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Naomi Ellen Watts (born September 28,
1968) is a British-Australian actress known for her
roles in Mulholland Dr., the film remakes of The Ring
and King Kong, as well as her Academy Award-nominated
role in the film 21 Grams.
Early life: Watts was born in Shoreham, Kent,
England, lived until the age of eight. Her parents,
Peter and Myfanwy Watts, separated when she was four
years old, and when she was seven, her father died. She
has one brother, Ben Watts, a year older and now a
photographer in the United States (Watts confessed that
they fought like cats and dogs as children).
Following her father's death, her mother
relocated the family to the town of Llangefni (more
specifically Llanfawr Farm), on the Isle of Anglesey in
North Wales, where they lived with Naomi's grandparents,
Hugh and Nikki Roberts. Although her mother occasionally
moved the family around Wales and England, usually to
follow boyfriends, she always ended up returning to
Llangefni.
Watts lived there until she was 14.
Then, during a trip to Australia, her mother became
convinced it was "the land of opportunities"
and moved the family to Sydney in 1982 . Her grandmother
Nikki was Australian, which made it easier to obtain the
documentation necessary, since Naomi 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 never wanted to leave.
When I was in Australia I went back to England a
lot."
Her father was a sound engineer with Pink Floyd (his
manic laugh is featured in The Dark Side of the Moon)
and her mother (who also contributed lines to Dark Side
of the Moon's "The Great Gig in the Sky" and
"Money") is described by Watts 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.
In Sydney, Watts 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 and is still good friends). 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.
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. 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: Watts' career began in Australian
television, where she appeared in commercials and
television melodramas such as Home and Away and Brides
of Christ. She was featured in a supporting role in the
acclaimed 1991 Australian indie film Flirting, which
starred 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 at first proved difficult for
Watts in the Hollywood system, as she appeared in the
short-lived series Sleepwalkers and numerous B-list
productions such as films like Children of the Corn IV.
Gradually, Watts garnered supporting roles such as
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. Watts worked with director/screenwriter Scott
Coffey on Lynch's Mulholland Dr., where Watts had her
breakout performance. Her next film, the
semi-autobiographical Ellie Parker, grew out of the
friendship forged between Watts and Coffey.
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's
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
Assassination of Richard Nixon, teamed up with Jude Law
and Dustin Hoffman in David O. Russell's ensemble I
♥ Huckabees, and starred in the sequel to the
Ring, The Ring Two. 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 Fay Wray in
the original, proved to be Watts' most commercial film
yet. Directed by The Lord of the Rings director Peter
Jackson, the film won high praise and grossed $550
million worldwide.
Watts starred in The Painted Veil with Edward Norton and
Liev Schreiber, released in December 2006. She has since
finished the films Funny Games with Tim Roth and Eastern
Promises with Viggo Mortensen.
In May 2006, Watts was named a special representative to
the U.N. program for HIV/AIDS. In May 2007, many
newspaper articles and online publishers claimed she had
signed up to play Narcissa Malfoy in the upcoming Harry
Potter and the Half Blood Prince scheduled for release
on November 28, 2008. There has currently been no word
from Warner Bros. or Naomi Watts as of May 2007.
Personal life: Watts previously dated director
Daniel Kirby, playwright Jeff Smeenge, and most famously
actor Heath Ledger for several years, with whom she
starred in the film Ned Kelly. Since Spring 2005, Watts
has dated actor Liev Schreiber. They co-starred in The
Painted Veil, and are currently expecting their first
child.
Watts is a close friend of Benicio Del Toro, with whom
she co-starred in 21 Grams. After filming her most
recent movie, The Painted Veil, she converted 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."
Watts divides her time between homes in Sydney, Los
Angeles, and London. Is friends with a number of
high-profile actors including Nicole Kidman, Russell
Crowe, and Mark Ruffalo. |
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