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Naomi Watts' Wild Child
Naomi Watts breaks all the rules in Mother and Child
Ten years ago, Naomi Watts was a struggling Hollywood actress.
In 2001, she caught her big break—in David Lynch’s Mulholland Dr.—playing a struggling Hollywood actress. And immediately following her breakthrough role, she took on the role of producer-actress alongside her friend Scott Coffey to make Ellie Parker, playing—what else—a struggling Hollywood actress.
Watts doesn’t struggle anymore. The English-born, Australian-raised Oscar nominee now enjoys the privilege of being choosy. With the exception of the birth of her two sons with fellow thespian Liev Schreiber (her co-star in 2006’s The Painted Veil), having her pick of roles from atop Hollywood’s A-List has been the biggest change over the past decade. Unlike other actresses who drown in the pressure of suddenly becoming in-demand, Watts has chosen her parts carefully.
Though she’s worked on big-budget films like The Ring and King Kong, Watts’ greatest acclaim has come from her roles in smaller, independent films with a who’s who of talented directors, including (of course) David Lynch, James Ivory (Le divorce), Alejandro González Iñárritu (21 Grams, for which she received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress in 2004), David O. Russell (I Heart Huckabees), Marc Forster (Stay), David Cronenberg (Eastern Promises), Michael Haneke (Funny Games) and Tom Tykwer (The International).
The daughter of Pink Floyd sound engineer Peter Watts, who passed away when Naomi was a child, and set and interior designer Miv Watts, creativity is likely in her genes. (Her brother, Ben, is a well-known photographer who has shot for the likes of Vogue and Elle.)
Just as her stock in the film industry has risen, so has Watts’ reputation as an actress who is unafraid to take on extremely challenging characters, all the while infusing them with her specific brand of vulnerability. Case in point: Rodrigo García’s upcoming Mother and Child.
For writer-director García, who has a rare talent for writing compelling female-centric stories that are anything but chick flicks, it’s been a film 10 years in the making.
“When I’m writing, I try to have actors in mind,” says García, whose previous works include Things You Can Tell Just by Looking at Her, Ten Tiny Love Stories and Nine Lives. While his references for Mother and Child have changed over the decade, “A couple of years before we started production it got in my head that Naomi would be the perfect Elizabeth and that never changed—I could never shake it.”
Iñárritu, the film’s executive producer, was one of the first people to read García’s script. “He liked it and said he’d help me get it off the ground. I told him the best way he could help would be to get the script to Naomi.”
The film intertwines the separate stories of three very different women, each at different points in their lives, careers and attitudes toward motherhood. At its heart, it’s about the role a woman’s relationship to her mother plays in her life—whether that relationship is good, bad or somewhere in between.
Watts plays Elizabeth, an attorney whose professional accomplishments help to mask her lack of any personal connections. Unable to process the intimacy that comes along with close relationships, Elizabeth instead immerses herself in her work and a series of brazen, no-strings-attached sexual encounters. When she feels any of the self-constructed walls she has built starting to crumble, she simply leaves without a word.
“I think she can play the high vulnerability but also that sort of steely, controlling aspect of Elizabeth,” says García of why he wanted Watts—and only Watts—to play the character. “I’ve seen her do bold work and I think some bold stuff was required for this role, not just with Elizabeth’s nasty behavior but with her sexual behavior, which isn’t explicit but is very particular.”
Watts—who had given birth to her second son less than two months before production began—plays the role of this seemingly untouchable woman with an unnerving rawness.
García, who admits that he’s reluctant to give too much direction “or talk about how a character should be played because I feel that directing too soon squashes an actor’s creativity,” left the discovery of the character up to Watts. “She was okay with that; I think that’s how she likes to work. I’ve never asked her how she approached Elizabeth—what her door to Elizabeth was—and when I’m away from her, I always think, ‘I’m going to ask her,’ just to be curious. But when I’m with her, I don’t want to know. I don’t want to spoil the magic.”
After taking a year off following the birth of her first son, 2010 is revving up to be a busy—and buzzy—year for the 41-year-old.
