Empire (2006) (voice)
King Kong (2005)
Stay (2005/06)
The Ring Two (2005)
Ellie Parker (2005)
I Heart Huckabees (2004)
The Assassination of Richard Nixon (2004)
We Don't Live Here Anymore (2004)
21 Grams (2003)
Le divorce (2003)
Ned Kelly (2003)
The Outsider (2002)
The Ring (2002/03)
Rabbits (2002)
Mulholland Dr. (2001)
Personal Quotes
'Pain is such an important thing in life. I think that as an artist you have to experience suffering. It's not enough to have lived it once; you have to relive it. Darkness is not a pejorative thing."
"There's a lot of skeletons in my closet, but I know what they're wearing. I'm not gonna act all ashamed of it" - on her early career.
It was total naivety that got me to Hollywood. I thought it was going to happen straight away. I told myself 'give it 5 years, there's no way I'll be here after that if it doesn't happen'. Cut to ten years later!
On set is where I feel comfortable. The red carpet stuff, talking about the film, explaining your own life, it doesn't come naturally. It's all necessary stuff I suppose but it's not my strength.
I find myself gravitating towards drama. It interests me. In the books I read, the paintings I like, it's always the darker stuff.
For the record, I am actually British as well as Australian. People always think I'm Australian but I'm happy for the Brits to claim me back. I'm offering myself up.
Instead of thinking 'how can I slow the ageing process?' I think 'how can I bend the rules?' Every year you add to your life, you're going to add a different experience to your face.
Whatever is said about roles drying up, I intend to keep working. Certainly now the roles couldn't be more interesting - playing mothers, divorcees. I think it's going to be exciting to play a mother of teenagers. The longer your life, the deeper it gets.
"We're so afraid of death in our culture, but I think if we understand it better, then we'll appreciate the life we have more." - in response to 21 Grams (2003).
"I've had people who've seen 21 Grams (2003) say, 'Wow, you're so brave to be looking like that'. This shocks me. I think that's what an actor's job is, to lose yourself in a role".
"You have to make peace with yourself. The key is to find the harmony in what you have." quoted in the Feb 01, 2005 issue of WOMAN'S WORLD
If I have to produce movies, direct movies, whatever to change the way Hollywood treats older women, I'll do it. If I have to bend the rules, I will. If I have to break them, I will.
Even during my most intense scenes with Sean Penn (in 21 Grams (2003)), we found ways to have fun. Sure, I have my dark moments, but I'm the girl you'll see driving down the highway singing to Blondie.
I always love being in the company of women. It's all about good conversation and great wine.
"The consequences are that you fear and dread being abandoned. You get a little tougher, and it's more difficult for you to become intimate. The pros are that you can adapt to any situation and that you're open to new surroundings. A lot of people get stuck in their ways, but I embrace change." on moving frequently when she was younger.
I'm a tomboy now. I always wanted to fit in with my brother's group, so I climbed trees and played with lead soldiers. But I'm a woman's woman. I never understood women who don't have woman friends.
I keep saying to myself, Oh, God, I'm sick of playing these dark, harrowing roles. I want a big paycheck, so put me in some dumb romantic comedy any day.
I had gotten to a place where I truly believed everything I was called: 'not sexy,' 'not funny,' 'too intense,' desperate.' All those labels they gave me, I took them because there wasn't a trace of my true self left. - on the struggles of her early career
To be appreciated or recognized is everything to an artist, but to be placed in a category where judgment occurs is awful, and yet we are all liars if we can't admit that we haven't all chased it or dreamed of it, even just a little bit.
Every time I'd think to book a ticket to leave L.A., something would come up-even just a three day job or something. That was enough to keep me invested. I still pinch myself when a certain director calls and says, 'Would you like to read my script?' I don't take any of it for granted because I struggled for so long.
Yes, I've had six great years of being in a position where I can pick and choose a bit, but it's not like I suddenly feel so calm and relaxed about that. Having spent a large portion of my life with a constant struggle and trying to find ways to make it work, that's what sticks with me.
There's a set of rules out there somewhere that says it all ends by 40. I hope to be able to defy that because I truly love my work.
To be a producer is not something that I look at as a position of power. I just think that I have these great connections, let's use them. I believe in it. You believe in it. Let's do it.
Auditions are just so humiliating and degrading. You get a five-minute time slot for a part you've spent six hours or more studying for or thinking about, and you get into these rooms full of people who barely make eye contact. They're bored and frustrated that they can't find the right person, energy that is instantly crushing and which makes it hard to shine. Going through that process over and over, you become so wounded and guarded that it's impossible to give you best stuff away. That's why I will never forget what David Lynch did for me. When he cast me in Mulholland Drive I was literally at the lowest place, and yet he managed to pull away all those masks.
SOURCE: IMBD
