Naomi shuns movie-star lifestyle to take care of family life

Oliver Good

• Last Updated: October 19. 2009 12:53PM UAE / October 19. 2009 8:53AM GMT

Naomi Watts slept in after the awards ceremony. Stephen Lock / The National

The Hollywood actress Naomi Watts admits that becoming a mother has made her life “really boring” and she is usually asleep by 9.30pm. However the star is still happy to use her celebrity status to get a table at exclusive restaurants.

Watts was in Abu Dhabi at the weekend to present the Black Pearl award for the Best Narrative Film to Russian musical Hipsters, on the closing night at Middle East International Film Festival.

“These lovely people who invited me have asked if I explored this lovely city, but I’m embarrassed to say I haven’t,” she said. “I have two children and I don’t get the opportunity to sleep much, they are with their dad at the moment, so I slept in until 11am today. Sometimes it’s your body that you have to listen to, not your mind.”

The actress has two sons with her partner, actor Liev Schreiber, two-year-old Alexander and Samuel, who will be one in December. She was born in the UK before emigrating to Australia at the age of 14, where she met Nicole Kidman who remains her close friend.

Unlike many Hollywood stars who find fame in their early twenties, Watts had to wait until she was 32 for her first major role, in David Lynch’s mystery Mulholland Dr. Since then, she has starred in a string of critically acclaimed films, including 21 Grams, I Heart Huckabees and Eastern Promises, as well as the iconic role of starlet Ann Darrow, in Peter Jackson’s remake of King Kong.

“I don’t feel like a famous person, because I don’t behave like one,” she said. “I pretty much don’t use fame to my advantage. The only time I do is when I need to get a table at a place if friends say they can’t get a reservation. I’ll call up personally or get someone to do it, sometimes I’ll even say: ‘This is so-and-so from Naomi Watts’ office’.”

Unlike many of her Hollywood colleagues, Watts chooses to live in New York rather than Los Angeles, the centre of the film industry. She feels New York is an easier place to avoid paparazzi.

“I think there are ways to control it a little bit, you have to be someone who is prepared to be a bit spontaneous,” she said. “You don’t need to have the entourage around you. I just wear whatever and run out of the house with wet hair if I have to. I don’t feel like I have to behave like a movie star and dress to the nines, or have bodyguards. I’m someone who can blend into the crowds quite easily.”

Watts also said that dealing with the press is her least favourite part of being an actress. “I hate having to explain my work: why I like it, or what it is that I’m doing,” she said. “I feel like it should just speak for itself.”

“I’m not good in front of crowds of people, I’m more of a one-on-one person. I’m never comfortable talking about myself and I don’t like not getting any reaction back when strangers ask you questions.”

She has just completed work on a currently-untitled Woody Allen film, as well as Fair Game, based on the true story of a CIA agent.

Although she is best known for mature roles, Watts said she would love to make a film her children could watch. “I really hope to do that one day. There’s nothing in the pipeline, but I’d love to do a voice in an animated film, but no-one asks me.”