Role helped Watts deal with dad's death

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NEW YORK, Jan. 20 (UPI) -- Naomi Watts told reporters in New York that playing a grieving wife and mother in "21 Grams" helped her deal with issues surrounding her own dad's death.

"I lost my father when I was a kid and I didn't know about grieving," Watts said recently.

Watts said to prepare for her role in "21 Grams" she read everything she could on the subject and even attended bereavement groups.

"It just happened and (my father) was gone and a lot of those meetings that I sat in on made me realize: 'Wow! Those feelings I was having were because of that.' I didn't know how to identify them. I just knew my father was gone."

Watts and co-stars Sean Penn and Benicio Del Toro were all nominated for British Academy Awards Monday.