The stars of The Watcher knew they had to say yes.
Naomi Watts and Bobby Cannavale play Nora and Dean Braddock, respectively, on the spooky Netflix hit, based on a true story that went viral with a 2018 article in The Cut. When she got wind of the project—and who was acting as the series' co-creator—Naomi said she didn't even have to think twice.
"The first main attraction for me was Ryan Murphy called," Naomi exclusively told E! News. "Of course, that's the call I had been hoping for for some time. Then, I read the article and I got completely swept up with it and imagined myself in their shoes and just thought this could be anyone's story."
She added, "It's instantly compelling and I obviously am a fan of the genre. It was a no brainer."
Bobby also said he "wasn't familiar with the story," but it was a conversation with Ryan—whose past work include American Horror Story, Ratched and Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story—that convinced him to sign on.
"He called me and I never met him before," Bobby revealed. "He said, 'I don't know about you, but when COVID hit, I just felt so powerless and I felt like unequipped to protect my family, and I've got the means to protect my family. But this thing that we can't see was terrorizing pretty much the entire population.'"
Ryan used it as an analogy for the story of The Watcher, which centers around a dramatized version of the Broaddus family's story. In 2014, the family was terrorized by a series of anonymous letters sent to their Westfield, N.J. home by somebody calling themselves The Watcher.
After hearing Ryan out, Bobby was hooked.
"I think Ryan has his finger on the pulse of something," the 52-year-old actor said. "Clearly, he's been doing it for such a long time and usually taps into the zeitgeist in a really interesting way. I'm always happy to be a part of sort of a creator's vision like that."
Naomi is obviously on the same page, as evidenced by the fact that she's getting ready to work with Ryan again on season two of FX's Feud. The 54-year-old actress is set to play socialite Barbara "Babe" Paley, who fell out with famed writer Truman Capote in 1975. Pride & Prejudice star Tom Hollander will star as Truman and, as Naomi revealed to E! News, "we start in November. "
All seven episodes of The Watcher are available to stream on Netflix.
- Reporting by Charles O'Keefe