Emily Watson Biography
Emily Watson is an English actress who launched her career on stage and joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1992. In 2002, she appeared in Twelfth Night and Uncle Vanya at the Donmar Warehouse. She received the Olivier Best Actress Award in 2003 for her performance in Uncle Vanya. Watson won an Academy Best Actress Award nomination for her here role in Breaking the Waves in 1996 and Hilary and Jackie in 1998.
Emily Watson Age
Watson was born Emily Margaret Watson on January 14, 1967, in Islington, London, England. She is 57 years old as of 2024. Watson celebrates her birthday on January 14th.
Emily Watson Height
Watson stands at an approximate height of 5 feet and 8 inches.
Emily Watson Family
Watson was born to Katharine Venables and Richard Watson in Islington, London. Her father was an architect while her mother was an English teacher at St David’s Girls’ School, West London. She grew up Anglican alongside her elder sister, Harriet. Watson says that she grew up in a nice middle-class English family and would have liked to be described as rebellious but didn’t fit the criteria.
Emily Watson Husband
Watson married Jack Waters in 1995. They met at the Royal Shakespeare Company. The couple has two children including a son named Dylan and a daughter named Juliet. Juliet was born in 2005 and is 19 years old as of 2024. Dylan was born in 2009 and is 15 years old as of 2024. The family lives in Greenwich, London. Waters is a former actor who works as a potter. He is best known for starring in The Boxer, The Murder of Stephen Lawrence, and Dangerfield.
Emily Watson Net Worth
Watson has an estimated net worth of approximately $10 Million which she has earned through her successful career as an actress.
Emily Watson Breaking the Waves
Watson gained attention after director Lars von Trier cast her in Breaking the Waves after Helena Bonham Carter dropped out because of the film’s explicit sexuality. Watson portrayed Bess McNeill, a young and pretty Scottish woman. With a history of mental health illness, Bess believes she can talk directly with God.
Bess marries oil rig worker Jan Nyman but his absence mars their relationship due to work. After praying for his return from work, Jan returns home the next day due to a life-altering accident that leaves him unable to perform sexually and mentally due to paralysis. As a result, he asks her to find another lover since there’s no hope for his recovery.
Bess believes her prayer caused the accident and starts seeing Jan’s suggestions as the will of God. Thus, she falls into sexual debasement despite e her repulsion and inner turmoil of being open with other men, believing it’ll save her husband.
Her performance in the film won her the Best Actress Award at the Los Angeles, London, and New York Critics’ Circle Awards. She also won the US National Society of Film Critics’ Best Actress Award and nominations at the British Academy Film Awards, the Academy Awards, and the Golden Globe Awards.
Emily Watson Punch-Drunk Love
Watson starred as Lena Leonard in Punch-Drunk Love in 2002. Lena is the love interest of Barry Egan(Adam Sandler), a socially anxious and emotionally troubled man. They met through his sister’s machinations who works with Lena.
Emily Watson Red Dragon
Watson starred as Reba McClane in Red Dragon. Reba is a blind woman working as Chromalux’s photo technician. She falls in love with Francis Dolarhyde(Ralph Fiennes) who has a violent alter ego known as the Great Red Dragon. His alter ego pressures him to kill Reba despite having genuine affection for her. As a result, he struggles between the affection he has for her and his desire to kill her.
Emily Watson Education
Watson studied at St James Independent Schools in West London. She then joined the University of Bristol, attaining a Bachelor Of Arts degree in English in 1988. She trained at Drama Studio London.
Bristol University granted her an honorary Master Of Arts degree in 2003. She served as a member of the School of Economic Science until 1996. When she was 29, she was expelled after she starred in Breaking the Waves, an event she said was a powerful release.
Emily Watson Career
Watson launched her career on stage. She has starred in The Children’s Hour at the Royal National Theatre, Three Sisters, Much Ado About Nothing, and The Lady from the Sea. She collaborated with the Royal Shakespeare Company in The Taming of the Shrew, A Jovial Crew, All’s Well That Ends Well, and The Changeling.
