Naomi Watts Quotes
'Pain is such an important thing in life. I think that as an artist you have to experience suffering. It's not enough to have lived it once; you have to relive it. Darkness is not a pejorative thing."
"There's a lot of skeletons in my closet, but I know what they're wearing. I'm not gonna act all ashamed of it" - on her early career.
It was total naivety that got me to Hollywood. I thought it was going to happen straight away. I told myself 'give it 5 years, there's no way I'll be here after that if it doesn't happen'. Cut to ten years later!
On set is where I feel comfortable. The red carpet stuff, talking about the film, explaining your own life, it doesn't come naturally. It's all necessary stuff I suppose but it's not my strength.
I find myself gravitating towards drama. It interests me. In the books I read, the paintings I like, it's always the darker stuff.
For the record, I am actually British as well as Australian. People always think I'm Australian but I'm happy for the Brits to claim me back. I'm offering myself up.
Instead of thinking 'how can I slow the ageing process?' I think 'how can I bend the rules?' Every year you add to your life, you're going to add a different experience to your face.
Whatever is said about roles drying up, I intend to keep working. Certainly now the roles couldn't be more interesting - playing mothers, divorcees. I think it's going to be exciting to play a mother of teenagers. The longer your life, the deeper it gets.
My mum put me in drama classes when I was about 14. I'd been going on about it for some time, so maybe it was a way to shut me up.
"We're so afraid of death in our culture, but I think if we understand it better, then we'll appreciate the life we have more." - in response to
21 Grams.
"I've had people who've seen
21 Grams say, 'Wow, you're so brave to be looking like that'. This shocks me. I think that's what an actor's job is, to lose yourself in a role".
"You have to make peace with yourself. The key is to find the harmony in what you have." quoted in the Feb 01, 2005 issue of WOMAN'S WORLD
If I have to produce movies, direct movies, whatever to change the way Hollywood treats older women, I'll do it. If I have to bend the rules, I will. If I have to break them, I will.
Even during my most intense scenes with
Sean Penn (in
21 Grams), we found ways to have fun. Sure, I have my dark moments, but I'm the girl you'll see driving down the highway singing to
Blondie.
"It's always nerve-racking to take off your clothes on film. But doing it with a woman felt safer than with a man. You know you can say, 'Don't grab me there: That's where my cellulite is'!" [after being asked if it was hard to do a love scene with a woman (
Mulholland Dr.]
I always love being in the company of women. It's all about good conversation and great wine.
"The consequences are that you fear and dread being abandoned. You get a little tougher, and it's more difficult for you to become intimate. The pros are that you can adapt to any situation and that you're open to new surroundings. A lot of people get stuck in their ways, but I embrace change." on moving frequently when she was younger.
"The biggest place I look for validation is from my mother. That's the little girl in me that will never grow up." - on why not having an Oscar yet doesn't faze her.
"That ad recently turned up in a magazine in Australia. My head is in my hands as I'm sitting at as desk, thinking, 'When can I start using tampons?' I was quite old, but I was supposed to look 12". - on one of her first gigs
I'm a tomboy now. I always wanted to fit in with my brother's group, so I climbed trees and played with lead soldiers. But I'm a woman's woman. I never understood women who don't have woman friends.
Yeah, I suppose I am ordinarily drawn to the darker stuff. You won't find me in a romantic comedy. Those movies don't speak to me. People don't come to talk to me about those scripts, because they probably think I'm this dark, twisted, miserable person.
"Every time I dress up to go somewhere, I say this is who I am: like, I feel like a Russian hooker tonight. A long time ago, I put on a
Stella McCartney top with a huge amount of feathers, and I had really black eye makeup and stringy hair. My mom was like, 'That top's not working'. But that's what I looked like, a Russian hooker".
I keep saying to myself, Oh, God, I'm sick of playing these dark, harrowing roles. I want a big paycheck, so put me in some dumb romantic comedy any day.
When I had dark hair I definitely felt that I was more anonymous.
I had gotten to a place where I truly believed everything I was called: 'not sexy,' 'not funny,' 'too intense,' desperate.' All those labels they gave me, I took them because there wasn't a trace of my true self left. - on the struggles of her early career
To be appreciated or recognized is everything to an artist, but to be placed in a category where judgment occurs is awful, and yet we are all liars if we can't admit that we haven't all chased it or dreamed of it, even just a little bit.
Every time I'd think to book a ticket to leave L.A., something would come up-even just a three day job or something. That was enough to keep me invested. I still pinch myself when a certain director calls and says, 'Would you like to read my script?' I don't take any of it for granted because I struggled for so long.
Yes, I've had six great years of being in a position where I can pick and choose a bit, but it's not like I suddenly feel so calm and relaxed about that. Having spent a large portion of my life with a constant struggle and trying to find ways to make it work, that's what sticks with me.
There's a set of rules out there somewhere that says it all ends by 40. I hope to be able to defy that because I truly love my work.
I don't think I'm really the go-to girl for that sort of cheery popcorn movie. I've done that little bit of lightness in King Kong, and I Heart Huckabees was definitely goofy, but I just don't connect that well to romantic comedies because they're usually so formulaic and not really based in truth.
I'm not this dark, twisted person. Yes, I have my demons and this is my way of exorcising them. It gets them out - and better out than in. Actually, I think that it's the comedians who are the darkest people on the planet, because they think life's just bloody hilarious. - on the usual dark roles that she is known for.
