I finally caught my first David Lynch flick, Mulholland Drive, on cable last week and I was stricken with Naomi Watts' beauty and style. The way she pulled off her role in MD was truly killer.
Oddly, I don't recall seeing her in any of her other movies. According to IMDB, her resume, while lengthy, is filled with some pretty shitty movies.
I wonder if Mulholland Drive was a fluke, or if she is truly underrated?
Well said. Her Mulholland Drive performance, which I have watched over and over again, is probably one of my favorite performances ever. Really incredible.
If you haven't seen The Ring, see it. Her starring role at least establishes that she's not a fluke, but also that she's not meant for conventional movies. Her performance was good, but pretty boring, cause she had no surreal oddities to work with. Put her in some Soderbergh movies or something.
I know it was intentionally "over the top", but her audition scene in Mulholland Drive was absolutely show-stopping. I don't know if I've ever been so taken in by any performance before.
Mulholland Dr.'s narrative, or whatever you want to call it, really relies on Naiomi Watt's performance. If she didn't pull off each "part" the movie really wouldn't work.
You have to remember that "Mulholland Dr." was intended as a TV show; the movie was part of the pilot (i.e. no/low budget), so Naomi, of course, didn't have many credits to her name; there weren't really any name stars to begin with anyway. And this will also make you appreciate her more, she had to "revisit" the character a year later to shoot additional footage for Lynch to make it a feature film.
naomi has the misfortune of coming out at the same time and many other "blondes". she really kicks their ass, all of them. hopefully, some people in the right places see that she is different.
I hope she gets some good scripts sent her way.
Ms. Watts's next project is working with Merchant Ivory in "Le Divorce":
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Mac...
Where do you get this information?! Always on top of things...I envy you :shock:
Quote from: Pedro the WombatMac...
Where do you get this information?! Always on top of things...I envy you :shock:
He works with AICN, but due to conflicts of interest, refuses to tell anyone. I dangled a copy of the L.A. Times over his head, and he broke down in a river of tears, telling me everything--the estranged son, the job at Taco Bell, and that one dark, confused night in '82.
I don't know if it's a source or a website, but Starburst indicates Naomi Watts is up for the role of Supergirl.
She was masterful in Muholland Drive, but I am beginning to fear her career path will start to follow Movieland money than anything else. The Ring established that she could scream and looked panicked, but so can every other woman of a scary movie there. Nothing really in that role to sink one's teeth into. I hear she has some romantic comedies coming up and such. *Remembers the movie Ruby in Paradise and the following career of who starred in it and sighs*
~rougerum
Quote from: MacGuffinYou have to remember that "Mulholland Dr." was intended as a TV show; the movie was part of the pilot (i.e. no/low budget), so Naomi, of course, didn't have many credits to her name; there weren't really any name stars to begin with anyway. And this will also make you appreciate her more, she had to "revisit" the character a year later to shoot additional footage for Lynch to make it a feature film.
I read an interview with her recently. They shot all the beginning stuff first for the TV pilot, then stopped when ABC thought the shit was getting too weird for TV. Then Lynch called her and the other chick and said "Okay, we're going to make it into a movie and there is going to be sex and nudity in it." There was originally going to be three sex scenes in the film but after Naomi cried several times and begged Lynch in a teary protest, he agreed to cut one of them.
motherfucker!!! grrrr.
Ruffalo and Watts in Indie Anymore
Naomi Watts, Mark Ruffalo, Laura Dern and Peter Krause are in negotiations to topline the tentatively titled indie feature Anymore, reports The Hollywood Reporter. Production begins April 6 in Vancouver with John Curran directing.
The film is based on two short stories written by In the Bedroom author Andre Dubus -- "Adultery" and "We Don't Live Here Anymore."
Larry Gross adapted the screenplay, which looks at two couples who are friends and whose relationships are intertwined. Watts and Krause play one couple, while Dern and Ruffalo are another.
Quote from: MacGuffinRuffalo and Watts in Indie Anymore
Naomi Watts, Mark Ruffalo, Laura Dern and Peter Krause
stories written by In the Bedroom author Andre Dubus -- "Adultery" and "We Don't Live Here Anymore."
Watts and Krause play one couple, while Dern and Ruffalo are another.
i cant think of a thing im not loving about this.
Quote from: MacGuffinWatts in Indie
I was waiting for that... :yabbse-thumbup: ....
Naomi Watts Joins Richard Nixon Film
The Ring star Naomi Watts will star alongside Sean Penn and Don Cheadle in The Assassination of Richard Nixon, reports Variety. The film is being directed by Niels Mueller, who wrote the script with Kevin Kennedy.
Based on real events, "Assassination" is the story of a salesman in 1974 who, while pursuing the American dream and finding himself at the end of his rope, takes very desperate measures to make his mark.
Watts will next be seen starring in Le Divorce, opposite Kate Hudson. She recently completed production on 21 Grams, opposite Sean Penn and Benicio Del Toro, and she begins filming this month on Anymore with Mark Ruffalo.
I Feel Naomi Watts will become the next Julianne Moore.
Moore's career has taken her to many different films and directors. Julianne Moore is a Beautiful and Excellent Actress, but she started out in many horrible movies such as "Tales From The Darkside:The Movie" , "Benny and Joon" "Nine Months" "Jurassic Park:Lost World" etc..
But now she can pull off "Boogie Nights", "Magnolia"
"The Hours" "Far From Heaven" "Big Lebowski" and still no Oscar. Ya Wanna know why?-Because Academy Awards SUCK ASS! (see:Chicago-Best Picture)
In my opinion Naomi will be another Julianne Moore (i hope)
p.s. she was Fucking Brilliant in MULHOLLAND DR.
she is beautiful
and she can act
what more could you ask for!
Watts on the cover of the new Premiere.
I enjoyed her in The Ring. I look forward to her future performances. But Mulholland Dr... sheer amazement. She reminded me of Anna Karina in her work with Godard, or Liv Ullmann and Bibi Andersson, or Jeanne Moreau, in that role. Iconic. She may never get another one that spectacular. The role of a lifetime. And she played it just impeccably. So moving, so sexy, so intelligent, so pitch-perfect. Still my favorite female star turn of the millennium.
Naomi Watts in Talks for Betty Ann Waters Story
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
Naomi Watts will star in Working Title Films' big-screen feature based on the true story of Betty Ann Waters, a high school dropout who represented her brother in a murder case.
Watts has already met with the film's director Tony Goldwyn, with negotiations expected to begin shortly with the hopes of beginning production in the spring.
Before that, the Watts is expected to shoot DreamWorks Pictures' sequel to The Ring though no deals are yet in place for the actress as the studio has just recently received the script.
