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| Birth Name(s) : Naomi Watts |
Date of Birth: September 28, 1968 |
| Status:
N/A
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Partner:
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| Profession:
Actor |
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Full Naomi Watts Biography
| Born in Shoreham, England and raised in Australia, Naomi Watts has been working actively in the film industry for 15 years. After she moved to Hollywood, she worked regularly, acting in small roles in film projects she was less than enthusiastic about. Finally, her big break came when she was contacted to audition for a coveted spot in David Lynch's Mulholland Dr. (2001). Her star-turning performance in the dual role of Betty Elms/Diane Selwyn has garnered an array of critic's awards and the attention of some major players in Hollywood and beyond. Watts is now enjoying greater choice of film roles and is slated to play the lead in Gore Verbinski's upcoming remake of the Japanese horror classic _Ring (2002)_ . She is also in negotiations to star opposite Kate Hudson in a Merchant/Ivory adaptation of the Diane Johnston novel Divorce, Le (2003). |
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Additional Naomi Watts Biography
Naomi Ellen Watts (born September 28, 1968) is a British actress known for her roles in Mulholland Drive, the film remakes of The Ring and King Kong, as well as her Academy Award-nominated role in the film 21 Grams.
Watts was born in Shoreham, Kent, England, daughter of Myfannwy "Miv" (née Roberts), an antiques dealer and costume and set designer, and Peter Watts, a road manager and sound engineer who worked with Pink Floyd (her father's manic laugh is featured in Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon). Watts is pictured, in her mother's arms, with her father, brother, Pink Floyd, and other crew members, in the hardback edition of Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason' autobiography of the band Inside Out. Watts 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). Watts' parents separated when she was four years old, and when she was seven, her father died. Following her father's death, her mother relocated the family to Llanfawr Farm, on the Isle of Anglesey in North Wales, where they lived with Watts' maternal grandparents, Nikki and Hugh Roberts.
Watts described her mother 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. 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 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".
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 in the Hollywood system at first proved difficult for Watts. 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.Watts with filmmaker David Lynch at the Cannes Film Festival in 2001.
In 2001, Watts starred in David Lynch's highly acclaimed Mulholland Drive. The film, which premiered at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival, earned Watts mixed reactions amongst critics, with some doubtful of the believability of her acting. However, 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 Drive, where Watts had her breakout performance. Her next film, the semi-autobiographical Ellie Parker, grew out of the friendship forged between Watts and Coffey. 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.
Watts starred in The Painted Veil with Edward Norton and Liev Schreiber, released in December 2006. She has since finished the films Funny Games (a remake of an Austrian movie) with Tim Roth and Eastern Promises with Viggo Mortensen.
The press has labeled her the "queen of remakes" because she has starred in so many remakes, and she is scheduled to star in the remake of Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds (1963).
Watts previously dated director Daniel Kirby, playwright Jeff Smeenge, director Stephen Hopkins and actor Heath Ledger for a couple years, her co-star in the film Ned Kelly. Since spring 2005, Watts has dated actor Liev Schreiber. They co-starred in The Painted Veil. The couple's son, Alexander Pete, was born on July 26, 2007 in Los Angeles.
Watts is a close friend of Benicio del Toro, with whom she co-starred in 21 Grams. After filming 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". |
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Naomi Watts Quote(s)
| Pain is such an important thing in life. I think that as an artist you have to experience suffering. It's not enough to have lived it once; you have to relive it. Darkness is not a pejorative thing. |
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