British actress and film producer, two-time Oscar nominee for her roles in 21 Grams (2003) and Hell in Paradise (2012).
She was born in Shoreham, Kent, to Welshwoman Myfanwy Edwards and Englishman Peter Watts, a sound engineer for Pink Floyd.
She attended Morsman and North Sydney Girls' Schools, but failed her exams. After working in a sweet shop in Sydney, 18-year-old Naomi decided to become a model. The agency she signed with sent her to Japan to work, but she was unsuccessful. Back in Sydney, Naomi worked in advertising and as an assistant fashion editor at Follow Me magazine. A chance invitation to take a drama course led her to quit her job and try to pursue a career as an actress.
Naomé's first role was in For Love Alone in 1986, and her mother also contributed to the film's costumes. Later, Naomi landed roles in several commercials and appeared in several episodes of the TV series "Hey Dad...!"
At the premiere of Dead Calm in 1989, Nicole Kidman introduced Naomi to director John Duigan. He offered her a role in Flirting, also starring Kidman and Thandie Newton. The same year, Naomi landed roles in Brides of Christ, Home and Away, but turned down a role in the drama series A Country Practice, "not wanting to get stuck in soap operas for two or three years", a decision she later regretted.
A year later, Naomi went to Los Angeles, where she met Kidman's agents, who were already making a splash in Hollywood. Impressed by the opportunities, she soon moved to the US. After a small role in Matinee in 1993, Naomi returned to Australia for a while, starring in Wide Sargasso Sea, The Custodian and Gross Misconduct, in which she played the lead for the first time.
2007
However, her career in Hollywood was not a success, her finances dried up, and the agents Kidman had introduced her to simply didn't remember her. For a while, Naomi even worked as a nanny for Kidman and Tom Cruise.
In 1995, she finally managed to get a role in Tank Girl, which, although financially unsuccessful, was considered a cult hit by some audiences and helped Naomi land a number of supporting roles, and in 1996 she was hired as a nanny for the film Tank Girl. In 1997, Naomi starred in the Australian drama Under the Lighthouse Dancing and the short-lived TV series Sleepwalkers. She auditioned for films that went on to become lucrative and well-known, but in the end the directors chose someone else, such as The Postman, The Devil's Advocate or Meet the Parents.
Naomi's breakthrough role was in the 2001 film Mulholland Drive by David Lynch, which was later nominated for an Academy Award, and earned her a Saturn nomination. In 2002, she starred in the American version of the Japanese horror film "The Ring". The film received positive reviews, as if to confirm that the actress' success in Mulholland Drive was not accidental. After the success of the western "The Outsider", the 2003 film "21 Grams" earned Naomi an Oscar nomination and several other awards. Her popularity continued to grow and the roles she was offered, which she handled well, made her even more valuable: "We Don't Live Here Anymore", "The Assassination of Richard Nixon" and "I Heart Huckabees". In 2005, she starred in the sequel to 'The Ring', 'The Ring Two', which, although not as successful as the first one, received positive reviews for her work. More successful was her work in Peter Jackson's remake of King Kong, which won 3 Oscars and a Saturn Award for Naomi.
After several successful roles, in 2007 she starred in Michael Haneke's remake of the 1997 film Funny Games, about a group of young people who are trapped in a house by their family. The film debuted at the 2007 London Film Festival.
After a 2-year hiatus, during which Naomi had 2 children, she returned in 2009 with the political thriller The International, co-starring Clive Owen, as well as the critically acclaimed Mother and Child, which screened at Sundance Film Festival. The 2010 Cannes Film Festival opened with Woody Allen's comedy You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger, co-starring Antonio Banderas, Freida Pinto and Anthony Hopkins, and Fair Game was the third film she co-starred in with actor Sean Penn.
In 2011, Naomi co-starred with Daniel Craig and Rachel Weisz in the thriller "Dream House" and with Leonardo DiCaprio in the Clint Eastwood-directed "J.J. Edwards". Edgar". Her 2012 drama "Lo Impossible", about the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, based on the true story of a woman, Maria Belon, and her family, earned her a second Oscar nomination.