Naomi Watts Sees a Second Ring Next Year
Source: Sci Fi Wire Wednesday, July 30, 2003
Naomi Watts talked to Sci Fi Wire about the follow-up to DreamWorks' supernatural thriller blockbuster The Ring. Watts says that she expects to start shooting next year. "I really liked that role, and it seemed to do well, so absolutely," Watts said.
In the first film, Watts plays a newspaper reporter who tracks down a video tape which is said to kill people seven days after they watch it. She watches it and now has just seven days to unravel the mystery.
No word yet on which other cast members might be returning.
She'll be on Letterman this Friday
yay!
I really liked her in Mulholland Drive, she was terrific! i'd love to see her in a new David Lynch's project
Free of 'nots' and 'toos'
Not enough of this? Too much of that? Naomi Watts has overcome Hollywood's reasons to reject her and enjoys being a star. Source: Los Angeles
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"Too intense." "Too desperate." "Not funny." "Not sexy." "Too old." "Too young."
For a decade Hollywood kept telling Naomi Watts that she didn't have the right stuff. And it hurt. "When you hear such comments made about yourself," she says today, "you start believing them. You start seeing them as the truth. You become so afraid of being any one of those things that you become nothing."
Except Watts became everything.
Now the British-born, Australian-bred actress who once told an interviewer that "not having to do an audition is the meaning of success for me" is working happily at the top of the business that shunned her and enjoying a newfound status as a character actress turned star. Big, bold new filmmakers such as Alejandro González Iñárritu, David O. Russell and Marc Forster want to collaborate with her.
And while her face now may be on magazine covers and the red carpet unfurls at her feet, all that time she spent auditioning, failing and pulling herself back up again is inextricably contained within Watts' acting repertoire.
It was fateful, and fitting, that in David Lynch's "Mulholland Dr.," the film that awoke the world to her gifts, she played both sides of the eternal Hollywood archetype — the aspiring actress. Her dual roles as Diane, a broken woman wilting at the periphery of the dream factory, and Betty, her high-spirited, hopeful alter ego, turned the 2001 movie into a critical and cult favorite.
The impossibly dreamy and elliptic nature of that film showcased Watts' chameleon skills, as does her most recent role in "21 Grams," the English-language debut of rising Mexican director Iñárritu, which opened this month to mixed reviews (though raves for the performances of Watts, Sean Penn and Benicio Del Toro).
The title comes from the amount of body weight supposedly lost at the time of death; the story traces how the fates of three families grow entwined in the aftermath of an accident involving the husband and young daughters of Watts' character. Even against the lyrical hyper-realism of the film, her performance as a grieving mother and wife rings ferociously true. And it spans a frenetic range: On Watts' pale complexion, the still mask of desperation melts naturally into a scowl of pain or a flare of vengeful rage, often within the same scene.
"She has these skills and this organic emotion that she manages like a theater actor," Iñárritu says. "She's well-rounded, and not all film actors are like that. Some get used to a beat-by-beat kind of approach. She can do that, but she can also do one 10-minute scene with no cut, going from one place to another. With her, people get that full impact because it's real."
She is as much at home in the skin of an American poet jilted by her Parisian husband in last summer's "Le Divorce" as she is playing an inquisitive journalist in the 2002 horror film "The Ring." The box-office success of the latter must taste sweet after her previous turn in 1996's "Children of the Corn IV." "Listen, back in that day I didn't have much choice, but I was happy to work," she says now. "I always believed that work begets work. It wasn't an A-class picture, but it was a job."
Confidence gained
During a recent interview on the verdant patio of a Sunset Strip hotel, it is abundantly clear that Watts' years of shuffling at the gates of Hollywood are behind her.
Having just turned 35, she is radiant, confident — her own woman — even though she giggles occasionally and she sometimes toys nervously with the fringes of her scarf. Her delicate features, corn-silk hair and sincere blue eyes invoke the charms of an English rose — albeit a resilient one.
"She has worked a lot, went through many rough times," Iñárritu notes. "She knows the source of pain."
With acting ambitions passed on from her amateur-thespian mother, Watts tried commercial acting and modeling and eventually found her way into the movies in her teens. Among the first entries on her résumé is a sweet film called "Flirting." The 1991 coming-of-age tale set in a boarding school was a modest cult hit, which also launched the careers of Thandie Newton and fellow Aussie actress Nicole Kidman.
Afterward, success at home was swift. "I worked," Watts says in her faint Australian accent, "but there, you're lucky if you do it more than once a year, and you're lucky if you make $15,000."
So at 22 the actress came to test the waters of Hollywood, where her longtime friend Kidman was rapidly rising and Australian actors had begun to be seen as intriguing commodities. But the encouraging feedback Watts got upon arrival scattered away soon into empty promise. She pushed onward, and for four years she skipped back and forth between television and movie projects in the U.S. and Britain.
Sometimes she got sucked into unsalvageable disasters like "Tank Girl" (1995), but sometimes, as in "Dangerous Beauty" (1998), she had a good part in a bad movie. As her ingénue years dwindled, recognition — the real, crackling kind that bestows the admiration of critics and peers and puts her at the top of casting lists — continued to elude her.
"I was naïve to believe it," she now says of the promise of easy success. "I think it's a very American thing to be enthusiastic, and I wasn't used to it. In Australia we talk things down."
It took only one movie to turn her ill fortunes around, and it arrived in the form of Lynch's brilliant noir fantasy "Mulholland Dr." "At the time I was pretty much broken," Watts remembers. "Dirt poor. I was being kicked out of my apartment. I had gone to New York to meet a fancy director for a great job, and the audition went terribly." The call that Lynch wanted to meet with her, having selected her photograph from a batch of head shots, filled the actress with hope and dread in equal measure.
"I had been rejected so many times, and my personality was such a diluted version of itself — I was afraid of offending anyone; I had lost all my sense of humor. But there was something about David Lynch. The minute I walked into that room, he just unveiled all my masks. I would talk and talk, and then I would ask him a question. It felt like a normal exchange between two people. When I got up at the end of the meeting, he hugged me. "I thought, 'This is the most unusual audition I ever had!' "
Since "Mulholland," Watts can afford to be choosy. Her choices reflect a desire to work with the filmmakers and actors she most admires, such as the screenwriter-director team of Guillermo Arriaga and Iñárritu.
"I had not only seen 'Amores Perros' but loved it," Watts says about the duo's electric first project. "It stuck with me for the longest time. I was just riveted and thought that these two men know how to deal with drama and suffering and emotion at the most heightened level."
For his part, Iñárritu says that after seeing "Mulholland Dr.," he became so enthralled with Watts that he could no longer envision his next project without her. He approached the actress in her trailer on the set of "The Ring." He didn't have a finished story to show her, but instead he spoke passionately about the themes he wanted to explore in it — love, revenge, grief, loss, hope.
That much was enough for Watts who, dripping wet from shooting a scene in the depths of a well, quickly said yes. Iñárritu still marvels at her leap of faith. "She accepted without seeing the script" — something, he notes, few Hollywood actors would dare do. "She just trusted me."
