Naomi Watts hopes new movie will expose Americans to ex-CIA agent’s life

WASHINGTON - Actress Naomi Watts, who plays an ex-CIA agent in a new movie, is hoping that her role will help educate Americans on the events that took place with the real life agent.

Watts, 42, plays Valerie Plame Wilson, a former CIA covert operations officer married to former Ambassador Joseph Wilson (played by Sean Penn) in the real-life inspired drama, ‘Fair Game’.

Plame had made headlines in 2003 when her identity as an operative was exposed reportedly in retaliation for her husband’s New York Times article concluding that rumours of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq were exaggerated.

Her outing sparked a media storm known as “Plamegate”, leading to questions about the involvement of then-Vice President Dick Cheney and others in the Bush White House, and ending with a perjury and obstruction conviction against Cheney’s chief of staff, Lewis “Scooter” Libby.

The case is now long over, but Watts suspects the film will rile up its viewers nonetheless.

“It is supposed to get under your skin; it was terrible what (Plame and Wilson) went through. To me, what was compelling is that both had strength in their convictions,” Fox News quoted her as saying.

“They went through the most horrible fight you can imagine and they stood by their truth and managed to stay together,” she said, adding that the film’s message is that everyone should “stand up and say the truth”.

“I am inspired by Valerie, and I can relate to her, but I definitely don’t have the strength she has. I don’t know many people that could take on that kind of fight and not cower or lose their marriage,” she added. (ANI)