Emily Watson has revealed she was once “told off” by Dame Angela Lansbury, who questioned how she would be able to bring up her children if she was “never there”.
The two actors were working together on an ITV adaptation of Little Women when Watson was “summoned” to her co-star’s trailer. Watson, who got her big break in Lars Von Trier’s 1996 film Breaking the Waves, played matriarch Marmee March in the 2017 miniseries. Lansbury, who was 92 at the time, starred as the family’s wealthy relative, Aunt March.
In a new interview with The Times, Watson recalled one particularly memorable moment on set.
“I once got very told off by Angela Lansbury,” she said. “On the first day, I got summoned to her trailer for lunch. She said, ‘I want to know what sort of mother you are.’” When asked why Lansbury asked that question, Watson replied: “Because I’m an actress, and how are you going to guide your children through becoming adults if you’re never there?”
At the time, Watson’s children were aged 11 and eight, and she added that “they loved that job, because it meant they got to hear Michael Gambon fart in his trailer”.
Watson, 58, is now starring in Chloe Zhao’s Oscar-tipped movie Hamnet, which picked up an accolade at the Toronto International Film Festival in September - putting it on track for an Academy Awards nod.
Hamnet stars Paul Mescal as William Shakespeare and Jessie Buckley as the playwright’s wife, Agnes. The film follows the couple as they struggle with the death of their 11-year-old son, Hamnet, and is an adaptation of Maggie O’Farrell’s 2020 novel of the same name.
Watson - who played Mescal’s mother in the 2022 psychological drama God’s Creatures - stars as Shakespeare’s mother, Mary. At the 2025 British Independent Film Awards earlier this month, Mescal presented Watson with the Richard Harris Award for her outstanding contribution to British film. Describing her as “one of the greatest actors of all time”, Mescal said: “To spend time watching Emily work is a privilege. Emily gives us her entire heart and leaves it in front of the camera for us to watch every single time.”
She also previously worked alongside Buckley in the hit five-part drama, Chernobyl.