"I didn't care if it was a tiny little role or a really significant role," Watts corroborates. "I just wanted to be associated with them, and I kind of knew in my gut that this is a job that I wanted to be a part of."
Likewise she leaped instinctively at the opportunity to play Roxeanne, a depressed, suicidal and pregnant character in the Merchant Ivory production "Le Divorce."
"They told me later that some people turned down the role because they didn't want to be pregnant throughout the course of the movie," Watts says.
"I'm surprised by that. I don't think I ever turned down a role because I'm not gonna look good."
And while her "21 Grams" performance picked up an audience award at this year's Venice Film Festival, it also prompted some backhanded compliments from fellow actors. "Some told me, 'You're so brave to allow yourself to look like that!' What does that mean?" she asks with a hint of irritation.
"I'm playing a human being, and she's gone through a life-changing event." It's not that Watts doesn't like to preen occasionally — "I get to be vain on the red carpet," she says. "There, I've got lots of makeup, lots of hair, beautiful dresses. It feels nice. It's a part of my life that I look forward to and get excited about, but it's not me. If I had to do that every day, I would be exhausted."
Finding inspiration
Her prowess as an actor, Watts says, is part research (for "21 Grams" she observed grief-counseling sessions and studied journals passed on to her by some of the attendants), part cathartic drive (preparing for her role, Watts, whose own father died when she was quite young, says, "I discovered a lot about myself as a person who didn't grieve when I lost my father"), part unlikely inspiration (throughout the shoot, she listened to Icelandic pop artist Björk).
The actress, who grew up in Britain until age 14 and subsequently moved to the suburbs of Sydney, says she feels like a perfect combination of both cultural environs: "The English are quite restrained and not very forthcoming with their emotions, whereas with the Australians, there is a lot of candor and willingness. So they kind of complement each other." She can't account for the current success of an Aussie acting pack that includes mates Russell Crowe, Kidman and Heath Ledger (her on-and-off boyfriend for the past few years).
But she does agree that there may be a bit of magic at play. "There's a real beautiful sense of self-deprecation in our country [Australia]. We always feel like we don't own anything. We don't have any superiority complex; we value whatever position we've been given — or anything that we've been given, for that matter — and we're OK about working hard. At the same time, we never take it too seriously."
As her profile keeps getting higher, Watts does not show any signs of slowing down. She just finished shooting a thriller with Ewan McGregor in Manhattan (where she's also been house-hunting), has signed on to do a sequel to "The Ring," and is waiting for her next project, "I Heart Huckabee's," to roll out. She calls the ensemble production directed by David O. Russell "a very black and weird comedy — a mad, mad piece like nothing I've ever done before or ever seen before."
"Her kind of actors," director Iñárritu says, "make the films that they really love." Before he approached her for "21 Grams," he says, "she was getting a lot of offers — big ones—but she knew that she wanted to do [my film]." Iñárritu maintains that Watts has always been an A-list caliber artist but offers that "sometimes people mistake expensive people, or celebrities, for good actors. I think she is an A-list-quality actor.
And obviously, she should be very expensive, but fortunately she wants to make the films that normally don't have [a big budget]." With auditions no longer necessary, Watts can finally ascribe a generous meaning to her path to success.
"Well," she concludes bittersweetly, "I paid my dues. I think everyone has to pay their dues at one point. It's better to pay 'em when you're young."
Quote from: The intelligent, talented, and beautiful Naomi Watts
"I'm playing a human being, and she's gone through a life-changing event." It's not that Watts doesn't like to preen occasionally — "I get to be vain on the red carpet," she says. "There, I've got lots of makeup, lots of hair, beautiful dresses. It feels nice. It's a part of my life that I look forward to and get excited about, but it's not me. If I had to do that every day, I would be exhausted."
Oh, how the world needs the kind of serene, common-sense balance contained in that quote.
I caught
21 Grams again this weekend, and was again destroyed, not least by Watts, for whom this is clearly the best role since
Mulholland Dr.. I can't wait to see more of her, hopefully in this kind of "quality" project and meaty role. The Russell film sounds promising.
Naomi Watts will be in the actor's studio, it will air december 28th.
Check the whole guest list here (http://www.bravotv.com/Inside_the_Actors_Studio/upcoming_premieres/).
Quote from: FernandoNaomi Watts will be in the actor's studio, it will air december 28th.
Thats insane. She's had, what, 4 profile roles in her career and only 2 were actually good?
i agree, i feel they should have people who have had longer careers on the actors studio. I do enjoy her work, just give her a few more years.
I guess they have to get those ratings
Quote from: The Gold TrumpetQuote from: FernandoNaomi Watts will be in the actor's studio, it will air december 28th.
Thats insane. She's had, what, 4 profile roles in her career and only 2 were actually good?
I thought the same, even though she is amazing and has a wonderful film career ahead, it's still too soon. Now considering the past line ups her roll in Mulholland Dr. alone guaranties a good interview.
Past guests: Affleck, Benicio, Ethan Hawk, Mike Myers, Gwyneth Paltrow, Sarah Jessica Parker, Will Smith. These examples are either untimely or really really undeserved.
In the Interview that just hit the stands:
-A lengthy interview with Ms. Watts.
-Four or five full-page, fantastic photos.
-A really excellent, decadent, caviar-smearing cover photo.
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...note they also use the word "pop" correctly. :)
i got this a few weeks ago (cause i subscribe). pretty interesting article/interview. i love this magazine. the pictures of her with caviar on her face are pretty crazy. (also, crazy pretty.)
also in issue: neat little interview with Ryan Adams and his mrs. Parker Posey.
Quote from: godardianI saw Naomi Watts today, who is among my own select group of celebrity team-switch inspirations. She's physically very relaxed and confident and charming- not to mention beautiful- which seem like such erotic qualities to me.
My God, she looked amazing. Very sparkly...like a holiday. I wanna seek out "Ellie Parker" now 'cause it looked like a fascinating project. I think she's doing a fine job so far of wisely picking her projects and directors to work with. I hope she stays on that path.
Watts on the cover of the new Entertainment Weekly w/ Charlize Theron and Jennifer Connelly as best actress Oscar contenders, with triple interview inside. Haven't yet seen House of Sand and Fog or Monster, but am rooting for Watts anyway.
Quote from: godardianWatts on the cover of the new Entertainment Weekly w/ Charlize Theron and Jennifer Connelly as best actress Oscar contenders, with triple interview inside. Haven't yet seen House of Sand and Fog or Monster, but am rooting for Watts anyway.
u know, she's not a man.
Quote from: PQuote from: godardianWatts on the cover of the new Entertainment Weekly w/ Charlize Theron and Jennifer Connelly as best actress Oscar contenders, with triple interview inside. Haven't yet seen House of Sand and Fog or Monster, but am rooting for Watts anyway.
u know, she's not a man.
