In Ryan Murphy’s new limited series The Watcher, Naomi Watts and Bobby Cannavale play Nora and Dean Brannock, a couple who are finally able to move into their dream home in a wealthy New Jersey neighborhood. But the 110-year-old aging beauty proves to be a nightmare when the Brannocks begin receiving threatening letters from a person claiming to be the property’s rightful heir or, more specifically, its Watcher.
Based on a New York article about a real-life family who was terrorized by increasingly violent letters from a similar stalker, Murphy’s twisted take on the case is as comedic as it is sinister. And the only predictable thing about the series is how quickly Watts and Cannavale signed on to co-star.
Here, the pair discuss how they became aware of the Watcher’s story, what they appreciated about Murphy’s adaptation, and who they think may be the real-life Watcher.
How did you first hear about the Watcher? Were you familiar with the article?
Naomi Watts: I had not read it. I feel like I must have been living under a rock at the time, because most of the East Coast knew about this story. But when Ryan [Murphy] sent me the article, I devoured it and found it to be incredibly compelling. And then I got on a call with him, and we spoke about me getting back into this genre, and it just felt like it was all so exciting. What I loved about the story most of all was that it could happen to anybody. And those kinds of stories are instantly compelling — ordinary people in extraordinary situations.
Bobby Cannavale: I didn’t know anything about it until I was referred to the piece in New York magazine. As soon as I started asking people if they knew about this story, it seemed like everybody had read this article. And then I had a conversation with Ryan, and I was really attracted to what he was attracted to. He didn’t really talk that much about the actual story. He talked about Covid, and he was like, “I don’t know about you, but I have small children and I felt powerless when Covid came. There was this thing coming for our families and we didn’t know what it was but it was really scary.” I liked the parallel between that and the telling of this story and the snatching away of the American dream that we work so hard to try to get. I think that sense of our agency being taken away by an unknown force is a tremendously scary proposition.
What can you say about where Nora and Dean are at the beginning of the series?
Watts: I think Nora’s gotten to that place where her kids are grown, she’s certainly made sacrifices to be at home with her kids and now they’re less dependent on her. They’re spreading their wings a bit more. She wants to do a few more things for herself. And one of those things is to really focus on this dream that she’s had, which is to be in a nice home that has beautiful, leafy green trees surrounding it and a nice driveway. They’ve been through some struggles over time and they’ve come close to it before, so when just a sniff of it comes their way, it’s just like, “Oh honey, come on. We’ve done it. We’ve dreamed about this. We’ve tried and it hasn’t happened. This is right.” And then as the series goes on, you see that there has been a history of issues along the way and they really feel like this house is the one thing that will fix things and release them from their darker time, and it’s just not the case.
Cannavale: I think this couple kind of epitomizes a family who’s striving to have more so that they can have a better future, so that their kids can have a better place to go to school, a safer place than where they’ve been living, all the things that you want for your family. And here they find themselves in a position to get a little closer to that dream. They’ve got a lot of years invested in this relationship and these kids, and I think that they feel they deserve to have this next step in their life. So when that gets threatened, we find this couple at a real crossroads in terms of what is maybe their biggest challenge yet. That’s a fun thing to play, particularly when you have this great actress here to play a rich history with. Naomi and I didn’t know each other that well, and to be able to convincingly play a couple that’s been together and had a history together is a challenge, but one that you’re up for when you know who’s opposite you.
And in Ryan Murphy’s hands, a story like this can’t help but be fun. Did you have a favorite scene or series of scenes to play?
Watts: Working with Jen Coolidge [Karen, the realtor] every day was extraordinary. What was there on the page was already fantastic material and she brought so much to it. She riffs and improvises [while in character] and can suddenly start talking about anyone in the room. Anyone’s going to be under the firing line — like, “Oh, you see that man’s hair over there? It’s a toupee, and I had sex with him last night.” Or she just would talk about anyone and that poor person in the background... the hardest part was keeping a straight face.
Cannavale: I liked when Mia Farrow and Terry Kinney show up as the neighbors, and I loved coming to work every day to see what we were going to wear. We matched a lot in our creams and beiges and earth tones. The wardrobe really informed a lot of who these people are or who they were striving to be, and we had a lot of laughs about that. I also really liked the scenes in which Dean and Nora are affectionate with each other. It was important to us and to Ryan that this couple who have been together for a while were still into each other. I like to see a positive portrayal of a couple who have kids, who are of a certain age and have a history and are still attracted to each other.
Did you have your own theories as to who the Watcher was?
Watts: Yeah, and my theories changed throughout the course of shooting. We were getting the scripts as we were going and it almost worked to our advantage in a way, because it added to the tension. Who was the one? Is it you? I’m sure it’s you. Nope, it’s her. It’s him. It’s—
Cannavale: Toward the end, in the sixth episode, we each thought it was each of us.
Watts: Yeah.
Cannavale: I was like, “I think it’s me.” And you were like, “I think it’s me.”
Watts: And that was quite good because, you know, you wouldn’t have all the answers in the real-life situation either. It’s quite good to not know.
Additional reporting by Anne Cohen
The Watcher is now streaming on Netflix. Hear Watts talk more about playing Nora Brannock and her other famous roles in the latest episode of the Skip Intro podcast.
