NAOMI WATTS

She’s electric…

CHARGING UP

A supremely fluent and intuitive actor, the Kent-born Naomi Watts learned to adapt early. Her parents divorced when she was four and her father died four years afterwards. An itinerant childhood followed, with Watts eventually reaching Australia, where she befriended Nicole Kidman and co-starred in 1991’s Flirting. Following Home and Away duties, an American foray tested her endurance: believing herself ‘unhireable’, she survived Tank Girl (1995) and worse before fame beckoned.

FULL POWER

Watts spent time driving along Mulholland Drive herself, contemplating her life, before serving notice of her arrival in David Lynch’s 2001 film. Tasked to convey innocence, experience and beyond, she nailed every beat and anchored her elasticity with grounding instincts. A controlled centre in often choppy settings, Watts’ steadying range went on to help her sell everything from horrors (2002’s The Ring) to madcap humour (2004’s

I Heart Huckabees).

TRANSFORMER

With her Oscar-nominated 21 Grams (2003) performance, Watts showed a flair for intense material. But she also engaged fully with ‘indie-wood’ character work (2004’s We Don’t Live Here Anymore) and ’buster pleasures (King Kong, 2005) alike. On a roll, she showed steadfast intelligence alongside Viggo Mortensen’s balls-out fireworks in David Cronenberg’s Eastern Promises (2007). Michael Haneke wouldn’t direct his US Funny Games remake (2007) without Watts, and she responded with tremendous commitment.

POSITIVE/NEGATIVE FLOW

Watts showed resilience in the early 10s, even when the roles were mixed. For every Dream House (2011) or Diana (2013), there was a Birdman or While We’re Young (both 2014) where Watts reasserted her brilliance from the narrative fringes. Underrated indie drama Sunlight Jr. (aka Trapped, 2013) upheld her character-actor clout, while her restrained anguish in pulverising tsunami drama The Impossible (2012) and Russian sex worker in Bill Murray comedy St. Vincent (2014) drew awards attention.

CURRENT STATUS

Watts has multitasked lately, juggling film/TV work with off-screen campaigns to end stigma around the perimenopause. On film, she conveyed deep inner tensions as the mother in troubled-child drama Luce; on telly, she showed her dark side in The Watcher (2022). Meanwhile, a Lynch reunion for Twin Peaks: The Return reiterated her fluency. ‘You trust David and you’re just all in,’ she says. Truthfully, she’s never given less. Next up: as socialite Babe Paley in Feud S2…