Elementary, My Dear Emily Watson

Emily Watson has a knack for stealing scenes. Beginning with her incredible star turn in Breaking the Waves -- as the emotionally brutalized Bess McNeil in the 1996 performance that made Lars Von Trier's name -- Watson's career has surged as smart directors point cameras in her direction and co-stars get out of her forceful way. In her latest performance, Watson plays Millie Warne, children book author Beatrix Potter's confidante and aspiring sister-in-law, in Chris Noonan's Miss Potter. Warne was an early feminist in early 20th century London, and with her swift wit, winningness at whist, and tweed-driven wardrobe, Watson unsurprisingly outshines men and women alike in each scene.

Though she has created several of the most indelible tragic characters of the past decade in films like Angela's Ashes and The Boxer, Watson exudes versatility, and actually helped to inspire the title character in 2001's delightful Amélie (that's "Emily" in French). The challenge of speaking another language didn't end up appealing to Watson, who turned down the role; though that story speaks to her popularity in film circles. Indeed, she's had the good fortune of being typecast as expert in damaged or struggling characters; far from seeking such roles, Watson quietly offers, "it just happens to be where I started out, so people have trusted me with tough parts." She admits to having been both "thrilled" and "terrified" by the "everything-you-strive-for" prospect of starring in Hilary & Jackie (1998), in which she played to perfection a cellist suffering from multiple sclerosis.

The actress also admits that portraying so many traumatized characters can wear down not only the psyche, but the best acting instincts as well. "It's very hard not to feel hackneyed, as if you're repeating yourself. You've got to be disciplined, making choices that are absolutely about the film and the story you're telling." Watson's apparent lack of ego is clearly crucial to her work: "As soon as you forget that it's not about you, you're in trouble. You've got to serve the story."

Indeed, Watson is happy to play the character actor as well as the leading lady, and is more than capable of turning a simple figure into high drama. Such was her addition to 2005's The Proposition, in which she played the innocent and delicate Martha, a babe in an untamed forest of Australian cowboys. The bizarre film was penned by Nick Cave, and Watson remembers being dubious upon first receiving the Bad Seed's script. "I said, 'What, like the Nick Cave?' I'm sure he'd be furious to hear that, but someone of his genre writing a script, it seemed bound to be embarrassing. But it was far from it, very filmic, poetic, mythic, literary. I kind of thought, 'you don't see these things anymore'..."

Watson is quick to humble herself before talent, and neither is she the first fine dramatist to humble herself before comedy. "Being comedic takes more skill, takes more knowledge of how the thing's put together. With a dramatic role, you can be very innocent of the process." These are also the sentiments of an actor with an announced interest in dipping more into comedic roles. Miss Potter is perhaps a way station, a lighthearted life story, but with surprising doses of tragedy.

In the film, Renee Zellweger plays the beloved author of Peter Rabbit, and Ewan MacGregor is Norman Warne, her publisher and doomed romantic opposite. Norman's sister Millie is not only the couple's emotional enabler, but also comes with the couture to inspire a school of laudable transvestism. Watson recalls her research: "There's a great photograph of her with her five brothers. She's on a bicycle in a boater, and looks very tomboy-ish." And indeed Potter's Millie isn't caught dead in anything less than an extra-wide men's tie and a few layers of twill or velvet sports coats.

Providing another explanation for the wardrobe, Watson posits that the costume designer was trying to find "as many things I could hide in as possible." That is, this was the actress' first performance since giving birth to her first child -- and it was, she says, good cause to get back on her feet. Her daughter is now 14 months old, and more interested in "ripping the pages" of Potter's books than in hearing the stories; "but she really likes the pictures."

Miss Potter opens December 29th.

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