No, but she's one of my exception-people. Let's just say that
Mulholland Dr., in addition to being my favorite film of 2001, also inspired more than a brief contemplation of what it would be like to be the filling in a Naomi Watts/Justin Theroux sandwich.
i've decided that a day without naomi is not a day worth living. so i taped a picture of her to my computer monitor. now she stares at me. smiling. always smiling. oh naomi. wherefore art thou?
naomi was so fucking great in mulholland drive... i can't believe she started crying cuz of the nude scenes...though i think those scenes must have been damned hard to film, especially towards the ones toward the end, because there was such a violent hostile element to them...
her peformance in children of the corn was riveting, by the way. i actually watched the entire thing just cuz her performance was that good. rent it, defintely.
see, this is what i don't get. if she cried b/c she didn't want to do a nude scene, how come she goes and does that sex scene in 21 grams with her nipplies getting sucked on and everything? it doesn't add up...
In EW, she says she had trouble doing that scene and got in a fight with the director when he wanted her to do a post-coital scene without her top on.
nipples being sucked? whoaaaaa
ok that's it where's this damn article.
Quote from: taz.see, this is what i don't get. if she cried b/c she didn't want to do a nude scene, how come she goes and does that sex scene in 21 grams with her nipplies getting sucked on and everything? it doesn't add up...
She was actually crying during the
masturbation scene, which wasn't technically even nude, but much, much more invasive. Lynch didn't want her to cry; she couldn't help it. It worked anyway. Contrast how intrusive this is in comparison with PTA's camera coyly moving far away from Barry Egan as he begins to masturbate. Much different and much tougher to do in front of a crew than a love scene where at least there's someone else as vulnerable (more or less) as you are, doing something people are much more used to seeing.
Quote from: godardianQuote from: taz.see, this is what i don't get. if she cried b/c she didn't want to do a nude scene, how come she goes and does that sex scene in 21 grams with her nipplies getting sucked on and everything? it doesn't add up...
She was actually crying during the masturbation scene, which wasn't technically even nude, but much, much more invasive. Lynch didn't want her to cry; she couldn't help it. It worked anyway. Contrast how intrusive this is in comparison with PTA's camera coyly moving far away from Barry Egan as he begins to masturbate. Much different and much tougher to do in front of a crew than a love scene where at least there's someone else as vulnerable (more or less) as you are, doing something people are much more used to seeing.
the emotional bareness of all the scenes of sexaulity in mulholland drive was stunning. the vulnerability in that scene was notable because it had a violent, disturbing context. but the other scenes were just as remarkable and affecting to me.
Naomi Watts: Tough time with '21 Grams'
'I walked out at quite a speed'
LOS ANGELES, California (Hollywood Reporter) -- Academy Awards voters aren't the only ones happy the ban on "screener" videos got lifted. "21 Grams" star Naomi Watts is a bit pleased herself.
"I've only seen ('21 Grams') once in its final version as it's up on the screen now, in Venice. And while I would like to, the pressure of seeing it with an audience that is there to judge is quite difficult, so I'm looking forward to getting my screener," Watts said in a recent interview.
This was 20 minutes before facing American Cinematheque members in a post-screening Q&A at the Egyptian Theatre Wednesday night.
"Or I might go out to the cinema somehow and sneak in and watch it with a real audience, which I've never done. That would be interesting."
Probably interesting, but definitely difficult.
"The first time I saw it, I ran out, well, I didn't run but I walked out at quite a speed and went to the bathroom and had a private moment," admits the actress, who plays Cristina Peck, a woman reeling after the tragic death of her husband and two young daughters.
To prepare for the role -- which Watts famously accepted before seeing a script -- she attended grief and substance-abuse support groups.
"I lost my father when I was 7 years old, and even though I wasn't in touch with those feelings at that time, it helped me relate to the people in the groups and helped me answer my own questions [about losing him]."
The research paid off. Watts' dramatic turn has brought her several critics' prizes, including best actress from the Los Angeles Film Critics Assn., an honor she found out she won following Wednesday's Q&A.
yes, Naomi is beautiful. a couple of weeks ago I linked a pic of her on my Xanga every day.......i thought i read that she broke up with Heath Ledger, but wasn't he with her at the Golden Globes?
dangit.....and he's in his early 20's, right?.......so i've got a chance
Naomi Watts is on Leno right now. Go, go, go!
Or, see the rerun next week at, oh, 2:30 AM-ish.
EDIT: This just in: Naomi Watts likes Heinz baked beans in the green can on toast that can't (musn't/shouldn't/whatever) get soggy.
i know that (the bean thing) was on the cover of a magazine that somone here posted the cover for... i was going to buy it but it was one of those huge , weak magazines, and by weak i mean that the paper was very delicate. i kind of regret not buying it.
Quote from: chuckhimselfoi know that (the bean thing) was on the cover of a magazine that somone here posted the cover for...
that was caviar.
but it said something about beans...
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ur right they mention the beans. cool.
2 Things about the Leno interview
1) Naomi is nothing like I thought she'd be outside of her roles. She is much...different and I was kind of disappointed.
2) With that said, I respect her acting even more now.
Quote from: SHAFTR2 Things about the Leno interview
1) Naomi is nothing like I thought she'd be outside of her roles. She is much...different and I was kind of disappointed.
it's not her fault, Leno makes everyone look bad.
Leno ultrasucks!
Wasn't it Leno who perpetuated all the bad Lewinsky jokes?
Quote from: Jeremy BlackmanWasn't it Leno who perpetuated all the bad Lewinsky jokes?
Dunno... he definitely
is a total Republican and a terrible host, though, so I avoid watching him.
I always think it was no accident that the Cynthia Stevenson character in
Happiness is always chirping, "Did anyone watch Leno last night?"
I might've watched had I known Ms. Watts was going to be on.
Quote from: godardianDunno... he definitely is a total Republican and a terrible host, though, so I avoid watching him.
Leno isn't a Republican, and as for the terrible host allegations, well, I've seen worse, and he really isn't that bad.
Quote from: OnomatopoeiaTo paraphrase Stewie from Family Guy,
there's ur problem right there.
Quote from: PQuote from: OnomatopoeiaTo paraphrase Stewie from Family Guy,
there's ur problem right there.
Nope, 'cause Family Guy is brilliant. I know for you it can't hold a candle to The Simpsons, but nobody's perfect. ;)
ms. watts was on ellen this morning (which btw is probably the best talk show on the air right now) and she was wonderful, not to mention sexy as hell. ellen was asking her about her accent and how she so effortlessly could play an american role, and naiomi was all like "well i work on it a lot" and then ellen asked her to look into the camera to do the whole "we'll be right back after this commercial break" thing, but she had to do it in an american accent. she did it. i almost creamed my pants.
it's not her american accent (all in all kinda dull and ugly, like most american accents) that gets me going, for her british/austrailian one is far more beautiful. it's her ability to change and control her voice. i'm not articulating this very well but there's something about it that makes me go :-D .
