'Ophelia' star Naomi Watts on choosing roles that empower women

Naomi Watts is carefully choosing roles that empower women.

Right now she’s starring in “Ophelia,” a new film that puts a spin on Hamlet as we know it.

“We’ve turned it on its head king of thing,” Watts said in a recent appearance on “Popcorn With Peter Travers,” “honoring the two great females in the play rather than Hamlet. Hamlet features in a very strong way. But I think they felt it was a way to sort of modernize it. And open it up to a fresher and more contemporary audience.”

Watts plays Queen Gertrude, Hamlet’s mother, opposite Daisy Ridley as Ophelia.

“This is a time for female empowerment,” Watts said. “Often Shakespearean characters are chaste and tragic and overly pure or they’re mad or suicidal. They can be a little one dimensional. And in this version we are trying to make them three dimensional. And there’s a friendship. There’s a bond between the two women. Gertrude sees herself in young Ophelia.”

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This summer Watts is also starring in the psychological thriller “Luce,” and as Gretchen Carlson in the mini-series, “The Loudest Voice.”

“I’m just enjoying choosing different roles that are complex where the women are growing in some way and evolving,” Watts said.

Watch the full interview with Peter Travers Naomi Watts in the video above.