Abu Dhabi, October 17: Just landing in Abu Dhabi for the closing of Middle East International Film Festival (MEIFF), New York’s beautiful actor Naomi Watts met with her fans on Friday afternoon to share the best and the quirkiest moments of her career.
“I’ve just arrived this morning in Abu Dhabi and so far so good. The hotel (Emirates Palace) is magnificent and tomorrow I hope to go out into the city and explore a bit more,” said Watts, who didn’t show any sign of jetlag.
Making her big break in David Lynch’s ‘Mulholland’s Drive’, Watts was critically acclaimed for her roles in ‘21 Grams’, next to Sean Penn and Benicio del Toro and ‘I love Huckabees’ with Dustin Hoffman and Jude Law. The big money, though, she made with her leading role in the 2005 remake of ‘King Kong’.
“There are so many elements involved when choosing a script. Now that I am a mother of two children, my priorities have changed a little bit. It depends where we are filming and for how long,” revealed Watts.
What also matter in her case is how good the film director is and whether she can put herself into his hands or not. So far, she was lucky — or clever — enough to work with some of the best.
“David Lynch is a genius. Working with him was great. He doesn’t do auditions, he just picks the actors based on their personality,” said Watts.
“When he saw my photo, he called me and we just talked. I was surprised how much he wanted to know about me. Then, when we started filming, he didn’t say very much. He loved tormenting us in finding our own way.”
Somehow though, there was nothing compared to working with Woody Allen. As she was growing up, Watts watched all Allen’s movies and then watched them over and over again. When the opportunity finally materialised to work with him, Watts saw it as a “total dream”.
“I love him. He is like a career master for me and I cherished every moment. Everything that comes out of his mouth is so hilarious; he doesn’t care if it’s politically incorrect, he just goes on and says it,” mentioned the passionate actress.
Despite being comfortable with great directors and famed actors, Watts does not dismiss a young talented director. She even claimed to write letters to those whose movies really made an impression on her.
As for everyone’s curiosity whether she would consider or not to perform in an Arabic movie, the actress could not have been more sincere.
“I don’t know how good I’d be in it, but I would love to make an Arabic movie. Sadly, I don’t speak Arabic, so perhaps I could just have a small part. One of my greatest regrets in life is that I didn’t learn more languages,” admitted Watts.
Even though it was in English language, the actress recently filmed in Jordan and Egypt, for ‘Fair Game’, a movie to be released by 2010, in which she plays a CIA agent’s role.
“It was great filming in Jordan, but I had only two days and we mostly filmed in the airport and the hotels. Cairo was interesting. Just crossing the road was quite dangerous. Cars there just don’t stop for you,” she remembered.
After her tour of Abu Dhabi today, Naomi Watts will also take a walk on MEIFF’s final red carpet tonight.
–Agencies