The movie Naomi Watts knew was doomed: “You have to go down with the sinking ship”
Sometimes, films just don’t work out the way you’d hope, which is one thing when you’re just the viewer, flopping back disappointedly in your seat when you realise that the movie you’ve been excited for has failed to live up to your expectations, but another when you’re actually a part of it.
An actor can never be sure if the film they’ve signed on for is actually going to turn out to be a success, and even if they’ve got the determination to make a project succeed, there are some factors that are simply out of one’s control. Like a bad script.
Naomi Watts has been in some excellent films, most notably giving a flawless turn in David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive, playing the dual role of an obsessed and guilt-stricken wannabe actor and an ambitious, ingénue version. The movie might have demonstrated her versatile abilities, but with every great performance inevitably comes a few missteps, and for Watts, a decision made a decade later resulted in a Razzie nomination.
When you watch Watts in Mulholland Drive, you wonder how it’s possible that the same actor could be nominated for a Golden Raspberry – also known as the ultimate accolade for cinematic awfulness – but that’s the curse of an unredeemable script and poor direction.
It was 2013, and Watts boldly stepped into the shoes of a beloved icon, one whose depiction on the big screen was always guaranteed to spark a discussion – Princess Diana. Directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel, Diana was a massive flop on all accounts, with every possible element of the film subjected to intense scrutiny.
The actor just couldn’t save this one, and she admits that she knew it was doomed early on. Yet, she persevered, knowingly entering a period of harsh critical reception. It was too late to back out – she was already committed to playing the ‘People’s Princess’, someone who had enraptured many since she married into the Royal Family in 1981, before tragically dying in a car accident in 1997, just 36 years old.
In an interview with Harper’s Bazaar, the actor admitted that she knew the critically panned movie was going to be a disaster. “I got seduced by the fantastic character. Diana did a lot of things that had positive and negative results. She was multifaceted,” she said.
Watts admitted that “ultimately there were problems and it ended up taking a direction that was not the one I was hoping for. With risk, there is every chance it’s going to fail. If you have to go down with that sinking ship, so be it.”
So, like the Captain of the Titanic, she stood strong in the face of catastrophe, allowing herself to sink down with the wreckage, and paired with her performance in the disastrous Movie 43 that same year, 2013 wasn’t the finest moment in Watts’ career, but she soon redeemed herself when she appeared in 2014’s Oscar-winning hit Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance).
Diana was a gamble that she was willing to take, but ultimately one that didn’t pay off. That really is the nature of Hollywood, though; it’s a land full of uncertainty, and even if you throw yourself into a role, a bad script and a lousy cameraman will leave you doomed to drown in the deep end.
