The role Naomi Watts will always regret
Although Naomi Watts has some impressive credits on her resume, such as David Lynch’s surrealist masterpiece Mulholland Drive, Alejandro González Iñárritu’s 21 Grams, and Michael Haneke’s Funny Games, the actor has also starred in some films she would much rather forget.
Making her film debut in 1986’s For Love Alone, Watts struggled to find many successful acting jobs at the beginning of her career. She starred in Tank Girl in 1995 alongside a string of predominantly Australian films until she was cast in Mulholland Drive, which launched her to international stardom. Lynch offered her the dual role of Diane/Betty, recalling, “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.”
She has collaborated with Lynch over the years and starred in a mixture of Hollywood and independent productions. However, in 2013 – the same year that her role in The Impossible was Oscar-nominated – Watts took on a part that earned her a Golden Raspberry nomination for Worst Actress. She received the rather embarrassing award nomination for her performance as Princess Diana in Oliver Hirschbiegel’s biopic Diana.
The film follows Diana in the last two years of her life after she divorces Prince Charles. It details her relationship with heart surgeon Hasnat Khan and her tour of Angola, where she campaigned against landmines. Her affair with Dodi Fayed is also depicted, which results in the tragic death of the two in a car crash.
Speaking to Harper’s Bazaar, Watts said, “I got seduced by the fantastic character. Diana did a lot of things that had positive and negative results. She was multifaceted. With risk there is every chance it’s going to fail. If you have to go down with that sinking ship, so be it.”
Upon its release, the film recieved terrible reviews, and a paltry commercial response only added further weight to those claims. Diana was labelled an overwhelmingly terrible and boring film with little emotional weight or tenderness, something that besmirched the memory of Princess Diana.
Regarding the negative reviews she recieved for her performance, Watts said, “We all know I’m not five-ten or have any resembling features of hers except blue eyes, and I don’t speak like her. It was going to be hard. People knew her too well or felt like they owned her. I was up against that.”
The film has a mere 7% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with the critical consensus reading, “Naomi Watts tries hard in the title role, but Diana buries her efforts under a shoddy script and clumsy direction.” Luckily, Princess Diana was awarded a much more dignified and refined biopic last year when Pablo Larrain released his film, Spencer.
