"I think deep down we both knew that there wasn't a forever plan," King Kong star
Naomi Watts tells
Vanity Fair of her relationship with actor
Heath Ledger. "It was not an easy breakup but, you know, a bearable one. ... It's sad saying good-bye to someone that you care for, but we always knew that it was in sight, so it was the inevitable that happened." Today,
Watts, who is 37, and
Ledger, who is 11 years her junior, remain friends, and she has even met his fiance, actress
Michelle Williams. (
Watts's interview--along with stunning photos by Norman Jean Roy--appear in the January issue of
Vanity Fair, on New York and L.A. newsstands December 7, and appearing nationally December 13.)
Watts tells Smith she is smitten with her new love, actor Liev Schreiber, and friends of the actress think an engagement might be around the corner. "He's just a solid guy," Watts says of Schreiber. "And he's complex, which I love. And has a brilliant mind, which I am totally in awe of. And he's incredibly funny—you just have to laugh. For some people that's not such an important thing, but I need that. We understand each other very well and we're at very similar places in our lives."
Watts says she is rarely noticed in public. "I just smile. And keep walking. If I were decked out in my stilettos, hair and makeup ready every day, then I might draw a little more attention to myself."
That may all change soon, as Watts anticipates the opening of Peter Jackson's King Kong. "All this stuff"—the global rollout, the raised expectations, the impossibility of privacy—"is still unknown to me. I'm less familiar with it, and it's kind of frightening."
Watts's longtime friend Nicole Kidman thinks Watts is prepared for what's to come. "I think it is going to be a whole different life for her in terms of everything she has ever wanted. And I think she is more than ready for it."
Watts almost gave up on acting altogether, she tells Smith, after 10 years in Hollywood and few roles. "I had gotten to a place where I truly believed everything I was called: 'not sexy,' 'not funny,' 'too intense,' 'desperate,'" Watts says. "All those labels they gave me, I took them because there wasn't a trace of my true self left." The last blow came from her agent at the time, who, Watts recalls, said, "'What's happened? I keep talking with casting directors. I know you are a good actress, they know you are, but you are freaking them out.' I just sat there and sobbed and sobbed my heart out."
Watts credits her mother with instilling in her a survival instinct that made it possible for her to stay in Hollywood. "My mother is a survivior," Watts tells Smith. "That is what I've been living on. That survival mechanism has been driving me," she says.
Of the sudden death of her father when she was just seven years old, Watts tells Smith, "I try not to talk about it too much. It's upsetting and very personal." And she adds that the most upsetting aspect is that "I feel robbed of the experiences that I was entitled to." She tells Smith, though, that she feels that her dad has been looking after her every step of the way.
Watts tells Smith that she feels as if everything in her life is coming together. "I feel like I am entering into a stage where this whole journey of struggle had perfect meaning," she says. "It's all in the process of taking care of itself."
source:
http://justjared.blogspot.com/2005/12/naomi-watts-vanity-fair.html