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High Wattage by Martha Frankel Naomi Watts, overnight sensation. Naomi Watts, hardest working actress in Hollywood. Naomi Watts, glammed up and drop-dead gorgeous. Naomi Watts, street urchin. Naomi Watts, out on the town with best friend Nicole Kidman. Naomi Watts, alone in a hotel room, cuddling with her dog. It's hard to get a handle on Naomi Watts. Although the 35-year-old Australian had done almost 25 films--among them Flirting (with Kidman), Tank Girl and Babe: Pig in the City--before being cast as Betty in David Lynch's much ballyhooed Mulholland Drive, she remained mostly unknown to American audiences. But once Mulholland hit the screen it was "so long" to anonymity--her work was so breathtaking (people still talk about "the audition scene") that stardom seemed imminent. Like most Lynch films, it was seen mostly by Lynch cultists, but it started the Big Buzz. Then came the surprise hit The Ring, a dark, grimy frightener about a deadly videotape that also happened to be smart and fun. Just like that, Watts was on everyone's list. She's made 10 films since Mulholland, too, and has a slew of others gearing up. And it's easy to understand why. Not "movie-star pretty" in the traditional sense, she has a luminous quality that is rare in these days and a willingness to take on dangerous roles--and make them seem like a day at the beach. On a beautiful New York day, I met with Watts at the super-trendy Soho House. She was on time, in a great mood--and willing to talk about anything. |
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MARTHA FRANKEL: The last time I interviewed you I said, "You're going to be a huge star," and you laughed and almost fell off your chair. NAOMI WATTS: I'm still laughing. I remember that. And I remember thinking that you weren't just flattering me, you saw something in me. And that meant a lot. It's hard to believe that one thing, Mulholland Drive, turned into so much more. Q: Reading your resume for the past few years is exhausting. A: Everything that's happened since then has happened quite quickly, it's true. And it all makes perfect sense to me because who I was in my early 20s is very different from who I am now--and I don't think I then would have made the right judgments about what's right and what's wrong. I know what I like now. I'm drawn to films that are risky, that tackle bigger problems through the character. |
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Q: You mean like how in The Ring, she's a good reporter but a lousy mother? A: [Laughs] Not really lousy, just a bit self-absorbed, no? Q: I'm not really a scary movie fan, so I had to watch The Ring during the day--with all the lights on and the fast-forward button in my hand. But it was so clever that I really enjoyed it. Q: I was nervous about taking that role because I had one film out that people knew, which was Mulholland Drive, and I had about a day's notice before I had to be on the set. I thought, hmmmm, I'm going straight into this very commercial movie--am I going to lose those people that liked my work in Mulholland Drive? Will they see me as a sellout? And some of them probably did, but I think it was done really well and it's a great character piece. I thought the script was smart, and Gore's [Verbinski, the director] ideas sounded really good. Although he hadn't really done this kind of film before, I could tell from his music background and the stories about his younger years that he was a dark, interesting, moody guy. That put me at ease. Excerpted from Movieline's Hollywood Life, Dec/Jan 2004 |
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