50 facts about Naomi Watts: presented as an inaugural member of AIDS Red Ribbon Awards

50 things you probably didn't know about actress Naomi Watts.

1. Naomi Watts born Naomi Ellen Watts on 28 September 1968 is a British actress.

2. Naomi Watts made her screen debut in the Australian drama film For Love Alone (1986) and then appeared in the television series Hey Dad..! (1990), Brides of Christ (1991) and Home and Away (1991) and alongside Nicole Kidman and Thandie Newton in the coming-of-age comedy-drama film Flirting (1991).

3. After moving to America, Watts appeared in films, including Tank Girl (1995), Children of the Corn IV: The Gathering (1996) and Dangerous Beauty (1998) and had the lead role in the television series Sleepwalkers.

4. After years as a struggling actress, Watts came to attention in David Lynch's psychological thriller Mulholland Drive (2001).

5. Naomi Watts enjoyed box-office success with The Ring in 2002, the remake of a successful Japanese horror film.

6. Naomi Watts received nominations at the Academy Awards and the Screen Actors Guild Awards in the Best Actress categories for her portrayal of Cristina Peck in Alejandro González Iñárritu's neo-noir 21 Grams (2003).

7. Naomi Watts has portrayed Valerie Plame Wilson in the biographical drama Fair Game (2010) and Helen Gandy in Clint Eastwood's biographical drama J. Edgar (2011).

8. For her leading role as Maria Bennett in the disaster film The Impossible (2012), she received second nominations for the Academy Award and Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Actress and a nomination for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress.

9. In 2002, Watts was included in People Magazine's 50 Most Beautiful People.

10. In 2006, she became a goodwill ambassador for Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS, which helps to raise awareness of AIDS-related issues.

11. Naomi Watts has participated in several fundraisers for the cause, and she is presented as an inaugural member of AIDS Red Ribbon Awards.

12. Naomi Watts was born in Shoreham, Kent, England. She is the daughter of Myfanwy Edwards (née Roberts), an antiques dealer and costume and set designer, and Peter Watts.

13. Naomi Watts' father Peter Watts was road manager and sound engineer who worked with Pink Floyd.

14. Her maternal grandfather was Welsh.

15. Watts' parents divorced when she was four years old.

16. After the divorce, Watts and her elder brother, Ben Watts, moved several times across South East England with their mother.

17. Peter Watts left Pink Floyd in 1974, and he and Myfanwy were later reconciled. Two years later, in August 1976, he was found dead in a flat in Notting Hill, of an apparent heroin overdose.

18. Following his death, Watts' mother moved the family to Llanfawr Farm in Llangefni, and Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch, towns on the island of Anglesey in North Wales, where they lived with Watts' maternal grandparents, Nikki and Hugh Roberts, for three years.

19. Watts attended a Welsh language school, Ysgol Gyfun Llangefni, where she carried out her studies. She later said of her time in Wales: "We took Welsh lessons in a school in the middle of nowhere while everyone else was taking English. Wherever we moved, I would adapt and pick up the regional accent. It's obviously significant now, my being an actress. Anyway, there was quite a lot of sadness in my childhood, but no lack of love."

20. In 1978, her mother remarried (though she would later be divorced again) and Watts and her brother then moved to Suffolk where she attended Thomas Mills High School.

21. Naomi Watts has stated that she wanted to become an actress after seeing her mother performing on stage and from the time she watched the 1980 film Fame.

22. In 1982, when Watts was 14, she moved to Sydney, New South Wales in Australia (her maternal grandmother was Australian) with her mother, brother, and stepfather.

23. Myfanwy established a career in the burgeoning film business, working as a stylist for television commercials, then turning to costume design, ultimately working for the soap opera Return to Eden.

24. After emigrating, Watts was enrolled in acting lessons by her mother; she auditioned for numerous television advertisements, where she met and befriended actress Nicole Kidman.

25. Naomi Watts obtained her first role in the 1986 drama film, For Love Alone, based on the novel of the same name by Christina Stead, and produced by Margaret Fink.

26. In Australia, Watts attended Mosman High School and North Sydney Girls High School. She failed to graduate from school, afterwards working as a papergirl, a negative cutter, and managing a Delicacies store in Sydney's affluent North Shore.

27. Naomi Watts decided to become a model when she was 18.

28. Naomi Watts signed with a models agency that sent her to Japan, but after several failed auditions, she returned to Sydney.