Quote from: ©bradms. watts was on ellen this morning (which btw is probably the best talk show on the air right now) and she was wonderful, not to mention sexy as hell. ellen was asking her about her accent and how she so effortlessly could play an american role, and naiomi was all like "well i work on it a lot" and then ellen asked her to look into the camera to do the whole "we'll be right back after this commercial break" thing, but she had to do it in an american accent. she did it. i almost creamed my pants.
it's not her american accent (all in all kinda dull and ugly, like most american accents) that gets me going, for her british/austrailian one is far more beautiful. it's her ability to change and control her voice. i'm not articulating this very well but there's something about it that makes me go :-D .
I like
Ellen lots, too. She even had The Thrills performing!
Watts's abilities in every aspect of acting are profound. Her two separate American accents in
Mulholland Dr. alone are the perfect voices for those characters...
Off to make sure TiVo doesn't miss
Ellen this morning (bless you, time difference!).
I caught her on Ellen. She made mac 'n cheese and Ellen gave her a Heath bar (geddit?). It was nice, very daytime. I realize I like both celebs and hosts on the daytime shows- they're much more relaxed.
From IMDB:
Nicole Kidman is so confident her best friend Naomi Watts will win an Oscar next month, she's already organized a party for her. Watts' performance in 21 Grams has bagged her a Best Actress nomination, and impressed Kidman wants her fellow Australian native to bask in the same glory she experienced last year, when she won the coveted prize for her role in The Hours. An insider says, "Nicole and Naomi grew up together and have always been there for each other. This is the kind of thing they used to dream of back in Australia. Nicole had her moment and won her Oscar and she's told Naomi it would give her even more pleasure to see her get one."
Watts up
Blonde, beautiful and talented, yes, but it was only when David Lynch revealed her darker side that her name went up in lights. Now, Naomi Watts is tipped for an oscar in '21 Grams'. Stuart Husband meets the Brit-born actress
Sunday February 8, 2004
The Observer
There's a moment in 21 Grams, Alejandro González Iñárritu's shattering, sombre movie about grief and loss, when you realise why Naomi Watts has become the most critically acclaimed actress of her generation. Sean Penn has just turned up on her doorstep and announced that her dead husband's heart has been transplanted into him. Watts's face, previously stony with grief, is convulsed by micro-flashes of disgust, incomprehension and pity, before she erupts in a rage so palpable and untethered that you fear for her sanity.
Many people have been struck by this emotional elasticity in Watts, including Iñárritu, who is fulsome in his praise of his leading lady when introducing the movie at a special preview screening. 'She has the beautiful face of an innocent angel one moment, and the next moment she will have the face of the devil,' he exclaims, animatedly. 'It's like she has all these layers that she peels away. She's like a wild orchid,' he concludes.
The template for Watts's split-screen personality was set by her breakthrough film, 2001's Mulholland Drive. David Lynch's bizarre vision of the Hollywood hall of mirrors was embodied by Watts, who started the movie as a perky, naive wannabe actress named Betty and morphed midway into a wracked, suicidal piece of Tinseltown jetsam named Diane, blasted by bitterness and an obsessive passion for another woman. It could have been a literal morph: as Diane, Watts's physical mannerisms, and even the shape of her face, were transformed. It seemed incomprehensible that Watts had been struggling for a decade in Hollywood prior to Mulholland Drive's release, though Iñárritu thinks this will work to her advantage in the end: 'She's like a good wine,' he says. 'You put her in the cellar for a few years, then bring her out, and she's even better, more complex, than before.'
Since Mulholland Drive, Watts has beefed up a brace of so-so movies. In The Ring, the workmanlike re-make of the Japanese psycho-horror classic, she added gravitas and unpredictability to a generic woman-in-peril role; in Merchant-Ivory's turgid Le Divorce, she seemed to have wandered on to the set of a frothy burlesque in the mistaken belief that it was something more profound. No matter how facile her characters might appear on paper, Watts, to paraphrase Dorothy Parker, is able to endow them with sadness and the gift of pain.
Meeting her in the hushed library of a London hotel, Watts cuts a tomboyish figure. With her blonde hair tied back and her slender, 5ft 5in frame encased in a black boat-neck sweater over a stripy shirt and mildly distressed jeans, she is much younger looking than her 35 years. She chats animatedly about her Yorkshire terrier, Bob (he's been sick, but he's better now) and her adoration of The Office (she thinks Ricky Gervais is 'just a genius'). The force of her frequent, uninhibited laughter sends her sprawling amid the scatter cushions.
How does she feel about being sorrow's poster girl? 'Well, great things come out of darkness,' she says, her eyes narrowing and face clouding. 'Humour, creativity, sexuality... pain is a really important part of life. It forces you into facing hard things and answering difficult questions.
I think it's really important, as an artist, to have experienced suffering. I just find it more interesting.' She raises her eyebrows. 'Maybe you can take it too far. I mean, even in an ostensible romantic comedy like Le Divorce, I managed to play someone who attempts suicide. But it's not like I'm waking up in the morning and going, "How dark am I going to be today?" I think I'm pretty funny; I'm goofy and I can make my friends laugh. It's just that in the books I read, the paintings I like and the movies I go to see, I'm drawn to the dark and the mysterious.'
In that case, Watts and 21 Grams - named, as everyone may know by now, for the 'weight of the soul', ie the amount of weight lost at the moment of death - are a perfect match, as her raft of Golden Globe, Critics' Circle, Bafta and Oscar nominations confirm. Iñárritu's follow-up to his highly acclaimed Amores Perros is not only shattering, it's literally shattered. The movie's cubist structure cuts back and forth in time to piece together the blighted lives of its three protagonists - maths professor Penn, who teams up with grieving widow Watts after he receives her husband's heart to seek revenge on Benicio Del Toro's ex-con turned Jesus freak, who has wiped out Watts's family in a hit-and-run. Some critics have grumbled that Iñárritu's fast and loose approach to linearity serves to mask the melodramatic excesses of the plot, but all agree that the three protagonists are amazing to watch. Penn is quietly devastating, while Del Toro lopes through the film. But Watts has drawn special acclaim for the role of Cristina. 'Parts of her performance are unwatchable,' wrote one US critic, 'for all the right reasons.'
'She was such a beautiful soul to take on,' says Watts, who spent weeks attending group therapy meetings and sessions of Alcoholics Anonymous to prepare for the role (Cristina, it turns out, is an ex-addict, and her loss propels her back to the bottle). 'And I don't think Alejandro strikes a false note in the whole film, even though we're dealing with pretty heavy stuff. Having seen Amores Perros, I was willing to try anything, knowing I was in safe hands. He created an environment where you were allowed to try anything; you could play a scene every way from contained to OTT. I loved that freedom. Some actors edit their own performances; I hope I'm not guilty of that.'
