Naomi WattsNaomi Watts
Early life
Her father was a sound engineer with Pink Floyd (his manic laugh kicks off Dark Side of the Moon) and her mother is described by Watts as a hippie "with passive-aggressive tendencies" who used to threaten to send her and her brother to foster care in order to convince her grandparents to take care of the family, since her mother had virtually no money after her father's passing. In Sydney, she attended several acting schools (and in the very
first lesson in the first school, she met Nicole Kidman, with whom
she shared a taxi home from class). In 1986 she took a break from
acting and went to Japan to work as a model, but the experience
was fruitless, and Watts describes it as one of the worst periods
of her life, which lasted for about four months. Upon returning
to Australia, Watts went to work for a local department store and
from there she went to work as assistant fashion editor with an
Australian fashion magazine. She only returned to acting when a
casual invitation from a colleague to participate in a small play
rekindled her passion for the scenic arts and prompted her to quit
her job and dedicate herself completely to making it as an actress. Career Finding quality roles at first proved difficult for Watts in the Hollywood system, as she appeared in the short lived series Sleepwalkers and numerous B-list productions as in films like Children of the Corn. Gradually, Watts garnered supporting roles as in Dangerous Beauty.
However it wasn't until 2001, when Watts caught the attention of critics and audiences as she appeared in David Lynch's highly acclaimed Mulholland Drive. The film, which premiered at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival, won Watts high praise. She won the National Society of Film Critics Award as Best Actress and the National Board of Review award as Breakthrough Performance of the year. Soon after, the quality and importance of Watts' roles improved and quickly shot the actress to the top of the Hollywood A-list. 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. It was her performance opposite Sean Penn and Benicio Del Toro in director Alejandro González Iñárritu 21 Grams that earned Watts her first Academy Award nomination as Best Actress. Since then Watts has been one of the most in-demand actresses. She produced and starred in the well received independent picture We Don't Live Here Anymore. She reunited with Sean Penn and Don Cheadle in The Assasination of Richard Nixon, teamed up with Jude Law and Dustin Hoffman in David O'Russell's ensemble I Heart Huckabees, and starred in the sequel to the Ring, The Ring 2. Aside from balancing both independent projects as Ellie Parker, she managed to star in the biggest remake of them all, 2005's King Kong. The role, which was immortalized by Faye Wray in the original, proved to be Watts' most commericial film yet. Directed by Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson, the film won high praise and has since grossed more than $400 million dollars worldwide. Watts recently shot the film The Painted Veil with Edward Norton & Liev Schreiber. The film is due out in the fall of 2006. In May 2006, Watts was named a special representative to the U.N.
program for HIV/AIDS. Private life Watts divides her time between homes in Sydney, Los Angeles, and
New York City. Filmography
2006: The Painted Veil Naomi Watts Picture Gallery
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Naomi Watts (born September 28, 1968) is an Academy Award-nominated
British-Australian actress.
