Issue date: Dec 19, 1999

In this article:
Understanding Watson's talent
Her debut floored the movie world
She captures McCourt's mother
12 new Oscar-worthy movies
Web links to movies, reviews and more

By Jeffrey Zaslow

nglish actress Emily Watson has given great thought to the face of poverty. She has the title role in Angela's Ashes, a bleak yet uplifting movie based on Frank McCourt's best seller about his impoverished childhood in Ireland. Portraying McCourt's anguished mother, Watson tried to use her face, with minimal expression, to show the "humiliation" of poverty. "I made a decision that there wasn't any room for acting pyrotechnics."

This is a departure for Watson, 32, who won an exalted reputation -- and two Oscar nominations -- for impassioned performances that critics have called "volcanic" and "fearless." In 1996's Breaking the Waves, she played Bess, a strange yet saintly woman who converses with God by speaking in both her voice and his. Since that movie, Watson says, many who meet her "expect me to be a raving lunatic."

In her last film, Hilary and Jackie, she played Jacqueline du Pré, the virtuoso cellist whose career was destroyed by multiple sclerosis. Watson not only captured du Pré's loneliness and desperation, she also nailed her electrifying style. That came from studying videos of du Pré and from practicing five hours a day. Watson's fingers blistered and bled, but by then she had a feel for du PrŽ and her instrument.

Angela's Ashes is Watson's most mainstream movie yet, and fans of the Pulitzer Prize-winning book will expect much from her. The memoir has become so phenomenally popular that readers fly to Ireland to tour the streets McCourt walked as a boy. Has Watson brought McCourt's lyrical writing to life? The author says she has. "She digs down," he says. "She finds stuff in human nature no self-respecting gal should know about. You think, 'Where does she get this from?' I was in awe."

Moviegoers seeking to understand Watson's talent should know this: Her acting style bursts forth not so much from life experiences -- "I've never been hungry" -- but from an instinctual eye for detail.

The daughter of an architect and a teacher, she talks of a "lucky" childhood and lovingly describes "endless summers" at her grandmother's house in Dorset. "It was a beautiful white cottage with wood- frame windows and a smoking chimney. There was always a fire burning, and she had amazing old furniture and a massive garden filled with honeysuckle and roses. It was the absolute idyll."

At age 4, she modeled for Laura Ashley. "My sister and I were adorable little blond things and we were in a shop. They said to my mom, 'Can we borrow your children?' "

Her parents allowed this foray into "dressing up and showing off," Watson says, but in other ways, they oversaw an erudite upbringing. They kept TV out of the home. "I read a lot. Reading is much better training for the mind, because it exercises your imagination and teaches you to construct sentences. If you watch the telly all the time, you're just led by the nose and you don't develop judgment in the same way."

Without TV in her past, however, there are voids in her awareness of pop culture. Her husband, Jack Waters, an actor and writer, "goes absolutely bananas because I don't know kids' shows, music shows. I've never heard of anybody."

She didn't pursue acting until her early 20s and struggled before landing her first film, Breaking the Waves. But her debut floored the movie world. She reminded critic Roger Ebert of observations once made about James Dean -- that "as an actor he was more like an animal than a man, proceeding according to instinct instead of thought and calculation."

Watson amends that description, saying she operates from a sort of premeditated instinct. "I'm careful to construct the circumstances around the moment in which instinct acts. Playing Jackie du Pre, you study the cello, the accent, her life, the books. You have an intellectual, studied view of exactly what a scene needs in terms of storytelling. And then, on the day of filming, you throw all that out the window and just walk in and see what happens." She believes Steve McQueen mastered that. "He was always in the moment."

Watson says she also follows her instincts in her personal life, and they tell her to be guarded. Alan Parker, director of Angela's Ashes, says she was "extremely maternal with all the kids on the set." So did playing a mother make her contemplate starting her own family? "Next question," she replies. "I discuss that with my nearest and dearest -- not in print."

Watson, who is also in Tim Robbins' new ensemble musical, Cradle Will Rock, is plowing through script offers. She'd consider departing from the serious, histrionic roles that made her famous, she says, but "reading these romantic comedies, I started thinking ..." She lets out a disappointed sigh. What? "Just that really good writers don't write romantic comedies. They're busy writing something more interesting."

Her eye for detail makes her a worthy spokeswoman for McCourt's tale. She knows that "a few shrill voices" in Ireland complain that McCourt exaggerated the poverty of his 1930s youth. The book and film deliver the "perceived memories" of childhood, which have a greater purity and honesty, Watson explains. "This wasn't the Hollywoodization of poverty."

