Naomi Watts has been navigating Hollywood for decades now. And while it may look like she handles it with ease, she reveals to WHO this was not always the case.
WATCH: The Loudest Voice trailer
“[Early on] I did not trust myself enough and I was constantly trying to reshape my identity to what I thought would fit the room best,” she says.
“I spent a good 15 years trying to get jobs and not getting them. So had I trusted myself and just walked in as myself, and been myself, I think I might have.”
You’re in a new decade and you seem happy. How do you feel now versus your forties?
I feel pretty good, actually. There was a bit of panic getting to that milestone and now I’m here, I feel good. There are still parts of me that feel excitable and girlish, but there are also parts of me that can look back and see how I’m dealing with things in a new and better way. In your twenties you’re a bit oblivious, in your thirties you’re thinking about families, and then in your forties, you get strong. At 50, I start thinking about what I’ve done and, OK, what else can I do? I get nostalgic as well. I want to be around peopleI’ve known for a really long time. It doesn’t mean to say I can’t create new friendships, but the ones I’ve had and known for a longtime, they just get deeper, and you love visiting or revisiting Memory Lane.
You post lovely things about your ex-husband. How do you remain so civilised?
Liev and I have found a way to navigate co-parenting with complete mindfulness every step of the way. It takes commitment and care. And, obviously, as far as the children go, we both have the same wants and desires for them, and we’re talking about it every step of the way. or Father’s Day, we actually got to spend it together. It’s great for the kids, it means so much to them to have their parents relating in a healthy and special way, on important days, and sometimes just on regular days, too. The studies say that if it’s an acrimonious divorce or break-up, that they pick up on all of that stuff. And so, it was absolutely our intention to do this in a conscious and careful way.
WATCH: Naomi Watts shares cutest video of Liev Schreiber dancing with Kai
The Oscar winning actress will join Russell Crowe, Sienna Miller and Simon McBurney in the new Showtime miniseries about former Fox News host Roger Ailes.
“The Loudest Voice” follows a timeline from the start of Fox News, to the democratic debate surrounding the election of President Obama and Roger Ailes’ death.
The mini-series delves into how Fox News and Roger Ailes were instrumental in the rise of republican Americans and served as a prequel to the events leading up to Donald Trump’s election.
Watts will play American Gretchen Carlson in the seven-part mini series on the Fox new channel, which was based on a book by Gabriel Sherman.
Carlson was a former Fox news co-host who was the first woman to sue Roger Ailes for sexual harassment.
Why is Gretchen Carlson’s story so important?
She really, inadvertently, created the #MeToo movement. She was the first one to take down a man of that power. He created a toxic environment where women didn’t get to be more than a pretty face and a skirt, basically. It was very much a misogynistic world.
‘The Loudest Voice’ airs June 30, 2019 on Showtime, and July 1 on Stan.
The British-born, Australian-raised actress and mother of two spoke to also spoke to WHO about #MeToo in Hollywood and her own experiences with people in power.
For the full interview pick up the latest issue of Who!
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