There's a lot of death in 21 Grams, but its basic message seems to be, well, Life Goes On. 'You have to endure,' says Watts. 'I do believe that. I met people who've suffered terrible trauma, and they're forever changed and still angry, but they find a way to survive and find new meaning and beauty in the world and their lives, even if it's forever tainted by what they went through.'
Watts's commitment to the movie is informed by personal experience: her father, Peter, died in 1976, when she was just seven. She was born in Shoreham, Kent. Her mother Myffanwy (aka Miv) ran a semi-hippy household - bread baking, clothes weaving, the odd spot of pot smoking - and Peter was a sound engineer for bands such as Pink Floyd; that's his cracked laugh you can hear at the beginning of their 1973 classic Dark Side of the Moon. Peter and Miv were divorced when Watts was four, but were contemplating getting back together at the time of his death. Watts has said that, at that point, she basically withdrew, and has no clear memories of her childhood. When her mother attended a screening of 21 Grams, says Watts, 'She came up to me and hugged me and started sobbing and said, "I'm so sorry. I thought you were resilient because you seemed to express your emotions when your father died, but your brother didn't. [Watts's brother, Ben, is now a photographer.] And it's obvious you've experienced such pain."' Watts shakes her head. 'It was a bit of a moment.'
Actually, she says, she doesn't really remember expressing anything at the time. 'I was so young; I didn't understand death at all. I don't remember consciously blocking things out. But I did feel this sense of dislocation and apart-ness, though I had no point of reference back then. So 21 Grams was cathartic for me in many ways. All the best art helps to answer some of your own questions.' (And there are subtler, ongoing forms of catharsis; Watts's mobile phone ring-tone is 'Money', also from Dark Side of the Moon).
Watts's childhood was peripatetic - odysseys through England and Wales, a spell in an English boarding school - until Miv, feeling stymied by the early-Eighties recession in Britain, decided to move her family to Australia. Watts was 14 at the time. 'I really didn't want to go,' she says. 'To me, it was just another upheaval, new friends to make, a new accent to learn. Though actually,' she says, smiling, 'the accent thing wasn't so difficult. My brother still sounds really English, but I've always absorbed the accent of every place I've ever lived. Anyway, my mother persuaded me to give it six months. It worked. I loved it.'
But she was no nearer finding her role in life. Her school reports lambasted her inability to concentrate. Acting had always been part of the background noise - Watts remembers Miv, an aspiring actress until her kids came along, performing in a local Shoreham theatre production of My Fair Lady 'when I was about four or five', and in Sydney she started working on costumes and sets for movies (she now runs a couple of shops in Norfolk, called House Bait, selling ethnic interior things).
Watts entered a drama programme at high school, but left before graduation for a 'depressing' stint as a model in Japan and a 'stressful' period as a fashion editor on an Australian magazine. An impulsive visit to a weekend drama workshop was the catalyst. 'I'd been living a lie, I think. I was putting off plunging into that world because I thought I didn't really have the confidence to get up in front of people. But that weekend really lit the fuse. I walked into the office on Monday morning and quit. Everyone thought I was crazy. But within days I was going to my first casting.'
It was there that she met Nicole Kidman, then just another aspiring Aussie actress. 'I already knew who she was,' she says. 'We had some friends in common.' The pair acted together in the Aussie boarding-school coming-of-age movie Flirting in 1991 and their friendship is now two decades old - Kidman accompanied Watts, hand-in-hand, to the premiere of The Ring. 'The Aussie acting scene is pretty intimate,' says Watts. 'Everyone knows each other, at least by sight. So it's only natural that you stay in touch. But Nicole's always been a great support to me.'
That support has sometimes been sorely needed, particularly after Watts moved to Hollywood in the early Nineties. 'I was ambitious,' she says, 'and I wanted to go to the place that was really at the heart of things and try my luck.'
For years, her stock of the latter was notably low. For every C-list movie or graveyard-slot TV drama she managed to grace - Children of the Corn IV: The Gathering and The Bermuda Triangle were among the most piquant - there was a soul-destroying round of unsuccessful auditions, plummeting finances and health insurance, lost rental apartments and, latterly, pointed inquiries about her age. 'I don't know how I hung in there,' she says now. 'Well, actually, I do. I mean, I had my bags packed a bunch of times, ready to run back to Australia. But I always had just enough bites along the way to keep me there, to keep my hopes alive. My family is big on survival mechanisms. We all work incredibly hard, which comes from having no money. But I felt like jacking it in so many times. People were like, "Are you a masochist? Why put yourself through this?"'
Did she look to Kidman as an example? 'Not really,' she says, carefully. 'I mean, she was in such a different league.' One weekend, Watts found herself flying to Montana in a private jet with Emilio Estevez and joining Kidman and then-husband Tom Cruise on the set of their mawkish Oirish fantasy Far and Away. 'It was freaky. How could I compare myself to that level of success? It would be really unhealthy. So I'd play tricks on myself; I'd say, "Well, there's someone who really wants to be me, because I've got a Screen Actors' Guild card, £2,000 in the bank and a little Honda, and I'm trying to live my dream." I mean, it sounds brutal, but there's always someone further down the food chain than you are.'
The ranks of Watts wannabes were considerably swollen after the release of Mulholland Drive in 2001. In fact, her name has now become a kind of talisman among struggling actresses to hold aloft as they wade through their rejection slips. 'I'll never be able to say the words "David Lynch" without a fawning gratitude,' she laughs. 'I mean, two roles of a lifetime in one movie... 360 degrees of Naomi Watts. But it wasn't just the movie. David made me believe in myself. I'd become a sort of diluted person in Los Angeles, trying to succeed in what seemed a horribly uncreative place, auditioning in front of people who didn't understand me for a role I didn't believe in for one second. You leave pieces of yourself everywhere until you feel like a shell, a hulk. David tapped into that. He's incredibly intuitive. He saw through all the skins I'd built around myself and taught me that it was OK to embrace, well, you know...'
She smiles sheepishly. We're back to the dark stuff?
'Yes,' she laughs. 'He said, "You know, that being sweet was one thing, but being dark could be just as positive." I think I was frightened of being judged and giving too much of myself away. I went against a lot of what I thought were my better instincts in doing some of the stuff in Mulholland Drive. But that's a good director, someone who can tap into that, de-intellectualise you a bit.'
Watts stops short. She's afraid, she says, of appearing too portentous, and assures me that her joint British-Australian heritage has left her with a wide self-deprecatory seam that should, hopefully, stop her disappearing up her own fundament. In fact, she's now making her first foray into all-out comedy, albeit of the black variety, with a role in I Heart Huckabee's, David Three Kings O Russell's tale of a husband-and-wife team of existential detectives. 'I was calling David, saying, "Are you sure there's nobody else out there that you want for this?"' she says. 'I was absolutely terrified. "Can I do this? What if people have enjoyed what I've done and now they see this and hate me and I've ruined it all?"'
