Naomi Watts breaks her silence over her shock split
A RECENTLY separated Naomi Watts admits major transition is never easy — but says she’s determined to handle it with grace for the sake of her kids.
Stellar
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DESPITE specialising in portraying tortured, unhinged women on the edge, Naomi Watts prefers to reserve drama and despair for the big screen. Oscar-nominated for her dark, demanding roles in films such as 21 Grams and The Impossible, off-camera Watts is a woman who loves to laugh — loudly, easily and often. Even now, as she finds herself unwittingly in the spotlight over the breakup of her decade-long relationship with Liev Schreiber, there’s no evidence of anguish or fragility as she speaks exclusively to Stellar in New York.
Presumably, it’s hard to go through such a life-altering shift in the public eye? “I feel, whether you’re famous or not, transitions are scary for anybody,” she says, although she is bracing herself as she prepares to speak publicly for the first time since the couple confirmed their separation in September.
As transitions go, this is a big one. Watts has spent the past 11 years in a seemingly picture-perfect relationship with fellow actor Schreiber, which began at the Met Gala in New York back in 2005. The two were soon frequently snapped going about their low-key life in the city, running errands and giving their two sons, Alexander, nine, and Samuel, seven, rides on their bicycles.
She would be forgiven for feeling devastated. But on the contrary, she says: “I feel I’m in a good place in my life and I want to make sure my kids are healthy, my kids are happy and things are going to go well. Those are my hopes for me and for all of us.”
It’s probably harder ageing in the spotlight, there’s more judgement
At the moment, Watts is particularly concerned with how to celebrate the festive season with her children — their first as a separated family.
“I’m still figuring out Christmas plans for this year,” she explains. “I obviously want to get back to Australia, but I’m currently working on a TV show, Gypsy, and I’ve only got a limited amount of time off.”
Clearly, with a family scattered around the globe, Watts enjoys bringing everyone together. “When we’re not going to Byron Bay for Christmas, where my mother has a house and where we have a huge Christmas with all my family — my aunts and their kids, Mum and my grandmother — then we’ll stay in New York and have it at Amagansett, at my [Hamptons] beach house.”
Even though it may prevent her return home for Christmas, Watts is happy to be working on Gypsy, due to air on Netflix next year. She plays a therapist who uses unorthodox techniques to help her patients, and admits she’s “excited” about the challenge. “This character is definitely not boring,” she grins. “And we often shoot 15 or 20 minutes from my house and the kids’ school, which is very handy.”
Actors have welcomed the success of Netflix with open arms. With its varied roster of shows and — shock — casting opportunities for women in their 40s and beyond, it’s given show business a much-needed shake-up. At 48, Watts (whose duties include that of L’Oréal Paris ambassador) certainly looks younger than her years and doesn’t appear to have undergone any age-defying surgeries. “It’s probably a bit harder ageing in the spotlight, and it’s tough getting older on camera and feeling the pressure because there’s more judgment and more focus on you,” she admits. “But I think it’s hard for anyone as you transition into midlife.”
She chooses to focus, instead, on “the great things that come with that. You get to carry all these fantastic experiences wherever you go — memories and depths of friendships.”
Watts deliberately avoided building a career based on her looks and therefore can expect to enjoy more longevity than many of her peers. “For the most part, I’ve chosen roles that aren’t centred on vanity,” she explains. “I’m prepared to look old if I have to, that’s not a problem.”
With a busy life, particularly when she’s working, Watts has a tried-and-true de-stressing method: “I love a hot bath at the end of the day, and if I’m working — which can mean 12 to 14-hour days — it’s really just about getting home and getting into bed. On the weekends I’ll have a nice dinner with friends, a glass of wine or two, and I like to cook, but on school nights I rarely do anything social.”
She may take school nights seriously, but a few of her famous colleagues tell Stellar she brings plenty of joy to her work environment, too. Jake Gyllenhaal, who co-starred with Watts in Demolition this year, says: “She always plays tortured roles, but actually in person she is easygoing, light. She is an extraordinary actor and has no vanity. She doesn’t give a sh*t about the normal trappings we put on actresses or how people perceive her. To me, that’s where she’s fun.
She doesn’t give a sh*t about the normal trappings we put on actresses or how people perceive her
“She’s very funny and energetic,” he adds. “Sometimes I could just sit across from her and she’d make me laugh. I’ve known her for quite a long time, through some pretty tough times and some lovely times. Sometimes, while I’m shooting a scene, I can’t believe I’m really working with a certain actor. When we did Demolition, I felt, ‘She wants to be in a movie with me?’”
