Emily Margaret Watson OBE (born 14 January 1967) is an English actress. She began her career on stage and joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1992. She was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress for her debut film role as Bess McNeil in Lars von Trier's Breaking the Waves (1996) and for her role as Jacqueline du Pré in Hilary and Jackie (1998), winning the British Independent Film Award for Best Actress for the latter. Watson's other films include The Boxer (1997), Angela's Ashes (1999), Punch-Drunk Love (2002), Red Dragon (2002), Equilibrium (2002), The Life and Death of Peter Sellers (2004), Corpse Bride (2005), Miss Potter (2006), Synecdoche, New York (2008), The Theory of Everything (2014), Kingsman: The Golden Circle (2017), The Happy Prince (2018) and God's Creatures (2022). For her role in the HBO miniseries Chernobyl, she was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award and a Golden Globe Award. She won the British Academy Television Award for Best Actress for playing Janet Leach in the 2011 ITV television biopic Appropriate Adult and was nominated for the International Emmy Award for Best Actress for the 2017 BBC miniseries Apple Tree Yard.
Breaking the Waves
(Bess McNeill)
Crusade in Jeans
(Mary Vega)
The Life and Death of Peter Sellers
(Anne Sellers)
Angela's Ashes
(Angela McCourt)
Corpse Bride
(Victoria Everglot (voice))
Gosford Park
(Elsie)
Synecdoche, New York
(Tammy)
Cold Souls
(Claire)
Equilibrium
(Mary O'Brien)
Fireflies in the Garden
(Jane Lawrence)
Punch-Drunk Love
(Lena Leonard)
Trixie
(Trixie Zurbo)
Metroland
(Marion)
Cradle Will Rock
(Olive Stanton)
Red Dragon
(Reba McClane)
The Legend of Ochi
(Dasha)
Monster Family 2
(Emma Wishbone (voice))
Miss Potter
(Millie Warne)
Small Things Like These
(Sister Mary)
Cemetery Junction
(Mrs. Kendrick)
The Memory Keeper's Daughter
(Caroline Gil)
Wah-Wah
(Ruby Compton)
Midas Man
(Queenie Epstein)
Separate Lies
(Anne Manning)
The Proposition
(Martha Stanley)
The Boxer
(Maggie Hamill)
Hilary and Jackie
(Jackie Du Pré)
Tranceformer: A Portrait of Lars von Trier
A Summer Day's Dream
The Luzhin Defence
(Natalia Katkov)
Oranges and Sunshine
(Margaret Humphreys)
The Water Horse
(Anne MacMorrow)
Meerkats 3D
(Narrator)
War Horse
(Rose Narracott)
Within the Whirlwind
(Evgenia Ginzburg)
Anna Karenina
(Countess Lydia Ivanova)
The Mill on the Floss
(Maggie Tulliver)
Belle
(Lady Mansfield)
The Book Thief
(Rosa Hubermann)
Some Girl(s)
(Lindsay)
Little Boy
(Emma Busbee)
The Theory of Everything
(Beryl Wilde)
A Director's Journey: The Making of 'Red Dragon'
(Herself)
Testament of Youth
(Mrs. Brittain)
A Royal Night Out
(Queen Elizabeth)
Everest
(Helen Wilton)
Quicksand
(Sarah)
A Song for Jenny
(Julie Nicholson)
Molly Moon and the Incredible Book of Hypnotism
(Miss Trinklebury)
The Dresser
(Her Ladyship)
On Chesil Beach
(Violet Ponting)
Hamnet
(Mary Shakespeare)
Monster Family
(Emma Wishbone (voice))
The Happy Prince
(Constance Wilde)
King Lear
(Regan)
Weinstein
(Narrator (voice))
Ballchewer
Kingsman: The Golden Circle
(Chief of Staff Fox)
The Making of 'Gosford Park'
(Self)
33 Liberty Lane
God's Creatures
(Aileen O'Hara)
Late in Summer
Fado!
The Early Show
(Self)
The Oscars
(Self)
Appropriate Adult
(Janet Leach)
The Politician's Husband
(Freya Gardner)
Fired on Mars
(Sheila (voice))
Performance
(Rosalie)
Apple Tree Yard
(Yvonne Carmichael)
Genius
(Elsa Einstein)
Little Women
(Marmee March)
The Secret Life of Marilyn Monroe
(Grace McKee)
Chernobyl
(Ulana Khomyuk)
Dune: Prophecy
(Mother Superior Valya Harkonnen)
Too Close
(Dr. Emma Robinson)
The Third Day
(Mrs. Martin)