She’s been the leading contender for the job for a while now, ever since Charlize Theron dropped out of the cast of Clint Eastwood’s J Edgar, but Naomi Watts has officially signed on to playdedicated secretary Helen Gandy in the biopic of the FBI director.
Theron had been associated with the part, but she’s instead opted to play the Evil Queen in Snow White and the Huntsma****n, leaving the way clear for Watts.
While (according to Deadline) there were initially some scheduling wobbles, Watts is now on for Gandy, the woman who worked with Hoover (Leonardo DiCaprio) for 54 years and ended up the keeper of his secrets. And when he died, she was the one who spent weeks destroying his personal files, which were stuffed with the incriminating documents he used to manipulate the powerful political players around him.
Along with Watts and DiCaprio, J Edgar will feature Josh Lucas as aviator and public figure Charles Lindbergh; Damon Herriman as Bruno Hauptmann, who was accused of kidnapping Lindbergh’s child; Ken Howard as US Attorney General Harlan Stone; Armie Hammer as Clyde Tolson, Hoover’s deputy and – some say – lover. Oh, and Ed Westwick, who is playing Agent Smith, obsessed with making sure humans don’t find out the secret to the Matrix. Hang on, no… who wrote that last bit? KEANU! Get off the Empire computer! Actually, Westwick’s Smith is the FBI operative whom Hoover commissions to write his memoirs, leading to plenty of trouble when Smith starts to dig into his boss’s dodgy dealings.
Eastwood is getting set to direct the film starting next month.