Diana film star Naomi Watts says she knew that role would be 'well outside her comfort zone'

Diana film star Naomi Watts says she knew that role would be 'well outside her comfort zone'

In her latest film, Diana, Naomi Watts takes on the daunting task of portraying the Princess of Wales during the last years of her life.

It's a movie that has been marred by controversy and scathing reviews.

Born in Shoreham, England, but brought up in Australia, 44-yearold Naomi waited more than 15 years before she made her name in Hollywood by playing an aspiring starlet in David Lynch's Mulholland Drive. She earned Oscar nominations for her roles in 21 Grams and The Impossible.

She has two children with her partner, actor Liev Schreiber - Alexander, six, and Samuel, four.

It must have been difficult to play someone so well known?

She was the most famous woman of our time so it was daunting. I knew I would be well outside my comfort zone and I was kind of terrified by it.

It’s definitely the hardest I’ve ever worked in terms of creating a character.

I didn’t want to get into mimicry â€" I just wanted to get her essence and make my own interpretation.

Did you know much about Diana’s affair with heart surgeon Hasnat Khan?

No I didn’t know about that story and I was very surprised when I read the script.

Did you try to speak with him?

We were told not to go there because he was not interested in any kind of focus on his relationship, or talking about it.

But I actually got quite a bit of information out of his testimony at the inquest and that was very helpful.

The movie recreates the famous BBC interview Diana did with Martin Bashir. Did you watch the interview?

I watched it and listened to it thousands of times. I watched it over and over again until I knew every word â€" o n my iPhone, on my iPad, when I was jogging... ?I studied her voice and the pitch of it, which was very distinctive.

She was quite posh, but there was a warmth there, too. Her accent wasn’t too fruity. ?

I was panicking right up until a few days before we were filming and then I finally felt, “It’s OK. This is mine, I have it now”.

There is a scene in which Diana goes to Khan’s flat and cleans up and washes the dishes. Have you ever cleaned up a boyfriend’s flat?

Have I cleaned up? Of course I have. I can’t stand mess or dishes in sinks.

They have to be done immediately. But if I had been Diana I would have left a note saying, ?“You do it next time”.

Did you find you could identify with some of her problems?

Of course. She had really human problems that we have all seen at one point or another in our lives, and looking for love is something we can all identify with.

I spent a couple of years in and out of a few relationships that I thought were going in the right direction. But they didn’t end up that way and I was sad and lonely in between.

However, Diana did connect with someone, despite the breakdown of her marriage, and that’s the uplifting part of the story.

You and Liev Schreiber have been together for eight years and have two childre n. How do you both juggle filming with a stable family life?

It takes work, but we are honest with each other.

Our family is the most important thing to us and we adore our children and want them to be the focus of our lives.

We negotiate the details of when we work.

You have been friends with Nicole Kidman for years. Now she is playing Princess Grace [in Grace Of Monaco, out November] while you portray Princess Diana. Did you discuss this?

We had a laugh on the phone, saying how funny it was that both us us are playing princesses in the same year. But we didn’t compare the two.

* Diana is released today.

View gallery

• "
• "
• "
• "
• "
• "
• "
• "
• "
• "

View gallery