Whether or not we came close to the truth, I don't know 
Emily Watson has been building a fascinating CV since making her film debut as the troubled heroine in Lars Von Trier's disturbing Breaking The Waves. Since then she has worked with everyone from Daniel-Day Lewis (The Boxer) to Ralph Fiennes (Red Dragon) and Adam Sandler (Punch-Drunk Love). Her latest film, The Life And Death Of Peter Sellers, casts her as the eponymous Goon's long-suffering first wife Anne, opposite Geoffrey Rush.
Like Jacqueline Du Pre in Hilary And Jackie, Anne Sellers is a real character. Do you approach these roles differently to when you're playing a fictional character?
It's completely different. In Hilary And Jackie, because she's a very famous, iconic musician, everybody knows what she looked like, what she sounded like, how she moved, so you really had to do a lot of work to try and honour that. With Anne, I actually do know her a little bit. She's a great lady but there's not a public knowledge of her life, so you're not slavishly representing the details. Also, this is not a historical document. It's a fantastical, rock'n'roll, stylistic, crazy, ping pong sort of a movie, and events are conflated and things are made up to represent themes.
Are you generally weary of biopics, because they can go horribly wrong?
Yeah. When I heard it was Peter Sellers, I said, "I don't think so." And then Geoffrey wrote to me and said, "Pleeeeease..." So, I read it and I thought, This is going to be a different sort of take and might be interesting. I'd like to be a part of this. But yeah, it's always a question of how heavy-handed it is going to be.
What was Geoffrey Rush like to work with?
Geoffrey has that real boyish sense of humour, and so does Stephen [Hopkins, the film's director]. The two of them are like two kids together, which was essential for this movie. They were like, "What about this? Let's have a scene where he's on the toilet having a s***." Geoffrey was in five hours of prosthetic makeup every day, and he didn't lose his sense of humour once. He really was an education in being professional.
Peter Sellers is an enigmatic figure. Do you feel you have a better insight into him now than you did before?
I think I have an insight that is based on the film. Somebody who's that brilliant and that prolific and that dedicated to total transformation, and that addicted to the octane high of being funny and being at the centre of everything, and the fall out around him - I think it's fascinating territory to explore. It's a classic tale of troubled genius. But whether or not we came close to the truth, I don't know.
The Life And Death Of Peter Sellers is released in UK cinemas on Friday 1st October 2004.
