Naomi Watts reveals her magpie co-star pooped in her MOUTH on the set of film Penguin Bloom

Naomi Watts has revealed an amusing mishap she suffered on the set of her new movie, Penguin Bloom. 

The 52-year-old actress learned the meaning of that old adage ‘never work with animals or children’ when her disrespectful co-star, a magpie bird, went to the toilet on her head – with the poop winding up in the Oscar-nominee’s mouth. 

The 21 Grams star told The Age on Saturday: ‘It was very early on – possibly even the first day – and I was still getting warmed up to this whole experience of birds crawling all over me. 

‘The bird was on my head and [the trickle] went all the way down my face and then – oh my god – it slipped warmly into my mouth. It was the most horrific experience.’ 

Naomi previously explained on Sunrise that she in fact worked with multiple birds on the set of the film, rather than having just one magpie for a co-star. 

‘It was unpredictable [working with magpies] and there was a lot of anticipation in the lead up to it,’ she told the show.   

‘We had a little bit of CGI and animatronics were needed, but they just kept performing. 

‘It was unpredictable [working with magpies] and there was a lot of anticipation in the lead up to it. I was thinking, ‘How can this be achievable?’ And they pulled it off.’   

Despite her bad experience, Naomi has widely praised the spellbinding movie, based on the true story of a paralysed woman’s life-saving relationship with a magpie.   

She said it was incredible working alongside – and portraying – the ‘extraordinary woman’, who struck up an unlikely friendship with a young and wounded magpie after an accident in Thailand left her paralysed from the chest down.

‘Obviously Sam is someone who’s suffered a lot, deeply, and so I just wanted to do the right thing by her,’ Naomi told Sunrise. 

‘I was nervous but she couldn’t have been more generous, and it was a beautiful friendship that formed as well.’   

Naomi will star in Penguin Bloom alongside Andrew Lincoln, Jacki Weaver, Rachel House, Leeanna Walsman, Lisa Hensley, Griffin Murray-Johnston, Felix Cameron and Abe Clifford-Barr.

While the film doesn’t hit cinemas until January 21, you can read Samantha’s story in the 2016 book Penguin Bloom: The Odd Little Bird Who Saved a Family.