Naomi Watts has spoken out about how she readied herself to play Princess Diana, possibly her biggest role to date.
The actress became so obsessed with Diana’s 1995 controversial interview with Martin Bashir, in which details of her marriage to Prince Charles were revealed, that Watts watched it repeatedly, even on her phone while out jogging.
The actress also spoke about how she turned down the role twice before accepting it in the end. “I found myself constantly asking for her permission” Watts said when speaking to The Daily Mail. “There was one particular moment when I felt her permission was granted.This won’t sound right in print I know.”
Understandably,Watts was worried about how Princess Diana’s sons would react to details of their mothers life splashed across the big screen. It was originally thought that the trailer would focus on her family life but the official trailer shows that the biopic does in fact concentrate on Diana’s love life, in particular her relationship with Dodi Fayed.
The actress was so nervous about how the princes would react she went out of her way to avoid conversation. Speaking to The Sunday Times she said “There was actually quite an eerie moment in London when I saw Prince William in a restaurant and I got very nervous, because if I caught his eye I didn’t want to interpret a look and think he had a negative feeling about this idea,so I made sure not to look.”
Although Watts is concerned about their reaction she maintains that is a story that needed to be told and it’s possibly “fresher than people expected.”
Watts was worried about how Diana’s sons would react to a movie based on their mother’s love life.
