Alberta Watson, well known to television audiences for her Gemini award-nominated role as Madeline on Jos vardas Nikita (1997), enjoys a long and diverse career in television and film. A native of Toronto, Watson began performing with a local theater group as a teenager. She received a Genie nomination for Best Supporting Actress for one of her ...
Gemini Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Guest Role Dramatic Series, National Board of Review Award for Best Cast
Nominations
Gemini Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Supporting Role in a Dramatic Series, Gemini Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Dramatic Program or Mini-Series, Gemini Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Supporting Role in a Dramatic Prog...
Movies
Spanking the Monkey, The Sweet Hereafter, The Keep, Hackers, The Prince and Me, In Praise of Older Women, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Away from Her, A Lobster Tale, The Hitman, The Wild Dogs, The Lookout, White of the Eye, Tart, Growing Op, Some Things That Stay, The Soldier, Citizen Duane, The Art o...
TV Shows
Nikita, 24, Angela's Eyes, Show Me Yours, La Femme Nikita
Star Sign
Pisces
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Trademark
1
Mona Lisa smile.
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Quote
1
If I've learned anything in this career it's that you have to hold on to the wisdom you've earned and to use it in your work. I bring an authenticity and experience in my work now that only comes with age and time. [2010]
2
I have an entirely different career now than the one I began with at 16. And I wouldn't have it any other way. [2010]
3
If you want to be an actor, drop out of school and go be a hippie [said with straight-face as a crowd of Acting for Film and Television college students erupted in laughter, 2008]
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You have more time when you have more money, but that doesn't always make it [the production] better. [In indies] you get to do it together, not just some CEOs counting shareholders. With low-budget films, people give 150 per cent because they don't have the money or time to waste, and there is a necessity to be creative in what casts and crews do. [2008]
5
Canadian actors are too frickin' humble compared to American actors, who generally have more avenues in the industry. We could use a little of their balls. They could use a little bit of our grace. [2008]
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I had a voice suddenly. I was being heard. I was being listened to for the first time in my life and that felt good. [Remembering when she was an introverted teen and discovered theatre, 2008]
7
It's very different approaching work as a mature actress. There are fewer parts and the ones that are there, well, the producers still want you to look decades younger. The pressure on actresses to go to drastic ends to achieve a look of frozen youth has had some scary effects that I think we've all seen. All I can do is keep showing up and doing my best. [2010]
8
I don't want to be a Stick Girl and not eat, I don't want to have a lot of procedures. I want a rounded life. I love to work, it allows me my expression of how I perceive life and allows me to have a life. I get to play characters that are more dicey, have more spice, more edge. I don't have to be concerned if the character has a few pounds; I don't have to worry about make-up. That's not to say I don't have to battle with the physicality. But I couldn't do it in L.A. where I'd have to worry about [silicone/Botox] injections. [2001]
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I tell you, I hate all the fuss; the make-up, the wardrobe, all that stuff. I just want to be there with whoever my acting partners are and try to achieve whatever it is we're supposed to. And the part that's really exciting is when you know that you've gone to that true place. Committing and responding to your partner; having the moment be truthful and also convey what the material is. Those moments are for me the joy of acting. [Describing what she loves most about being an actor, 2006]
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[In response to 'How do you deal with bad writing?', 2006:] Truly, it's the hardest work. I mean, you have to try and conjure up a whole person when it's not on the page. It's very difficult. What I try and do is just be even more in the moment so that there are surprises and that at least the surprises will be real. And the surprises are at least fun to play and discover.
11
[In response to 'How do you deal with a bad actor?', 2006:] The only thing that makes a bad actor is when they're not giving. I'll try to do whatever I can to move them, surprise them, throw them. I'll use whatever I can to make something happen. Even if it's off-script or it's not emotionally called for, because at least there's going to be an emotional truth - even if you have to piss somebody off.
12
I have mixed feelings about a star system in Canada. I don't think I'd ever want to be a star. I like being a working actor. I live a nice life, I don't live in a huge house but my life is comfortable. I don't need to have a lot. What I would like to see in place of a star system is simply more production. I just want to see actors getting more opportunities. [2006]
13
I took it because it was a heck of a challenge. And I'm not a name with an image to protect. The subject was incest. It didn't scare me at all. I seized the character and made her something. She was a deeply disturbed woman with a roller coaster of emotions. Her son visits for the summer and she's laid up with a broken leg and things get out of hand. [About her portrayal of the mother in Spanking the Monkey (1994), a role that was turned down by several actresses]
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Fact
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Filming in Calgary, Alberta (Canada) [July 2010]
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Filming CW's Nikita, TV series (Season 2) in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. [July 2011]
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Grew up in Toronto with her mother Grace, a factory worker, and her brother.
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Lived in New Jersey for eight years with her husband until they divorced and she then returned to Toronto.
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Her name was the basis for the character Alberta Green, played by Tamara Tunie, on 24 (2001). Ironically, Watson joined the "24" cast for the show's fourth season.
$800,000