29. Naomi Watts was hired to work in advertising for a department store, that exposed her to the attention of Follow Me, a magazine which hired her as an assistant fashion editor.

30. A casual invitation to participate in a drama workshop inspired Watts to quit her job and to pursue her acting ambitions.

31. Regarding her nationality, Watts has stated: "I consider myself British and have very happy memories of the UK. I spent the first 14 years of my life in England and Wales and never wanted to leave. When I was in Australia I went back to England a lot."

32. She also has expressed her ties to Australia, declaring: "I consider myself very connected to Australia, in fact when people say where is home, I say Australia, because those are my most powerful memories."

33. Watts' career began in television, where she made brief appearances in commercials.

34. The 1986 film For Love Alone, set in the 1930s and based on Christina Stead's 1945 best-selling novel of the same name, marked her debut in film.

35. She then appeared in two episodes of the fourth season of the Australian sitcom Hey Dad..! in 1990. After a five-year absence from films, Watts met director John Duigan during the 1989 premiere of her friend Nicole Kidman's film Dead Calm and he invited her to take a supporting role in his 1991 indie film Flirting.

36. Naomi Watts was then offered a role in the drama series A Country Practice but turned it down, not wanting to "get stuck on a soap for two or three years", a decision she later called "naïve".

37. Naomi Watts took a year off to travel, visiting Los Angeles and being introduced to agents through Kidman.

38. Naomi Watts decided to move to America, to pursue her career further.

39. Though her financial situation never led her to taking a job out of the film industry, she experienced problems like being unable to pay the rent of her apartment and losing her medical insurance. "At first, everything was fantastic and doors were opened to me. But some people who I met through Nicole [Kidman], who had been all over me, had difficulty remembering my name when we next met. There were a lot of promises, but nothing actually came off. I ran out of money and became quite lonely, but Nic gave me company and encouragement to carry on."

40. Provided some voice work for Babe: Pig in the City. She said in an interview in 2012, "That really should not be on my résumé! I think that was early on in the day, when I was trying to beef up my résumé. I came in and did a couple days' work of voiceovers and we had to suck on [helium] and then do a little mouse voice. But I was one in a hundred, so I'm sure you would never be able to identify my voice. I probably couldn't either!"

41. Much of her early career is filled with near misses in casting, as she was up for significant roles in films such as 1997's The Postman and The Devil's Advocate and 2000's Meet the Parents, which eventually went to other actresses.

42. In an interview in 2012, Watts said, "I came to New York and auditioned at least five times for Meet the Parents. I think the director liked me but the studio didn't. I heard every piece of feedback you could imagine, and in this case, it was 'not sexy enough'.

43. In 1999, director David Lynch began casting for his psychological thriller Mulholland Drive. He interviewed Watts after looking at her headshot, without having seen any of her previous work, and offered her the lead role. Lynch later said about his selection of Watts, "I saw someone that I felt had a tremendous talent, and I saw someone who had a beautiful soul, an intelligence-possibilities for a lot of different roles, so it was a beautiful full package."

44. Conceived as a pilot for a television series, Lynch shot a large portion of it in February 1999, planning to keep it open-ended for a potential series. However, the pilot was rejected. Watts recalled thinking at the time, "just my dumb luck, that I'm in the only David Lynch programme that never sees the light of day." Instead, Lynch filmed an ending in October 2000, turning it into a feature film which was picked up for distribution.

45. Conversely, her performance opposite Sean Penn and Benicio del Toro in director Alejandro González Iñárritu's 2003 drama 21 Grams earned Watts an Academy Award nomination as Best Actress later that year.

46. Naomi Watts starred in the 2005 remake of King Kong as Ann Darrow.

47. Watts was the first choice for the role, portrayed by Fay Wray in the original film, with no other actors considered. In preparation for her role, Watts met with Wray, who was to make a cameo appearance and say the final line of dialogue, but she died during pre-production at the age of 96.

48. Since the spring of 2005, Watts has been in a relationship with actor Liev Schreiber.

49. The couple's first son, Alexander "Sasha" Pete, was born in July 2007 in Los Angeles, and their second son, Samuel "Sammy" Kai, in December 2008 in New York City.

50. She is presented as an inaugural member of AIDS Red Ribbon Awards.

Source: Wikipedia.org