Along with acting success comes red-carpet obligations. Not all stars are comfortable with modelling glamorous couture gowns on the world stage, but Watts carries it off with aplomb. Designer and film director Tom Ford, known for outfitting Hollywood’s elite — including Watts for the 2014 Golden Globes — tells Stellar she is one of his most low-maintenance clients.
“Naomi is so easy,” he says. “She’s beautiful and she has what our culture would tell us is a flawless body. She knows what she likes, she knows what she doesn’t like and what looks good on her.
“It’s less challenging dressing people like Naomi or Julianne Moore, because they have their own definite sense of style. Most girls are so terrified these days. You look back at the ’60s and ’70s, where people could wear wild things, but now they’re all fearful. Now they have to step into a 360-degree camera and all these TV shows rip them apart with comments like, ‘She looks terrible, her shoes are awful.’ It’s highly stressful for someone to choose what to wear.”
For the most part, though, Watts enjoys the pomp and ceremony of the red carpet. “There’s definitely a time and place for vanity. It’s nice that you get experts coming to your house making you look your absolute best. It’s time-consuming but it can be fun. I try to remind myself to do it as gracefully and naturally as possible.”
One of those experts is her stylist, Jeanann Williams — who is her older brother Ben’s ex-girlfriend, and the mother of her niece, Ruby. “Designers love to work with Naomi,” says Williams. “On the red carpet, she knows how to honour the dress, knows how to pose and how to wear it.”
Designers love to work with Naomi. On the red carpet, she knows how to honour the dress, knows how to pose and how to wear it
It was Watts who helped Williams forge a career as an A-list stylist. “I was doing fashion PR and she asked me to be her stylist. Six months later I was dressing her for the Oscars.”
It isn’t too tough an assignment, she says. “Sometimes I’ll push her a little out of her comfort zone, which she’s open to. It helps that she has a great body, but she won’t wear something she thinks is too young for her. You won’t see her in a midriff or a big Cinderella dress.”
Watts’s latest venture is in keeping with her fashion sense, too. An ambassador for Sportscraft since 2015, she has designed a collection for the fashion brand, called Nomad. “Sportscraft put the idea to me about designing a collection, and I’ve enjoyed my relationship with them over the years,” says Watts. “This was something that felt great.”
The collection is inspired by her travels, says Watts. “The pieces are made from linen and light cotton — all the pieces can be changed depending on how you accessorise.
“The line works very much for my lifestyle and for people who are packing up and going on holiday. It can be thrown over a bikini or worn over jeans.”
Williams isn’t surprised at Watts’s new role. “I’m so proud of Naomi as a designer — it’s always been within her. Everything in this collection is true to her style and what she’d wear.”
Ford agrees. “I’m not surprised Naomi designed a collection,” he says. “She knows what she wants; she knows what looks good. It makes perfect sense.”
She’s a mum first, and then a friend, and those things come way before her career
The collection was shot by her brother Ben, an acclaimed fashion photographer who also shot her previous Sportscraft campaign. While many women might feel a tad self-conscious posing for a sibling, Watts insists she’s not one of them.
“Funnily enough, I feel very comfortable in front of the camera with my brother. I think it’s because he jokes around a lot. It’s not like he’s going, ‘Ooh yeah, you look so sexy!’” she says, laughing. “He was making me laugh that day. It doesn’t feel weird or creepy — he actually manages to capture the spirit of who I am, which is someone who does like to laugh.”
Keeping it all in the family is a deliberate strategy, says Watts. “I make sure I surround myself with good friends, people I trust, people who tell the truth,” she shrugs when asked how she stays grounded amid a sea of inauthenticity.
“She’s a mum first, and then a friend, and those things come way before her career,” observes Williams. “Often I don’t even know when she has a film coming out or that she’s been awarded something. She’s very modest.”
As modest as she may be, like any celebrity, Watts is regularly confronted by the paparazzi. But Williams says she handles them on her own terms. “She’s calm about it. Sometimes with the kids, if there are too many [paparazzi], she’ll sit down for them, say hello, and then say, ‘OK, have you got the shots? We’d like to get on with our day now.’ She doesn’t lose her cool, yell or try to hide. She just gets on with it.”
Getting on with it is exactly Watts’s own mantra for managing her new, post-split life. Of her attitude to her newfound singledom, Watts concludes, “I feel like change is always scary, but that’s only because transition for anyone is new and you wonder how things are going to go.”
The Nomad Collection by Naomi Watts for Sportscraft is available in stores and online at sportscraft.com.au.
Originally published as Naomi Watts breaks her silence over her shock split
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