Emily Watson is heartbreaking in new ITV drama Too Close as forensic psychiatrist Dr Emma Robertson, who is living with an awful tragedy.
What else has the respected actress in and what is there to know about her away from the small screen? Read on!
Who is Emily Watson?
At 54, Emily Watson is one of the UK’s most respected and in demand actresses. Her almost three-decade career has spanned stage, tv and film. She once described herself as ‘a character actress who gets laid’
Who does Emily Watson play in Too Close?
Emily plays forensic psychiatrist Dr Emma Roberstson who is tasked with caring for Denise Gough’s Connie Mortenson, a young mother who has committed an horrendous crime she claims not to remember.
A complex connection develops between doctor and patient.
“It’s the sort of stuff I love. Absolutely character-driven. That minutiae of examining the mind,” she says.
And the role was always going to be hers, as she’s been pals with writer Clara Salaman since they were five.
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What else has Emily Watson been in?
You may have seen her as a Russian physicist in HBO’s Chernobyl, the hit drama about the infamous nuclear disaster. Or perhaps with Jude Law in The Third Day, or as tragic cellist Jacqueline Du Pre in biopic Hilary and Jackie. She also starred in Gosford Park, War Horse and Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride.
Her saucy sex scene in 2017 psychodrama Apple Tree Yard, where she indulged in a steamy encounter in a House of Commons broom cupboard with Ben Chaplin’s handsome stranger caused a stir.
However, there was no nudity. “I’m way too old to be naked on screen,” she said at the time.
What was Emily Watson’s big break?
The steamy Breaking the Waves, made by Lars Von Trier, back in 1996 when she was 29. She stepped into the role after Helena Bonham Carter ‘got cold feet’.
She played Bess, a member of a Scottish religious community, whose husband Jan (Stellan Skarsgard) is paralysed in an accident on an oil rig.
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Unable to have sex, he encourages her to sleep with other men and tell him about the encounters. As Bess pushes the sexual boundaries – Emily was required to film graphic nude scenes.
“I wasn’t comfortable, but I did it because I wanted to give myself completely to this role,” she said.
Did Emily Watson grow up in a cult?
Her parents were members of the School of Economic Sciences, a quasi- religious organisation. “Some bad shit went down,” she has said.
“I experienced misogyny, without a doubt. Women had to keep their place and serve and wear long dresses. It was a very repressive regime altogether in that sense.”
Has Emily Watson won an Oscar?
No, but she was nominated for best actress twice – for Breaking the Waves, and also Hilary and Jackie. She scooped a BAFTA for Appropriate Adult in 2012, for her turn in the chilling drama about serial killer Fred West.
Is Emily Watson married?
She wed actor Jack Waters in 1995, after meeting him three years earlier when they were both in the Royal Shakespeare Company. They have two children Juliet, 15 and Dylan, 11 and live in leafy Greenwich in London.
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