Overview (4)
Born | in Shoreham, Kent, England, UK |
Birth Name | Naomi Ellen Watts |
Nicknames |
Queen of Remakes Nai |
Height | 5' 4½" (1.64 m) |
Mini Bio (1)
Naomi Ellen Watts was born on September 28, 1968 in Shoreham, England to Myfanwy Edwards "Miv" (Roberts), an antiques dealer and costume/set designer, and Peter Watts (Peter Anthony Watts), Pink Floyd's road manager. Her maternal grandfather was Welsh. Her father died when she was seven and she followed her mother and brother around England until she was 14 and they finally settled in Australia, homeland of her maternal grandmother. When they arrived, she coaxed her mother to let her take acting classes. After bit parts in commercials, she landed her first role in For Love Alone (1986). Naomi met her best friend Nicole Kidman when they both auditioned for a bikini commercial and shared a taxi ride home. In 1991, Naomi starred with Kidman in the sleeper hit Flirting (1991), directed by John Duigan. Naomi continued her career by starring in the Australian Brides of Christ (1991) co-starring Oscar-winners Russell Crowe and Brenda Fricker.
In 1993, she worked with John Duigan again in Wide Sargasso Sea (1993) and director George Miller in Gross Misconduct (1993). Tank Girl (1995), in 1995, an adaptation of the comic book was a cult hit, starred Naomi as "Jet Girl", but it didn't do at the box-office or do much for her career. Watts continued to take insignificant parts in movies including the much forgotten film Children of the Corn: The Gathering (1996). It wasn't until David Lynch cast her in the critically acclaimed film Mulholland Drive (2001) that she began to become noticed. Her part as an aspiring actress showed her strong acting ability and wide range and earned her much respect, as much as to say by some that she was overlooked for a Oscar nomination that year. Stardom finally came to Naomi in the surprise hit The Ring (2002), which grossed over $100,000,000 at the box-office and starred Watts as an investigative reporter hunting down the truth behind several mysterious deaths seemingly caused by a video tape. While the movie did not fare well with the critics, it launched her into the spotlight. In 2003, she starred in Alejandro González Iñárritu's 21 Grams (2003) which earned her - what some say is a much overdue Oscar nomination and brought others to call her one of the best in her generation of actors. The same year, she was nominated for 21 Grams (2003), Naomi was chosen to play "Ann Darrow" in director Peter Jackson's King Kong (2005) which took her to New Zealand for a five month shoot. Watts completed her first comedy in I Heart Huckabees (2004) for director David O. Russell, playing a superficial spokes model - a break from her usual intense and dramatic roles she is known for.
In 2005, she reprized her role as the protective-mother-reporter "Rachel Keller" in The Ring Two (2005). The movie, released in March, opened to $35,000,000 at the box office in the first weekend and established her as a box-office draw. Also in 2005, it was decided that her independent movie Ellie Parker (2001) would be re-released in late 2005 after its success at resurfacing at the Sundance Film Festival. The movie, which Naomi also produced, features her in the title role and is a bit biographical, but yet exaggerated take of the life of a struggling actress as she comes to Hollywood and encounters nightmares of the profession (it also features Watts' own beat-up Honda which she travels around in). In 2006, she starred with Edward Norton in The Painted Veil (2006). In July of 2007, Naomi gave birth to a boy, Alexander Pete (Sasha Schreiber) in Los Angeles with Liev Schreiber. Since then her career choices have gathered even more critical acclaim with starring roles roles in German director Michael Haneke's American remake of his thriller Funny Games (2007), David Cronenberg's Eastern Promises (2007), and the action-thriller, The International (2009), released in February 2009. In mid-2008, Watts announced she was expecting her second child with Schreiber and gave birth to second son Samuel Kai Schreiber, in New York on December 13.
- IMDb Mini Biography By: ratisfatter@yahoo.com
Family (3)
Children |
Kai Schreiber Sasha Schreiber |
Parents |
Myfanwy Edwards Watts (Roberts)
Peter Watts |
Relatives | Ben Watts (sibling) |
Trade Mark (8)
Trivia (83)
- Adam-12: Log 141: The Color TV Bandit (1968) (the day she & Mike Johansen were born)
- Mission: Impossible: The Code (1969)
- Emergency!: Gossip (1974)
- The Six Million Dollar Man: The Price of Liberty (1975)
- MacGyver: Lost Love: Part 2 (1987)
- Mork & Mindy: Mork Runs Away (1978)(#1.3)
- Happy Days: Fonzie Loves Pinky: Part 3 (1976)
- Time After Time (1979)
- Star Trek: The Next Generation: Darmok (1991)
- M*A*S*H: Margaret's Engagement (1976)(#5.2)
- Quantum Leap: The Leap Home: Part 1 - November 25, 1969 (1990)
- The Simpsons: The Principal and the Pauper (1997)
- The Wonderful World of Disney: Toy Story (1997)
- Numb3rs: Trust Metric (2007)
- The Simpsons: Sex, Pies and Idiot Scrapes (2008)
- 1000 Ways to Die: Dead Wrongs (2010)
- In the Bubble with Andy Slavitt: How Much Pain Will It Take to Crush Inflation? (with Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari) (2022)
- She also has the same birthday as Confucius, and Cathriona White & Harpo Marx died on her birthday. Harpo Marx died 4 years to the day before her birth.
Personal Quotes (56)
quoted in the Feb 01, 2005 issue of WOMAN'S WORLD.
And when I got hold of it, I was in my hotel room alone and watching it on a very small TV monitor, and I remember being pretty freaked out. I just saw it the once, and that was enough to get me excited about doing it. But then, after that, I didn't want to look at it too much, because when you're doing a remake, I think it can be dangerous, because seeing how the other actor played the role could corrupt your own ideas or take you in a direction that's not exactly where you would have planned to go -- On watching "Ringu" before shooting The Ring (2002).
And then also, I'd have to say that the horses on the boat was particularly difficult. I mean, I felt terrible for the horses, but we had the animal people there who were watching very closely and telling us what we could and couldn't do, and everyone on the set was incredibly quiet and respectful in order not to spook them anymore than they were already being spooked. ... But it was great. I think it's a pretty powerful scene. -- on what her most difficult scenes were in The Ring (2002).
Then this horrible thing comes into her life. She's forced to question her sanity. It seems completely implausible and then the journalist part of her goes out the window and it becomes about survival for her and for her family. It's pretty intense -- On what attracted her to the role of "Rachel Keller" in The Ring (2002).
Salary (2)
Children of the Corn: The Gathering (1996) | $5,000 |
King Kong (2005) | $5,000,000 |