Naomi Watts is easily the leading candidate for the most daring actress in Hollywood, having deftly balanced a steady slate of high-profile commercial films like The Ring and King Kong with a generous selection of outside-the-lines choices - edgier, more difficult material from visionary directors like David Lynch, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, David O. Russell and David Cronenberg.
But even with her taste for challenging roles, even Watts wasn’t sure she was up to the task of taking on the harrowing psychological drama Funny Games, a near shot-for-shot American remake of Michael Haneke’s 1997 Austrian film – more than a conventional thriller, deeper than a gore-and-guts horror flick, Funny Games is a polarizing film that taunts convention and defies audience expectations, and left its star “terrified” by the mental and emotional places the film would take her.
Hollywood.com: Director Michael Haneke said he wouldn't remake this film without your involvement. What's your reaction to that, and would you have done this film without him?
Naomi Watts: Definitely not. It was put to me that he only wanted me and while that felt like a huge amount of pressure it was also very flattering and sort of slightly seductive in a way because he's someone who's work I admire greatly and he's worked with fantastic actresses before. It made me think that an artist that I admire respects my work and he's that passionate about it and so it made me want to do it. It's probably just a bald-faced tactic of his [laughs]. But it wasn't an easy decision to make. I wouldn't make this film with just anyone. It's by no means a no-brainer.
HW: Had you seen Haneke’s original 1997 film?
NW: Yes. I had seen the original, but only after we did this. The way that this came about was originally a phone call from Johanna Ray who's a casting director that was instrumental in casting me in Mulholland Drive and they'd come to her saying that they wanted her to get a hold of me and for her to cast the rest of the film. She called me and the minute that she said ‘Michael Haneke’ I was very excited. I feel blessed to have worked with some of these great directors. The minute that his name was mentioned I got excited, and then I saw the movie and I was both excited and angered and I felt so messed with…I was repulsed and terrified. Apart from my obvious reactions about the movie itself, to do this film was terrifying and that always interests me, being afraid of something. Because it's nice to think that you can combat your fears, I think.