She believes the book is so beloved in the United States because "a lot of Americans' ancestors lived this story. It represents the fulfillment of the American dream. [McCourt] escaped destitution, came to America and prayed to the Statue of Liberty. It's a story told without bitterness and with humor." Filming in Ireland, Watson lost weight and grew seriously depressed by the subject matter. Rain machines supplemented the incessant winter downpours, and her shoes and clothes were often soaked, a reminder of McCourt's wet childhood. She chain-smoked on- and offscreen but has since quit.

McCourt says Watson "captured my mother's body language, the way she smoked and sat by the fire, that look of feeling defeated yet defiant. There were things Emily did with her shoulders and with her eyes. She captured the shame of poverty."

McCourt's mother died in 1981, but he doubts that, if she were still alive, she could watch Watson's depiction of her. "She wouldn't be able to endure the spectacle of her own suffering."

During filming, Watson joined McCourt for a pint and remains haunted by their conversation. "He told me the one thing he's never gotten over in America is that children refuse bread because they don't like that sort of bread. He said that as a boy he'd have eaten bread made of horse [manure]."

When the cameras rolled, this vivid detail remained in Watson's mind and illuminated her performance. In her face, you see a woman who feels her own hunger and her children's hunger. McCourt says watching her "was hardly bearable" for him, but he's grateful. In her face, she brought his mother back to life.

PHOTO CREDIT: Matthew Jordan Smith for USA WEEKEND

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12 new Oscar-worthy movies you'll want to see this holiday season

The Green Mile, R. Based on Stephen King's serialized novel about a relationship between a death-row inmate and a guard. The buzz: Best Actor nod for star Tom Hanks, several Best Supporting Actor possibilities. In theaters now.

Cradle Will Rock, R. Deep in the Depression, a theater troupe -- including Emily Watson, Vanessa Redgrave, Bill Murray, and Joan and John Cusack -- fights the feds to put on a politically charged musical. The buzz: Best Supporting nomination for Redgrave or Murray. In some theaters now.

The Cider House Rules, PG-13. John Irving wrote the screenplay for this film adaptation of his novel about an abortion doctor and an orphanage. Michael Caine, Charlize Theron and Tobey Maguire star. The buzz: Best Screenplay nod for Irving, Best Actor for Caine. In some theaters now.

Anna and the King, PG-13. A non-musical The King and I redux with Jodie Foster as Anna and Chow Yun-Fat in the role that earned Yul Brynner an Oscar. The buzz: Best Actress nod for Foster.

Magnolia, R. A day in the life of 11 residents of L.A.'s San Fernando Valley, from Paul Thomas Anderson, the man behind Boogie Nights. The buzz: Tom Cruise's small role could earn him an Oscar nomination; wild-card chance at Best Picture.

Girl, Interrupted, not rated at press time. Winona Ryder and Angelina Jolie star in the true story of a young woman who spends nearly a year in a mental institution. The buzz: Best Actress nod for Ryder, Best Supporting Actress for Jolie.

Any Given Sunday, R. Oliver Stone directs this story of a struggling, aging quarterback (Dennis Quaid). Also stars Al Pacino, Cameron Diaz, Jamie Foxx. The buzz: Best Director nomination.

Snow Falling on Cedars, PG-13. Ethan Hawke stars in this adaptation of David Guterson's acclaimed novel about a murder on a small island in the Pacific Northwest. The buzz: Best Supporting Actor nod for Max von Sydow, who plays Hawke's lawyer.

Man on the Moon, R. Jim Carrey plays Andy Kaufman, one of the most eccentric and enigmatic comedians of his time. Other stars: Danny DeVito and Courtney Love. The buzz: Best Actor nomination for Carrey, Best Director for Milos Forman (Amadeus).

Angela's Ashes, R. From Frank McCourt's Pulitzer Prize-winning memoir. Audiences will experience McCourt's anguished Irish childhood of the '30s and '40s. The buzz: Best Picture.

The Talented Mr. Ripley, not rated at press time. Matt Damon, Gwyneth Paltrow and Cate Blanchett star in a story of a drifter who assumes the identity of a wealthy man. The buzz: Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Actress.

The Hurricane, R. In 1966, Rubin "Hurricane" Carter (Denzel Washington), a strong contender for the middleweight boxing title, is wrongly accused of a triple murder. After 20 years behind bars, he's cleared. The buzz: Best Picture, Best Actor nod for Washington.

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