It seems an odd thing for someone to ask when they're basking in acclaim, peer respect, serial magazine cover-stardom and even the obligatory A-list relationship. (Watts has been seeing fellow Aussie actor Heath Ledger, 11 years her junior, after meeting him on the set of Ned Kelly; there was a recent conflicting-schedules blip, but they were spotted back in lovey-dovey mode in the New South Wales resort of Byron Bay over Christmas). But Watts's art is haunted by her long period in the wilderness, and she acknowledges - and works from - a long legacy of insecurities and uncertainties. She warns that we should make the most of her time in the spotlight: 'I'm dying to nest and put down roots. I've wanted to have kids since I was 19. Besides, I know everyone's going to get sick of me soon,' she says, with a grin.
However, I'm more inclined to return to Alejandro González Iñárritu's earlier analogy; the Watts vintage has only just been uncorked, and there'll be more complex notes to savour before she's through.
· 21 Grams is released on 5 March
Quote from: godardianI caught her on Ellen. She made mac 'n cheese and Ellen gave her a Heath bar (geddit?). It was nice, very daytime. I realize I like both celebs and hosts on the daytime shows- they're much more relaxed.
oh i get it. :) and yeah, i totally agree about daytime talk shows, although i don' really watch much of them. (i actually get a kick out of the View) but ellen degeneres rocks, as does her new show. i'm glad she's doing well. (i love how she has a dj instead of a band and how she dances at the beginning of each show)
Quote from: godardian
From IMDB:
Nicole Kidman is so confident her best friend Naomi Watts will win an Oscar next month, she's already organized a party for her. Watts' performance in 21 Grams has bagged her a Best Actress nomination, and impressed Kidman wants her fellow Australian native to bask in the same glory she experienced last year, when she won the coveted prize for her role in The Hours. An insider says, "Nicole and Naomi grew up together and have always been there for each other. This is the kind of thing they used to dream of back in Australia. Nicole had her moment and won her Oscar and she's told Naomi it would give her even more pleasure to see her get one."
it's gonna come down to either her or charlize. tough call.
Quote from: godardianI caught her on Ellen. She made mac 'n cheese and Ellen gave her a Heath bar (geddit?).
I don't :cry:
Quote from: Pas RapportQuote from: godardianI caught her on Ellen. She made mac 'n cheese and Ellen gave her a Heath bar (geddit?).
I don't :cry:
HEATH bar. It's kind of a pun and has to do with celebrity-gossip surrounding Ms. Watts and...?
Heathcliff Montgomery
Quote from: SoNowThenHeathcliff Montgomery
Lukewarm.
nice article, but did the first sentence give away one of the main spoilers?
i have yet to see it, but the trailer in front of LiT made me want to.
and Naomi has a little something to do with it.....just a tad
Quote from: bigideasnice article, but did the first sentence give away one of the main spoilers?
i have yet to see it, but the trailer in front of LiT made me want to.
and Naomi has a little something to do with it.....just a tad
You MUST see it as soon as possible!
as much as i really want her to win, it relaly looks like charlize is going to... im not saying she doesnt deserve it too but damn itd be the greatest thing if naomi won over charlize
Quote from: Sanjuroas much as i really want her to win, it relaly looks like charlize is going to... im not saying she doesnt deserve it too but damn itd be the greatest thing if naomi won over charlize
I dunno if it'd be the
greatest thing, since I think they were both great, but Watts would be my pick.
Quote from: godardianQuote from: Sanjuroas much as i really want her to win, it relaly looks like charlize is going to... im not saying she doesnt deserve it too but damn itd be the greatest thing if naomi won over charlize
I dunno if it'd be the greatest thing, since I think they were both great, but Watts would be my pick.
I'd be really happy if Bill Murray wins over Sean Penn (though the latter
was great), and Naomi Watts wins over Charlize Theron. The latter was not really that astounding. At several points in time she overacted quite a bit; very inconsistent acting. Watts deserves it this year.
has anyone seen the current issue of FLAUNT; she looks as if made of porcelain on its cover.
Quote from: 03has anyone seen the current issue of FLAUNT; she looks as if made of porcelain on its cover.
(https://xixax.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fhome.earthlink.net%2F%7Epapercut76%2Fsitebuildercontent%2Fsitebuilderpictures%2Fflaunt57-2naomiwattscover.jpg&hash=8e70a847c7ecb69d4e1c99bc7e069e7c885fbf3e)
Except for the 80s hair.
Naomi Watts turns 36 today.
Yes! Finally legal!
Quote from: PwaybloeYes! Finally legal!
:-D
I haven't seen "Flirting"
Is Naomi in this or am I mistaken?
Quote from: HedwigI haven't seen "Flirting"
Is Naomi in this or am I mistaken?
i just found this cool new site: www.imdb.com
give it a chance, it might grow on u.
Quote from: PubrickQuote from: HedwigI haven't seen "Flirting"
Is Naomi in this or am I mistaken?
i just found this cool new site: www.imdb.com
give it a chance, it might grow on u.
Woah, thanks, man. That's actually not that bad of a site. I think I might ditch Xixax for those message boards, matter-a-fact.
Quote from: HedwigI think I might ditch Xixax for those message boards, matter-a-fact.
no :(
Quote from: PubrickQuote from: HedwigI think I might ditch Xixax for those message boards, matter-a-fact.
no
ok
ha, the imdb message boards are so rage inducing
Quote from: After her appearance on Inside The Actors Studio, MacGuffinI wanna seek out "Ellie Parker" now 'cause it looked like a fascinating project.
Naomi Watts, Pal Chronicle Actor's Wait for a BreakNaomi Watts was once a frustrated Aussie transplant trying to make a living in Los Angeles as an actress. Times were tough and jobs were scarce.
"I was so broke I got kicked out of my rental apartment and lost my health insurance," she recalled in a recent interview. "It was a very lonely time. I packed my bags to go back to Australia so many times."
She didn't, and now she's an A-list actress, with such films as "21 Grams," "We Don't Live Here Anymore" and the upcoming "King Kong" to her credit.
But, thanks to friend and actor-writer-director Scott Coffey, Watts hasn't turned her back on those depressed feelings so many aspiring actors feel when they come to town and toil for years, all the while waiting for a big break. The two channeled the ways of a fictitious wannabe with a short film starring Watts, titled "Ellie Parker," which Coffey wrote and directed. It debuted in 2001 at the Sundance Film Festival and now Coffey is putting the finishing touches on a feature film centered on the same character.
