NAOMI SAID
On her films
"I had to therefore come up with my own decisions about what this meant and what this character
was going through, what was dream and what was reality. My interpretation could end up being
completely different, from both David and the audience." - on Mulholland Drive
"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." - on 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".
"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 in Mulholland Dr.
“If those two men (Kong and Driscoll) were welded into one, that would definitely make the perfect man. Adrien Brody plays the writer. He has all the words. Kong has all the soul, and all the power as well.”
“He is the ultimate man.” - on King Kong
“She looked up at me and went, 'You're not Ann Darrow. I am! ... At the end of the night ... she whispered in my ear 'Ann Darrow is in good hands.' Those were great parting words.” - on Faye Wray and re-making King Kong
“She had a great emotional journey in the first one and it was not just your classic genre picture with a damsel-in-distress kind of role. It was more than that and that's what drew me to the first. And I always knew when I did the first that there was going to be a number two.” - on Rachel Keller, The Ring
"The parallels are being drawn between me as a mother and Samara's mother and what I have done to my child
and what was done to her by her mother, ... So there's things for the audience there to play with and look
into, and that's clearly why Samara's drawn to me." [on The Ring series]
On her career
"All those disappointments were the perfect thing because if I'd gotten one of those parts I'd
auditioned for, I would probably still be on some TV series today. I wouldn't have had the
freedom to pursue the things I've been able to do over the past few years."
"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."
"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."
"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."
"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
"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 jobs
“That's one of the lucky things about getting the success later on. I know how I want to dress, I know what kind of house I want to live in, I just know more about myself, and that's true about the roles I want to play and what parts of myself I want to express. You're just more in touch with yourself.”
"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."
“I mean it's weird because the thing that I love about acting is the fact that I can help people feel things, know themselves or feel less alone. It's my form of expression, in the same way that someone might paint a picture or sing a song in that you're hoping that it moves somebody outside of their own way of thinking.”
“I've slept with a few directors but still didn't get the part. Isn't that strange?“
On life
"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."
"You have to make peace with yourself. The key is to find the harmony in what you have."
On herself
"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."
"I always love being in the company of women. It's all about good conversation and great wine."
"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.
"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."
“Oh, I'm definitely a wild child.”
“I think I have better taste now than I did then,”
"I’m very claustrophobic, especially when you feel like you’re gonna be stuck in there for a long time. Like, what if you need to go to the toilet or something? You don’t really go with preparations. When you’re on a plane you take preparations, just in case. But when you’re in an elevator you don’t, because you think you’re gonna be on for (a few) seconds, or something."
On love
“We are perfect for each other. I like someone thoughtful, serious and intelligent, but I also want him to be fun and silly. He has to be able to make me laugh ? if a man can do that, he's pretty well got me.” [on Liev Schreiber]
On her childhood and parents
"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."
"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
On everything else
"Baked beans is my thing. I grew up on them. There were times when it was all I could afford.
Now I can afford caviar, but you won't see me chowing down on it. Baked beans turn me on
a lot more."
"Even during my most intense scenes with Sean Penn, 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."
“There was a time I was very much blaming the way I felt on L.A, that it was a vacuum of creativity, of humor or anything organic, and I was really angry at the place. But then today I feel completely different - I love L.A.!”
"I want to start a family. I want to make room in my life for other things."
"It's weird that there are so many remakes out at the moment. We're run out of new ideas, which is sinful, and we're going to burn out."
"There's nothing natural about a red-carpet experience. People scream your name at the top of their voices,
100 of them at a time, and it just makes your heart leap out of your chest. I don't like being in loud places
any more - all my friends call me Granny! My favourite thing is welcoming people in to my home."
OTHERS SAID
"Whenever we get together for any length of time, we always end up having a big fight,
but it's always Nicole and me. Naomi's not a fighter. She's a pacifist. It was always
up to Naomi to bring us back together. She's such a peacemaker at any cost. Nicole
nailed it when we had yet another big argument and she said 'We are like the three
sisters in Chekov.' It's always going to be difficult and fraught with tension and,
you know, by turns absolutely rewarding and hilarious." - Rebecca Rigg
"I heard she is just magnificent in King Kong, and I think it is going to be
a whole different life for her in terms of everything she has ever wanted.
And I think she is more than ready for it." - Nicole
"We always say to Rebecca that she is the successful one because she has the successful
marriage with three kids. Becca's the backbone, Naomi's the extrovert, and I'm the screwup.
I'm the quieter one, the one that's sort of straighter, but I can be led astray. Naomi is
the most gregarious She's the one that will dance on tables. I always say that all of this
comes and goes and in the end you want to be old women and you want to look each other in
the eyes and say 'I know you. We've stayed friends. I've seen so many things happen and I
love you.' That's what I search for in friendships and that's the common thread through
all of us. There's an honesty. We age together, we watch each other become wiser and
stronger, and we see each other's frailities, prop each other up and support each
other." - Nicole
"Naomi actually dated ny sister's first major boyfriend prior to my sister.
Then we met at some casting call, but I knew of Naomi because she was always
the pretty one. I would see her at the Oaks, a pub in Sydney, and look across
and she was just gorgeous." - Nicole
"I'd always be delighted to have Naomi Watts at a party. She's chic, simple,
stylish and has a lovely disposition. She does her thing and does it well;
she's stuck at her craft and reaped the rewards of hard work, and yet
she's still modest and approachable." - Nikki Andrews, head of Nikki Andrews Consulting (PR)
THE INTERNATIONAL Character: ? Released: Feb. 20th (US) |
Unconfirmed
Need (?)
The Birds (?)
We Are All The Same (?)
Kicked, Bitten And Scratched (?)
King Lear (?)
