Emily Watson

Emily Watson: biography

British actress Emily Watson had a long path to success on the theater stage, but in the movie world, she became famous after the release of the second film with her participation. She has played diverse characters from timid girls to powerful queens.

The full name of the actress is Emily Margaret Watson. She was born in London on January 14 in an intelligent family. Her father worked as an architect, and her mother was an English professor. Emily and her sister were raised in a strict household.

The girls were forbidden to watch television. Instead, the mother instilled the love of reading and brain games. When it was the time to study at school, the children attended a prestigious educational institution, where, besides ordinary subjects, they studied Sanskrit and the basics of meditation.

Emily feared to go to school because as a child she was stout and believed that she was worse than her attractive and slim sister. However, soon she felt at ease at school and could show her acting talent, participating in school plays. At that time no one appreciated her talent very highly, and after graduation, Emily planned to follow in her older sister’s footsteps to pursue a career in the publishing business.

Theater

While studying at the university, the young woman became a member of the student's theater troupe, and this activity captured her so much that she could not think about any other profession, except acting. The parents argued against the daughter’s plans, persuading her to stay at the university, but Emily ran rusty.

She applied for Drama Studio London, but they did not want to accept her, and the girl failed to enter it three times. At the same time, Watson moonlighted as a waitress and secretary.

She had the first creative success in her biography when Emily entered the Royal Shakespeare Company. At first, the young and inexperienced actress got only bit parts, but over time she proved that she was a worthy actress. In the theater, the future celebrity met Jack Waters, who later became her husband.

Films

The actress made her movie debut in 1994. It was the television film A Summer Day's Dream, based on a play. Two years later, Emily became really famous, having played the role of Bess McNeill in Lars von Trier's film Breaking the Waves.

She had not known about the creative work of the director as well as about the cinematography before, so at first, Emily didn’t even understand how lucky she was. Besides Golden Globe and Oscar nominations, Watson earned millions of dollars, that shocked the young actress. She got used to a little income in the theater, and the earnings in the movie amazed her. Emily bought a house for the family with her first money.

The first triumph was followed by the roles in Metroland and The Boxer in 1997. Emily received the following nominations for prestigious film awards for the movie Hilary and Jackie. The diverse characters made her an in-demand actress of independent director. She played in the films of Alan Parker, Marleen Gorris, Alan Rudolph. In 2002, Watson starred in Punch-Drunk Love shot by Paul Thomas Anderson, Brett Ratner's Red Dragon and Equilibrium directed by Kurt Wimmer.

Now, the actress's filmography includes dozens of films. The most famous works are War Horse (2011) and Anna Karenina (2012).

Emily is also known as a voice actress. She voiced one of the female characters in the Oscar-nominated film Corpse Bride. In 2006, Watson starred together with Renée Zellweger and Ewan McGregor in the movie Miss Potter. In 2017, the actress appeared in Kingsman: The Golden Circle and played Elsa Einstein, a cousin of the great physicist, in the film Genius.

French director Jean-Pierre Jeunet wrote the character Amélie for Watson to play in the film of the same name, but she did not play this role because Emily had difficulties speaking French, and at that time she could not come to Paris to shoot. As a result, Audrey Tautou played Amélie. She was also the first choice to play Elizabeth I in Indian director Shekhar Kapur's film Elizabeth, but later the man changed the decision and preferred Cate Blanchett.

Despite a brilliant acting career, Emily has not left the theatre stage. Her most famous works include the productions Twelfth Night, The Children's Hour, The Taming of the Shrew.

Personal life

The actress has a happy personal life living with her husband. Emily met Jack Waters when she worked at the Royal Shakespeare Company. In 1995, they got married.

The couple has two children, daughter Juliet (2005), and son Dylan (2009). Although Watson has strict parents, she does not set up any pedagogical experiments.

Emily admits that, on the one hand, life without a TV has taught her to read and entertain herself, on the other, she is fully unconversant with modern media culture. Thus, she felt embarrassed in her youth, and now it impedes her communication with peers. Watson prefers to be an example for her son and daughter and not to raise them in a strict way.

The family avoids publicity, and their photos do not often appear in the media. They live in their own house in Greenwich.

Due to a similar name, the actress is often confused with another British movie star, Emma Watson, who played the role of Hermione Granger in Harry Potter. But Emily treats it as a joke. She doesn’t even correct those who make mistakes because she is flattered that she was taken for the girl who is almost half as old as her.

Emily Watson now

The film Happy Prince, released in 2018, has become the latest large-scale film to date. The movie of screenwriter and director Rupert Everett tells about Oscar Wilde’s last days, which he spent in Paris. Watson got the role of Constance Lloyd.

In 2018, Emily also appeared in the screen version of Shakespeare's play King Lear, where she played cruel Regan. Nowadays Watson also does charity work. She is a supporter of the children's charity Scene & Heard.

Filmography

• 1994 – A Summer Day's Dream
• 1996 – Breaking the Waves
• 1997 – Metroland
• 1997 – The Boxer
• 1998 – Hilary and Jackie
• 2002 – Punch-Drunk Love
• 2002 – Red Dragon
• 2002 – Equilibrium
• 2006 – Miss Potter
• 2011 – War Horse
• 2012 – Anna Karenina
• 2017 – Genius
• 2017 – Kingsman: The Golden Circle
• 2018 – King Lear
• 2018 – The Happy Prince

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