Join us for a Career Retrospective with Emily Watson.
GUEST BIO
Emily Watson is one of the industry’s most acclaimed stage and screen actresses, highlighted by her OBE honor in 2015 for her services to drama. Emily first came to the attention of the film world with her memorable performance in Lars von Trier’s Breaking the Waves. For this, Emily received the ‘Best Actress’ award at the New York Film Critics Circle, National Society of Film Critics, European Film (Felix) Awards and was named British Newcomer of the Year at the London Critics Circle Film Awards. Emily was also nominated for ‘Best Actress’ at the Academy Awards, The Golden Globes, and BAFTA Awards. Breaking the Waves was Emily’s first film.
Two years later, Emily was again nominated in the ‘Best Actress’ category at the Academy, Golden Globe, BAFTA and Screen Actors Guild Awards for her portrayal of real-life classical cellist Jacqueline du Pré in Hilary and Jackie, starring opposite Rachel Griffiths and directed by Anand Tucker. The performance also earned her the British Independent Film Award for ‘Best Actress’. In 2012, Emily was again a Screen Actors Guild and Golden Globe Award nominee, for her performance opposite Dominic West in the miniseries Appropriate Adult. Her portrayal of Janet Leach in the real-life tale also earned Emily a BAFTA Award for ‘Best Leading Actress’’.
This year, Emily stars opposite Paul Mescal in the upcoming A24 psychological drama God’s Creatures, with Saela Davis and Anna Rose Holmer directing. The film premiered in Cannes in Directors’ Fortnight and will be released this fall. Emily recently finished on A24 film The Legend of Ochi starring alongside Willem Dafoe and Finn Wolfhard with Isaiah Saxon making his feature film debut, due for release next year.
Emily starred in the multi award-winning HBO/Sky five-part miniseries Chernobyl in Craig Mazin’s dramatization of one of the worst man-made catastrophes in history. Starring alongside Jared Harris and Stellan Skarsgård, Emily played Ulana Khomyuk, a Soviet nuclear physicist committed to solving the scientific mystery of what led to the disaster at Chernobyl to prevent it from ever happening again. The series premiered to widespread acclaim, picking up multiple awards that includes ten Emmy awards, including the award for Outstanding Limited Series, and a Golden Globe and BAFTA for Best Miniseries or Television Film. Emily was also nominated for multiple awards that include an Emmy, Golden Globe and Critics’ Choice Award for ‘Best Supporting Actress’ in a Limited series or Television Movie’. Last year, Emily starred in the ITV psychological thriller Too Close, written by author and screenwriter Clara Salaman for which she was nominated for a ‘Best Actress’ BAFTA award.
Emily’s film credits include the award-winning The Theory of Everything; The Happy Prince; On Chesil Beach; Testament of Youth;A Royal Night Out; Everest; Metroland; The Boxer; Cradle Will Rock; Angela’s Ashes; Trixie; Punch-Drunk Love; Red Dragon; The Proposition; Wah-Wah; Corpse Bride; Separate Lies; Synecdoche, New York; Cold Souls; Oranges and Sunshine; War Horse; Anna Karenina; Some Girl(s); The Book Thief; Belle and Gosford Park, for which she won a Screen Actors Guild Award as part of the ensemble honoured with the top prize of Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture.
Television credits include, The Third Day, Apple Tree Yard, Richard Eyre’s adaptation of King Lear, Little Women, A Song For Jenny and The Dresser.
A veteran of the London stage, Emily’s theatre credits include Three Sisters, The Lady from the Sea, and The Children’s Hour at the Royal National Theatre. She has worked extensively with the Royal Shakespeare Company, in such productions as Jovial Crew, The Taming of the Shrew, All’s Well That Ends Well, and The Changeling. In the fall of 2002, she starred at the Donmar Warehouse in two shows concurrently, Uncle Vanya and Twelfth Night, both directed by Sam Mendes. These critically lauded productions were also staged at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York City
