Never one to shy away from tough roles, the actor tells Janet Christie why she’s revisiting the horror of the world’s worst nuclear accidentEmily Watson is laughing over the possibility of appearing in a romcom or musical.
“I’d LOVE to! LOVE to,” she says. “I couldn’t do a musical because I can’t sing, but a romcom, yeah. Most surely.”
It’s come up by way of light relief as we’ve just spent half an hour talking about the serious roles and issues that Watson has brought to life in her 30 year career, playing complex characters in extreme and sometimes hard-to-stomach situations. And while the 52-year-old actor is a thoughtful and get-to-grips with reality grown-up, in conversation there’s a lighter, cut-loose side too. She laughs a lot when she’s not giving serious consideration to weightier issues, and happily uses words like ‘distracted’ and ‘muddled’ about herself as she juggles interviews about her latest project, Chernobyl, with children on school holiday.
The first co-production by Sky and HBO, Chernobyl is the story of the 1986 nuclear disaster in northern Soviet Ukraine, and compelling viewing.