In addition to Mother and Child, which hits theaters on May 7th, she’ll appear alongside Josh Brolin in Woody Allen’s You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger in September and then play CIA agent Valerie Plame in Doug Liman’s Fair Game. MM spoke with Watts from the set of yet another new film, Jim Sheridan’s Dream House, co-starring Daniel Craig and Rachel Weisz.
Jennifer Wood (MM): What attracted you to Mother and Child?
Naomi Watts (NW): The very first read, I just loved it. I thought it was a really beautiful story about three complicated women addressing issues of being a mother, wanting to become a mother, running away from mothers and how they all kind of link up. Initially, I said to Alejandro [González Iñárritu], ‘God, I love this so much. I really want to play Karen [Annette Bening’s character].’ They actually considered it.
MM: And then they did the math?
NW: They did do the math. Elizabeth had to be quite deep into her career, so she couldn’t be anything younger than 35. That’s not so big of a stretch. (laughs) We were supposed to make the film and then I found out I was pregnant. We were going to make it work so that it was before I was really showing, but it was that pre-SAG strike time and everyone was nervous about whether it would actually happen. So they kind of pulled the plug and then said, “We’ll wait for you.”
I had my baby in December but, meanwhile, Rodrigo [García] and Xavier Pérez Grobet, the cinematographer, came over here in November and they stole the whole shot of me and my belly.
MM: That’s so funny, because when I watched that scene, I was wondering, “Who did the make-up for this movie?”
NW: That’s the thing. When does a prosthetic belly ever look good? Particularly on a low-budget film, all we’ve got is a dime to spend, so we’re not going to get anything good. So Rodrigo and Xavier jumped on a plane and just shot it. It’s kind of a memorable moment.
MM: I can imagine. And your son’s first on-screen performance, too.
NW: Oh, definitely. I have this little trick that if you drink ice water, it wakes your baby up, so that you get movement. The epitome of stage mothers. (laughs)
MM: So you ended up shooting the film just a couple months after you had your baby?
NW: Yeah, it was quite early. He was eight weeks old. I had him December 13th and I think we shot in February.
MM: How did the freshness of that experience help or hinder you in really getting into character?
NW: Much of Elizabeth is being the opposite of a mother, and then suddenly she comes into her own. So it was an interesting time. I was nursing at the time as well, and I was sort of in that stage, but it was fun to go to work.
I had taken a year off before I became pregnant, just to be with my son, Sasha. I was excited to do this, particularly when it was going to only be 10 days of filming, so it was pretty easy to do.
MM: Are you somebody who inhabits a character 24/7 or are you able to shut it off pretty easily at the end of the day?
NW: When you’re a mom, I think you have to shut it off. (laughs)
MM: Has being a mother changed your film selection process at all? Do you look at scripts from a different perspective, or approach your characters in a new way?
NW: I don’t think my style or my tastes have changed. But, yes, certainly my first questions are ‘Where does it shoot?’ and ‘For how long?’ Those have always been things that would factor in, but they weren’t necessarily the first things I would think of.
MM: Do you ever think about, “Wow, my kids will see this.” Does that play a factor?
NW: Yeah, I’ve just now started thinking about how pleased I am that I did King Kong. It’s really the only film that they will be excited about.
MM: So you won’t be showing them Funny Games anytime soon?
NW: No, but you know, people say, “Would you have chosen that now? Do you regret doing it?” I don’t regret doing it. I had an incredible experience working with Michael Haneke. He’s just an extraordinary filmmaker, and one of film’s great teachers. I think what he was trying to do is really interesting and, although it comes across as violent, it is not exploiting violence. Obviously I wouldn’t want them to see it for a very long time. But, by the time they’re 18, if they want to see it, I hope they understand the reasoning behind my choice.
MM: We interviewed Michael Haneke when Funny Games came out and he said that when the studio approached him about making the film, he said there were only two ways he would make it: If it were a shot-by-shot remake and if you were the star. It’s certainly polarizing. I personally think it’s an amazing film, but you either love it or you hate it.
NW: Absolutely.
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This story was published in the Spring 2010 MovieMaker Magazine. The headline was:
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