Watson gained attention after director Lars von Trier cast her in Breaking the Waves after Helena Bonham Carter dropped out. Her performance in the film won her the Best Actress Award at the the Los Angeles, London and New York Critics’ Circle Awards. She also won the US National Society of Film Critics’ Best Actress Award and nominations at the British Academy Film Awards, the Academy Awards, and the Golden Globe Awards.
2001 to 2006
Watson gained attention from the public for the controversial role of cellist Jacqueline du Pré in Hilary and Jackie, winning her another Oscar nomination. She also learned how to play the cello in three months for the role. She starred in the leasing role in Cradle Will Rock and the mother of Angela in Angela’s Ashes. In 2001, she starred in The Luzhin Defence opposite John Turturro and in Robert Altman’s cast of Gosford Park.
Director Jean-Pierre Jeunet Amélie for her to play but she turned down the role because of difficulties speaking French and a desire not to be away from home. She was also to star as Elizabeth I in Elizabeth, a role that went to Cate Blanchett and won her an Academy Award nomination.
Watson portrayed Reba McClane in The Silence of the Lambs prequel, Red Dragon, Paul Thomas Anderson’s Punch-Drunk Love, and Equilibrium. In 2002, she took a hiatus from cinema and had two roles in Sam Mendes’ production of Uncle Vanya at the Donmar Warehouse in London and Twelfth Night at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Her performance received praise on both sides of the Atlantic and won her an Olivier Award for Uncle Vanya.
In 2004, Watson won a nomination for a Golden Globe Award for her performance as Anne Howe in HBO’s The Life and Death of Peter Sellers. The following year, she starred in Wah-Wah, Separate Lies, Gosford Park, and Corpse Bride.
2006 to present;
Watson starred in a supporting role in Miss Porter and in an adaptation of Thea Beckman’s Crusade in Jeans in 2006. The following year, he starred in The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep. That same year, her script with her husband, Mood Indigo, was optioned by Capitol Films. Mood Indigo follows a young woman who falls in love with a pilot during World War II.
Watson starred in Fireflies in the Garden, Lifetime’s The Memory Keeper’s Daughter, and Synecdoche, New York in 2008. The following year, she starred in Cold Souls and Within the Whirlwind. She then appeared in Oranges and Sunshine in 2010 and War Horse in 2011. The latter year saw her starring as Janet Leach in ITV’s Appropriate Adult which won her a BAFTA Award.
Watson played a supporting role in The Book Thief opposite Geoffrey Rush and Sophie Nélisse in 2014. She also starred in The Theory of Everything opposite Eddie Redmayne and Felicity Jones.
In 2015, she played a supporting role in Testament of Youth opposite Alicia Vikander and Kit Harington and Eduardo Verástegui’s Little Boy. She starred as Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother in A Royal Night Out. Honoring her services to drama, she was chosen as Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2015 New Year Honors.
Watson received praise for her portrayal of Julie Nicholson in BBC Drama’s A Song for Jenny, with experts tipping her to clinch the British Academy Television Best Actress Award. She starred in BBC’s Apple Tree Yard in 2017. In 2019, she starred as a nuclear scientist in Chernobyl. She will star in The Legend of Ochi and Hamnet.
Other Ventures
Watson supports the children’s charity the NSPCC. She joined the society’s Hall of Fame in 2004 for leading the triumphant campaign to nominate a Children’s Commissioner for England. She received her award in the crowded House of Commons, speaking out against the chance the Children’s Commissioner becomes a figurehead with little real power.
Watson serves as a patron of the London children’s charity Scene & Heard. In April 2018, she mentioned Maternity Worldwide as her chosen charity on the BBC Radio 4 Appeal.
Emily Watson Movies and TV Shows
Watson has starred in several movies during her career such as
- Metroland
- A Summer Day’s Dream
- The Mill on the Floss
- The Boxer
- Trixie
- Boo, Zino & the Snurks
- The Proposition
- The Politician’s Husband
- Crusade in Jeans
- Cemetery Junction
- The Secret Life of Marilyn Monroe
- Anna Karenina
- Some Girl(s)
- Genius
- Belle
- Molly Moon and the Incredible Book of Hypnotism
- Kingsman: The Golden Circle
- On Chesil Beach
- Monster Family
- The Happy Prince
- Monster Family 2
- God’s Creatures
- The Third Day
- Small Things like These
- Midas Man
- Dune: Prophecy