Katherine Waterston has been making her own name for herself over the past few years, though she’s opening up about learning from her famous father, Law & Order star Sam Waterston.
The 40-year-old actress had her breakthrough performance in Paul Thomas Anderson’s 2014 film Inherent Vice, and she can be seen in The World to Come, which debuted on digital formats on Tuesday.
She spoke about growing up with a famous actor for a father, and how it informed her decision to become an actor herself.
Growing up: Katherine Waterston has been making her own name for herself over the past few years, though she’s opening up about learning from her famous father, Law & Order star Sam Waterston
Famous father: She spoke about growing up with a famous actor for a father, and how it informed her decision to become an actor herself
‘It’s a strange thing when you’re the child of a successful actor, because you don’t see all the years of training and blood, sweat and tears and humiliating auditions. You just see them in their element,’ Waterston said.
She joked that growing up like this, ‘gives a child a very false sense of how the business works,’ though her earliest memories were, ‘seeing someone really stimulated by their work and really happy.’
She added that it was important for her to study the craft formally, and then ‘sort of abandon everything I’d learned.’
Strange thing: ‘It’s a strange thing when you’re the child of a successful actor, because you don’t see all the years of training and blood, sweat and tears and humiliating auditions. You just see them in their element,’ Waterston said
‘In a way maybe studying acting was just some kind of strange exercise for myself to prove to myself and to anyone around who was paying attention – although I don’t think anyone really was,’ she said with a laugh.
She added that, ‘maybe that had something to do with being a second generation actor, that I didn’t want to be perceived as some kind of silly dilettante who is bopping around and hanging off the coattails of her dad, that I was interested and really trying to be good at this thing.’
Waterston was born in London and raised in Connecticut, studying acting at NYU’s prestigious Tisch School for the Arts, though she realized how education was no substitute for performing.
London born: Waterston was born in London and raised in Connecticut, studying acting at NYU’s prestigious Tisch School for the Arts, though she realized how education was no substitute for performing
‘But then when I got near the end of my education I found that I didn’t know anything, not anything really useful or what we really needed to know,’ she continued.
‘And I realized everything I could find out, I’d find out from being in front of a live audience and it’s just such a brutal reality if the scene isn’t working, they’ll let you know,’ Waterston said.
She came to realize that she had, ‘gotten really good at talking about acting and I had to get on my feet and really figure out how to draw an audience in.’
Education: ‘But then when I got near the end of my education I found that I didn’t know anything, not anything really useful or what we really needed to know,’ she continued
Waterston looked back at that time as, ‘the dreamiest years,’ even though she was nervous about, ‘making it.’
‘Those first jobs I was given in the theater where I figured out how to tell a story in front of an audience, I learned more in weeks on stage than I ever did in school,’ she said.
Waterston will next be seen in The Third Day mini-series and she’ll return as Tina Goldstein in Fantastic Beasts 3 alongside Eddie Redmayne.
Sequels: Waterston will next be seen in The Third Day mini-series and she’ll return as Tina Goldstein in Fantastic Beasts 3 alongside Eddie Redmayne