Hollywood’s most familiar proverb is ‘never work with children or animals’, but in Naomi Watts’ latest project, she did both.

‘Penguin Bloom’ is an Australian family drama which tells the true story of physically disabled mother Sam Bloom, portrayed by Naomi Watts, and the injured baby magpie she and her family rescue.

“We broke all the rules, didn’t we? But it actually was just great,” Ms Watts told Deborah Knight.

“I had been [swooped] on a horse ride in the forest once, when I was much younger, so I was quite terrified of them – I didn’t know how this would work.”

Whilst a few worms kept the magpies on set friendly, Ms Watts did have one very gross encounter…

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