No Breaking the Pattern

Emily Watson has been counting her blessings.

“I’ve been incredibly lucky with the roles that have been coming my way,” she says. “I am kind of on a bit of a roll.” Indeed.

The 30-year-old British actress illuminated the screen last year in her first film, “Breaking the Waves.” Watson received a best actress Oscar nomination for her performance as a distraught wife.

Watson has been working almost nonstop since then. She recently starred in the “Masterpiece Theatre” adaptation of “The Mill on the Floss,” and will be seen in Jim Sheridan’s “The Boxer” Dec. 31.

The love story set in Belfast stars Daniel Day-Lewis as a boxer released from a British prison. Watson plays his former lover, Maggie, who has a husband in prison and a teen son to raise.

Watson, who lives in London with her husband, actor Jack Waters, is rehearsing her next project, “Jackie,” playing cellist Jacqueline du Pre, whose career was cut short by her 1987 death at 42 of multiple sclerosis.

Question: Are things calmer since “Breaking the Waves”?

Answer: Yeah, a bit. “The Boxer” finished shooting in the middle of July, and I’ve started rehearsing for something else. I had a few months in between where I kind of felt like I had caught up with myself and everything calmed down. I was home for a while. Things got a bit frenetic for a while.

Q: “Breaking the Waves” was certainly one of the most widely discussed movies of last year. Do people approach you wanting to talk about the film?

A: Yeah. I think people really feel that they know me very well when they have seen it, partly because the relationship with the camera is so close and I look in the camera all the time. [Bess is] sort of open and naive. A lot of people are very fond of her. I don’t think people are intimidated by her at all--a lot of people say, “Oh, God, that was one of my favorite films.”

Q: Has Hollywood been flooding you with offers?

A: No, not really. I had one or two offers, but nothing that really excited me. I’m not averse to the idea [of making a movie in Hollywood]--I think it’s one of the great movie-making centers of the world. But I am just trying to go where the good scripts are at the moment.

Q: Was the script the lure of the “The Boxer”?

A: [It was] Daniel, and Jim Sheridan, and the whole kind of team, but it is also a wonderful script [written by Sheridan and Terry George] and a brilliant story.

Q: Can you talk about your character of Maggie? She sounds quite a bit different from Bess.

A: I play a modern woman--in a way quite hard. She’s kind of got a tough edge to her. Anybody who was brought up in that kind of a community has to have a hard edge to her. Emotionally, she’s very repressed in a way.

[Daniel’s and my characters] were kind of teenage sweethearts, and we’re basically still in love. I am married to someone else, so we can’t be seen together. The character Daniel plays has been in prison for 14 years, where he really didn’t talk to anybody. As the film unfolds we begin to talk to each other. It’s a political story and a boxing story as well. I just bang on about the love story because that’s the part I’m in.

Q: What was the experience like working with Day-Lewis and Sheridan?

A: Daniel really sets a level of integrity. He’s so focused and concentrated. He’s amazing to work with. Jim gives the appearance of being chaotic and mad. He’s full of ideas and changing things, but he’s actually very clearly on the ball. It’s quite scary because you’re on your toes all the time.

Q: I understand you’ve been taking cello lessons for several hours a day to learn to play for “Jackie.”

A: I did actually play the cello for a while as a child, but by any standard at all, I’m pretty rubbish actually. But I am learning to play--sort of. I’m not learning the notes. I’m not reading the music. I’ve sort of devised a code for myself. I’m learning it by ear and by the look of the way she played and making it look right. It’s such fun.

I have movement classes because she died of multiple sclerosis and I’m meeting with doctors [to learn about MS].

Q: After all of these heavy dramatic parts, would you like to do a comedy one day?

A: I hope so. I’m looking forward to the day I do something funny. I think I have got a good sense of humor.

I keep getting sent scripts about very headstrong women who go completely mad. It’s very addictive playing kind of painful roles. You get into this world. We have just done shooting of some additional material on “The Boxer” last week in Dublin and it just sort of really sucks you in--the intensity of it.