Do we like Naomi Watts?
Our score: 8 out of 10. A clean record on harm and a decent one on character, with a thinner paper trail on climate and politics than we'd like.
Naomi Watts was born in Kent in 1968, and the early years were unsettled: her parents split when she was small and she moved around England before the family relocated to Australia when she was 14. She did acting classes and auditions in Sydney, a stint modelling in Japan, and a drama workshop pulled her back to acting.
The break was a long time coming. Flirting got her noticed, Tank Girl took her to Hollywood, then David Lynch's Mulholland Drive in 2001 made her a name. She picked up Oscar nominations for 21 Grams and The Impossible. Looking back this September, she said she'd packed her bags emotionally and physically many times because of constant rejection.
Now the harm check. We found no harmful words from her on LGBTQ+ people, women, migrants or anyone else, and no sign she has pushed conspiracy theories. In May 2025 she co-hosted a New York fundraiser for the Trans Justice Funding Project, which backs trans justice groups across the US.
Her recent company checks out too. The Housewife is directed by Ben Shirinian and co-stars Tye Sheridan, Luke Evans, Michael Imperioli and Lena Olin, and she earned an Emmy nomination for playing Babe Paley in Feud. In terms of the planet and politics, the record is thin: we found nothing from her on climate, so we can't say more than that.
The nearest thing to a scandal is not hers. In March 2025 on Watch What Happens Live, Bill Murray kissed her on the mouth mid-question, and plenty of viewers were unimpressed with him. Watts laughed, told him he had lipstick on his face, then answered the question. She's on the receiving end of that one, not the cause.
On the recent stuff, at San Sebastián she presented The Housewife, in which she plays a woman tied to Nazi crimes. Asked about the state of the world, she told reporters, as EFE reported, that what's happening scares her and that people need to stay vigilant. That's a decent thing to say on a festival stage.