Australian beauty Naomi Watts wowed critics in 2001 playing an aspiring actress in David Lynch’s haunting ode to Hollywood, “Mulholland Drive.” In the ensuing two years, Watts became a bona fide star thanks to the hit horror flick, “The Ring,” and her mesmerizing performance opposite Sean Penn and Benicio Del Toro in “21 Grams.” In the coming months, the 35-year-old Watts will seemingly be everywhere — at least, for those of us who live in movie theaters — appearing in “The Assassination of Richard Nixon” (again opposite Penn), David O, Russell’s “I Heart Huckabee’s” and the sequel to “The Ring.” Oh yes, in 2005, she’s the female lead in a little Peter Jackson project called “King Kong.” In her latest film, the powerful drama “We Don’t Live Here Anymore,” Watts stars as a woman unhappily married to “Six Feet Under’s” Peter Krause who has an affair with his best friend, played by Mark Ruffalo.
QUESTION: The characters in this movie are pretty awful to one another. Do you worry that audiences may have a hard time mustering sympathy?
NAOMI WATTS: Yes, but that’s life. We’re capable of doing terrible things to each other. But I really had a tough time with the material in the same way that many of you might, but I still feel that there is something in this movie that is truly human.
Q: There are certainly lessons to be learned about the human condition, especially once the marital indiscretions come to light.
NW: Exactly. We hope never to get to that point, but maybe it helps us think about what we have, and what we must do to avoid such a crisis. These are the films I love doing. Films that are thought-provoking.
Q: Your character, Edith, and her husband Hank seem to have all the makings of a great partnership. What happened to their marriage?
NW: She believed in him and who he was, and she was constantly propping him up. They had something that binded them, but unfortunately it mutated into code-pendence. They still needed each other but the wanting and loving had dissipated.
Q: You’ve confessed to being a big fan of “Six Feet Under.” What was it like meeting Peter Krause?
NW: You mean was star-struck? (Laughs). I do get star-struck every now and again, but it’s usually over people who I knew of when I was really young, like Dustin Hoffman or Debby Harry. Less so with people my own age, my contemporaries.
Q: What do you do when people are star-struck by you?
NW: I don’t know that people get star-struck around me. Really? It’s such a short-lived career for me so far, that it would be surprising.
Q: Stardom came relatively late in the game for you. Do you feel as though being in your mid- 30s makes you better equipped to deal with the trapping of fame?
NW: If I’d gotten famous and busy at the age of 22, I don’t think I would have made the right decisions. I wouldn’t have been equipped to know myself enough and know what I want to do. I probably would have gotten talked into doing things just for the pay-check.
Q: You’ve been best buds with Nicole Kidman for a long time. Do the two of you ever talk about how far you’ve both come in this business?
NW: Not all the time, because when you’re in it, you’re in it. But there was a moment (a while back) when she had just gotten her “Cold Mountain” script, and I’d just gotten my “21 Grams” script, and we were reading scenes to each other and having a good old chuckle. We were, like, can you believe we’re doing what we love to do with this caliber of people.
Q: You’re doing “King Kong” with director Peter Jackson. What can you tell us about the film?
NW: It’s a beautiful, simple love story. Even though it’s high concept, and it’s going to be a spectacular film, there are some real basic elements, particularly about unrequited love.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on August 13, 2004. Read the original PDF.