"It's been a really incredible process because we started out making a short film that was purely character-driven," Coffey says. "And it has evolved into a feature over these three years as we learned who the character was and who we were, living in Los Angeles with our own personal struggles."
The picture is "a comic character study of a woman in contemporary Los Angeles who is struggling for integrity in her career and personal life," Coffey says. Watts and the Hawaii-born multi-hyphenate Coffey produced it together, gathering a cast that includes Chevy Chase as Ellie Parker's manager, Rebecca Rigg as her best friend, Mark Pellegrino as her boyfriend, Coffey as a possible love interest and Blair Mastbaum as a crazy German director who may or may not hire Parker.
While Coffey admits the two used their own experiences as inspiration, the film is not a pseudo-documentary or based at all on Watts' own life-story. Coffey, who plans to next direct his script "Free Radicals," created the Parker character, whom he describes as "neurotic, self-involved and crazy."
Watts, on the other hand, is known for being humble and a hard worker. She managed to fit in the bulk of the shooting in the spring and summer while juggling starring duties on a big studio sequel, DreamWorks' "The Ring 2."
They hope to take their picture on the festival rounds and find a distributor after Coffey finishes the final sound and color mix.
Watts joins UN fight against AIDS
Oscar-nominee Naomi Watts on Monday joined the UN fight against AIDS, saying she could no longer stand by and watch people die.
Watts, 37, who starred in "King Kong" and "Muholland Drive," was appointed special representative for UNAIDS, the umbrella UN coordinating body for HIV-AIDS, which recently named conductor and cellist Mstislav Rostropovich as its goodwill ambassador.
Born in Britain and raised in Australia, Watts just returned from five days in Zambia, where only one in five people stricken with the disease receive treatment.
"Given these stark realities, I could no longer stand on the sidelines," Watts told a news conference at UN headquarters in New York.
Asked about the Bush administration's emphasis on abstinence rather than contraceptives in foreign aid, she said, "While it (abstinence) is probably the safest way to avoid it, it is impossible for certain people to practice it."
"So I am a big believer in the use of contraception," Watts said.
About 40 million people worldwide are infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, and some 25 million people have died from the pandemic, most of them in Africa.
Watts was highlighting the new UNAIDS campaign called "4 for Everyone" -- referring to prevention, treatment, care and support.
Watts, whose screen credits also include "The Ring" and "21 Grams," is the latest in a string of celebrities to sign up for UN duties.
Michael Douglas promotes arms control as a peace messenger for UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, Australian Nicole Kidman in January became a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations Development Fund for Women; Angelina Jolie represents the UN High Commissioner for Refugees; Danny Glover travels for the UN Development Program and tennis star Roger Federer volunteers on behalf of the UN Children's Agency,
The concept was first popularized by entertainer Danny Kaye, who from 1954 until his death in 1987 clocked thousands of miles for UNICEF, the UN Children's Fund, and was selected to accept the agency's Nobel Peace Prize in 1965.
Watts to train 'Animal'
Actress to star in First Look film
Source: Variety
Naomi Watts will topline First Look Pictures' adaptation of Amy Sutherland's "Kicked, Bitten and Scratched: Life and Lessons at the World's Premiere School for Exotic Animal Trainers."
Kristin Hahn and Dana Adam Shapiro will produce the project, developed as a romantic comedy; Todd Louiso and Jacob Koskoff are scripting. David Rubin is in negotiations to produce.
Sutherland's tome focuses on the year she spent with students at the Exotic Animal Training and Management Program at Moorpark College, where students learn how to communicate with animals such as camels, emus, baboons, cougars, wolves and snakes. Alumni hold posts at the world's top zoos, aquariums and sanctuaries or become trainers who work in television and film.
First Look Pictures prexy Ruth Vitale credited the company's Kevin Turen with bringing the project together.
Hahn, an exec producer on "The Departed," also wrote and directed the documentary "Anthem." Shapiro's first film was the Oscar-nommed docu "Murderball"; Rubin produced "Igby Goes Down."
Koskoff and Louiso co-wrote "The Marc Pease Experience," set to star Ben Stiller and Jason Schwartzman. Louiso's directorial debut was "Love Liza," starring Philip Seymour Hoffman.
Watts recently starred in "The Painted Veil" and next will be seen in Michael Haneke's "Funny Games" and David Cronenberg's "Eastern Promises."
Naomi Watts to star in 'Same'
The Bureau will finance film
Source: Variety
Naomi Watts is attached to star in the adaptation of "We Are All the Same" for the Bureau of Moving Pictures.
"Hotel Rwanda" co-writer Keir Pearson is adapting the story of Gail Johnson, a white South African woman who adopted a black child with AIDS, then traveled the world with the child to raise awareness about his plight. "Nightline" correspondent Jim Wooten wrote the tome, published by Penguin in late 2004.
Marty Adelstein and Scott Nemes are producing with Andrew Meieran and Matthew Tabak from the Bureau. The Bureau is financing.
"It's one of those passion projects that you hope you become involved in," Nemes said.
Watts next appears in "Eastern Promises," a Focus thriller directed by David Cronenberg.
Naomi Watts Has a Baby Boy
Naomi Watts has given birth to a baby boy.
Alexander Pete Schreiber was born Wednesday in Los Angeles and weighed 8 pounds, 4 ounces, Watts' publicist Robin Baum said Thursday.
It's the first child for the Australian actress and her boyfriend, actor Liev Schreiber.
Watts, 38, and Schreiber, 39, co-starred in last year's "The Painted Veil."
i rented ellie parker. i wanted to take one last look at naomi watts before she starts remaking kidman's remakes.
(https://xixax.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Farturmarques.com%2Fimages%2Fblog%2Fellie_parker_1.jpg&hash=69341ba85ea156a342051955d86e31c5bbc731cc)
it's really funny, watts exposes herself in ways i hadn't seen before. the whole movie is about her, obviously, she's in every scene, and all of the films brilliant moments (there's a lot of them) are fully contained in her facial expressions/body language which are often hilarious. the best scenes are probly her interaction with her best friend -- for example this one in a car (there's a lot of them, this is LA after all) where they have a "cry off" to see whose acting method is more effective. it's endearing in other ways, the low budget shittyness of the prosumer visuals works well with the improvised feel of the whole thing. warning, Chevy Chase makes an appearance as her agent.. and he's not bad!
from the King Kong thread..
Quote from: pete on December 22, 2005, 02:00:41 AM
I've always really wanted to like naomi watts 'cause I think she's pretty and she's good in the roles, but she lacks charisma. She's not very good at getting the audience in her head or getting them to fall in love with her.
pete you should watch this. it does the two things you felt she hadn't yet done (two years ago).
if she wasn't almost 40 and married with a kid, i'd wish she would do more comedies like this and fuckabees. remakes are expected now that she has a baby and a liev to feed.
sorry to say mate, I saw it when it came out in the theater in the US and didn't do much for my feelings for her.