The
trick in writing about Naomi Watts at this point lies in conceiving an original
story. For the last 2 1/2 years it’s seemed as if every article was identical:
She struggled for years, was Nicole Kidman’s best friend, and now she’s a star.
Part of this, I think, is because every director jumped to work with her after
seeing her performance in David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive – and that said,
she’s more established and better regarded within the creative community than
she’s had the opportunity to necessarily solidify a track record with audiences.
So until she’s developed more of a screen persona those repetitious articles
will probably persist. Hopefully, with the release of Alejandro Gonzales
Inarritu’s 21 Grams, in which she plays the grieving Christina, whose
family has been taken from her in an accident, her back-story will become less
important than the project at hand.
She arrived for her 21 Grams interview suffering from a cold, and I
subsequently learned that she cancelled her other interviews shortly after. For
an actress who likes to blend into real life without actively seeking the
spotlight, her coughs and sniffles offered the perfect lack of pretension.
The picture that I put together of her was somebody who, even after years of
waiting for success, prefers good roles to huge paychecks. She also doesn’t play
the career game of balancing big pictures with independents – there’s no
strategy, just an eye for interesting projects.
Naomi is here. She’s not an up-and-comer or the hot new thing. She’s a veteran
actress who can anchor a $100-million movie like The Ring, or help
produce a small picture like We Don’t Live Here Anymore. Get used to her.
“For me, I hope that with every role I take on there’s something more than just
what ends up on celluloid,” she begins. “I have to get some kind of personal
growth out of it – and sometimes you don’t even know what it is when you’re
going into it. Intuitively you connect with the character and it means something
to you. It becomes very apparent when you’re reading it, when you’re shooting
it. Later on even.”
Juxtaposing her breakthrough role to her latest, she states, “In Mulholland
Drive I really got to play two very different – polar opposite characters –
in one film. And that was just an extraordinary opportunity. Then with
Christina, she has such an incredible journey of mostly lows, but she runs the
gamut even though she’s in pretty much one state from the beginning. She fights
her emotion, she freezes it, she expresses it in rage, in vulnerability. So
there’s so many different gear changes. I just fell in love with her. Fell in
love with that role.”
This part in particular proved to be a personal experience for her. Having lost
her own father at a young age, she was able to tap into certain realizations
while researching her character. “ I was so young, I really didn’t know how
you’re supposed to grieve. Or that it was even grief that I was experiencing. I
only knew that I wasn’t going to be seeing my dad again. I don’t think you
intellectually understand it. So I met with people in group therapy, grief
support groups, read up on a lot of literature where people were contributing
their stories, their experiences and stories. It was interesting identifying
with these people, like, oh, right – that’s what I was going through. You’re
always thinking you’re going to die at the same age that your father died. My
dad died very young, when he was 32. I was convinced – not just when I was a
kid, when I was an adult – I just thought that that would be a weird tie to my
own life.” Instead, as we now know, age 32 brought about her big break in
Mulholland Drive, a role that possibly mirrored her own fears, though not
her real life or its newfound success.
Of course, not every role offers an actress the ability to cope with her own
experiences. It is a business after all. But it does take more than a bit of
cash to get her interested in a film. She contends, “It’s not like I go, Ooh,
this is my career and I’ve done that big movie and now I must do that little
one. It’s not planned with that much structure. Often, to me, it’s about the
director. Obviously, the script and the part are crucial. The actors as well.
There’s certainly some value in doing big commercial movies, but I don’t do them
just because they’re commercial. The part always has to be good or the
director.”
Naomi does however prefer films that make audiences think, hence her attraction,
whether intentional or not, to darker films. In fact, her one true box office
success so far has been a horror film, The Ring.
21 Grams challenges its audience by constantly switching time sequences
and drifting from character to character. This was one of the more compelling
aspects of the picture for her. “I think the great thing about the audience’s
involvement is that they feel active and a part of it. I think (in general) we
have put our audiences in a place where there’s nothing for them to do. Here
there is a little bit of work. But I think maybe 40 minutes in, you know where
you’re going. From my understanding, as an audience, I feel like that’s
rewarding. Yeah, you are a bit lost. I find as an audience member, when you’re
forced to do a bit of work it’s all the more liberating, rewarding at the end.
Cause you feel more stimulated. You feel you’ve had your part of it too.”
As our interview was coming to and end, and it was clear she was trying her best
through the occasional cough and hiss, she offered a tale about how, as with her
performances, she tends to blend into reality without detection. “I don’t get
recognized really that much. In my own life I just go with no fuss, no hair and
make-up. I just look like me. I just blend into the crowd. There’s nothing that
makes me pop out in a crowd. I get quite surprised when somebody actually does
recognize me. The other day I was in some store, picking up a sweater, cause it
was cold. I just had to go buy a sweater. During the line at the cash register
someone said to me, Has anyone ever told you, you look like Naomi Watts? I just
went, Oh, really?”
After a few more sniffles she cordially raised her hand to wave, then headed
back to bed.
Copyright 2003 Jamie Stuart
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