Watt a doll

Fair Game's Naomi Watts may be a huge star - but she's also the nicest woman in Hollywood

by Genevieve Loh, TodayOnoline
Jan 14, 2011

NAOMI Watts may be a bona fide Cannes Film Festival darling, walking the red carpet for her breakthrough role in David Lynch's Mulholland Drive in 2001, as well as for Doug Liman's Fair Game and Woody Allen's You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger last year.

The British-born Australian beauty may also be an Oscar nominee (21 Grams) and blockbuster box-office draw (The Ring and King Kong).

But the 42-year-old mother of two boys is undoubtedly still one of the most genuine and down-to-earth stars a journo could meet.

"Oh, let them take a photo or two first ... no problem at all!" she said to the harried PR folk fussing around her after our interview along the Croisette in Cannes, where Fair Game was in competition for the Palme d'or.

The film centres around the political maelstrom surrounding real-life outed CIA covert officer Valerie Plame and her former-ambassador husband Joe Wilson, and has critics lauding Watts for her "I can't believe it's not Valerie Plame" performance.

With varied emotionally charged roles on an impressive, largely underrated CV, and upcoming projects such as playing Marilyn Monroe and a reported role in the third Batman film from Christopher Nolan, The Dark Knight Rises, it's clear Watt's star shows no signs of fading. Which makes the hug from the breezy and extremely likable actress all the more sweet for this now-enamoured writer.

She really is like your regular chin-wagging pal. Looks like Nicole Kidman really knows how to pick 'em.

What was it like working with Sean Penn again?

Naomi Watts: Fantastic ... This is our third time (after 21 Grams and The Assassination Of Richard Nixon). I was so happy when they told me he was their first choice because I was pretty sure he would like the material and telling of Joe Wilson's story. And he did!

Our first initial scenes to shoot in the movie were more dramatic and intense, and to be thrown into that, to have to create all this history, would have been hard if I had not known that person before.

What was it like playing a real-life character like Valerie Plame?

It definitely ups the ante and pressures tenfold. Everyone in the United States is familiar with this story, so I felt an extra amount of pressure, and I wanted to tell it as truthfully as I could. The fact that Valerie was not only alive, but very involved - she was one of our CIA consultants, very hands-on and frequently on the set - made me nervous.

It's not every day, as an actor, you get to meet a person like this. She's someone who's truly impressive to meet, and I felt it was a huge undertaking. Because of her injustice and because of that level of betrayal, it was deeply important for me to somehow serve her story the best possible way.

Is it true you had a hard time trying to meet her initially?

We had a lot of conversations on the phone, a lot of emails, a lot of attempts at planning. And one of the funnier stories was when I got the perfect insight to her spy world. It was pretty much "I can't get to you ... There're the kids and this and that". So she said: "How about we meet in Chicago ... at the airport?" I was, like, "Who meets at the airport?" (Laughs) Spies do!

Tell us more about that infamous two-day CIA training boot camp you had to attend before making the film.

It was scary, thrilling and personally gratifying. The woman I walked into that camp as was completely different when I exited. I felt completely empowered. Doug (Liman, the director) sent me there and said: "Go tough it up!" He was worried I was in that soft, maternal state. (Laughs) I just had a baby!

I remember I got thrown to the floor and kicked in the shins ... And I remember going, "Oww!" and looking at Doug to say, "Are you sure you want to leave me here?" And all I could see was Doug getting all excited that I was experiencing this! (Laughs) And that was also when the trainer told me: "Don't say 'ow' again unless you have to go to the hospital."

In that 48-hour period, I had to set off explosives, shoot guns, ram cars without helmets or seat belts, do self-defence in the dark with lights flashing, and got nailed into a box! I was tortured.

Talk about suffering for your craft!

And not even going home, by the way. Thank god I had a great nanny. I was only allowed to have my baby every three hours or so right there - I was feeding. As I am sitting there, with a loaded gun in my pocket, I was breast-feeding. Who can say they have done that? (Laughs)

Would you be able to live this sort of double life like Valerie Plame?

It's funny you asked that, because we both talked about this sort of near-parallels, but how it's not really. Because as an actor, we do kind of take on these identities and hide our own. And she, in the same way, constantly had to create new identities. Slight difference is, if I mess up, I get panned by the critics. If she messed up, she could end up shot. So, yes, slight difference. (Laughs)

So what would you do if you were in her position?

I would dig a hole and bury myself! (Laughs)

Funny. I meant, if you had to choose between the job and the relationship, like she had to eventually, which would you choose?

Oh, the love! That's ultimately what we end up with ... It's never an easy decision. It wasn't for her. But that's why I love her story. No normal person would take on the battle that she took on. We would have simply run from it. Having played this part, having heard her story and now, hopefully, having shared it with others, they will feel inspired, that if some truth that they believe in comes up, that they will have the strength and convictions, too.

How about the next real-life character you will be playing - Marilyn Monroe? Any thoughts on how you will be playing her in the upcoming biopic Blonde?

I don't have a plan yet. It's going to be a huge undertaking because everyone obviously has their own idea of who she was. It will be a highly pressured thing to take on, because of how iconic she was. But I am just not there yet. I do think it's important for Andrew (Dominik, the director) to tell a different story and let other sides of her be known.

Fair Game is in cinemas now.