‘I PANICKED ABOUT TURNING 50’ The Loudest Voice star Naomi Watts reveals
‘The Loudest Voice’ star on ageing, #MeToo and co-parenting
Naomi Watts has been navigating Hollywood for decades now. And while it may look like she handles it with ease, she reveals to WHO this was not always the case. “[Early on] I did not trust myself enough and I was constantly trying to reshape my identity to what I thought would fit the room best,” she says. “I spent a good 15 years trying to get jobs and not getting them. So had I trusted myself and just walked in as myself, and been myself, I think I might have.”
Now, Watts’ latest turn sees her tackle a story ripped from the headlines. Starring in the mini-series The Loudest Voice (airing on Stan from July 1), Watts plays TV host Gretchen Carlson, whose 2016 sexual harassment lawsuit ultimately led to the downfall of Roger Ailes, the disgraced, and now late, king of Fox News (played by a barely recognisable Russell Crowe). The British-born, Australian-raised actress and mum of Sasha, 11, and Sammy Kai, 10, tells WHO about her new role, peaceful co-parenting with ex Liev Schreiber and turning 50 in Hollywood.
Why is Gretchen Carlson’s story so important?
She really, inadvertently, created the #MeToo movement. She was the first one to take down a man of that power. He created a toxic environment where women didn’t get to be more than a pretty face and a skirt, basically. It was very much a misogynistic world.
Did you ever experience abuse from a person in power when you were younger? I had more than a few of those situations, including when I started out in acting school, where you’d go for auditions and end up in a place you shouldn’t be. You don’t know how to manage that situation as a young girl. You don’t have that agency to say, “No, I don’t feel comfortable.” Or you say as much, and then
you’re challenged, and you want the job. It’s so confusing and so hard. Then there were times in work situations where I was older and being directed by someone who was making me feel quite uncomfortable, but I’ve learned a lot over time and it’s not happening now.
You’re in a new decade and you seem happy. How do you feel now versus your forties? I feel pretty good, actually. There was a bit of panic getting to that milestone and now I’m here, I feel good. There are still parts of me that feel excitable and girlish, but there are also parts of me that can look back and see how I’m dealing with things in a new and better way. In your twenties you’re a bit oblivious, in your thirties you’re thinking about families, and then in your forties, you get strong. At 50, I start thinking about what I’ve done and, OK, what else can I do? I get nostalgic as well. I want to be around people I’ve known for a really long time. It doesn’t mean to say I can’t create new friendships, but the ones I’ve had and known for a long time, they just get deeper, and you love visiting or revisiting Memory Lane.
You post lovely things about your exhusband. How do you remain so civilised? Liev and I have found a way to navigate co-parenting with complete mindfulness every step of the way. It takes commitment and care. And, obviously, as far as the children go, we both have the same wants and desires for them, and we’re talking about it every step of the way.
For Father’s Day, we actually got to spend it together. It’s great for the kids, it means so much to them to have their parents relating in a healthy and special way, on important days, and sometimes just on regular days, too. The studies say that if it’s an acrimonious divorce or break-up, that they pick up on all of that stuff. And so, it was absolutely our intention to do this in a conscious and careful way.
“We have the same wants and desires for our kids”