Naomi Watts waited a long time to become a star.
“It was a grind. That 10 years before I met David, I became so locked up and I felt worthless. My agent pulled me aside and she said: ‘We need to have a heart to heart. Honey, you are too intense. You are freaking people out.’ I went: ‘Yeah, no shit.’ I was desperate! I was behind on my rent; I was getting evicted. I didn’t know what to bring to this room,” she recalled at Zurich Film Festival.
The resilience she built up from moving a lot as a kid was helpful, however.
“You also have to know why you love it. Are you in it for the right reasons? My goal wasn’t just to be famous. I loved disappearing into these characters. I really cared and continued to investigate. I still do. There’s always more to learn.”
“And then, mercifully, I met David Lynch in my late 20s and he changed my career.”
“Mulholland Drive” is widely considered as her breakout.
“That film gave me the most incredible role that affected people. To this day they still watch it. It’s still on these ‘bests’ lists. I’m just very, very proud to be a part of that film.”
During the masterclass at the fest, Watts said she was also encouraged by Nicole Kidman.
“She said: ‘All it takes is one thing, one thing could change everything. That didn’t make sense to me for a very long time. Until David Lynch, and then it became very real.”
Right after “Mulholland Drive,” she starred in horror classic “The Ring.”
“I tried to say ‘no.’ There’s no certainty to anything you do, ever,” she said.
“My agents were excited about this. I said: ‘Wait. I just got this critical acclaim, so I want to instantly go into a Hollywood blockbuster-y movie?!’ I fought with my agent at the time. I didn’t know it was going to be a massive hit! I woke up the horror genre, in a way. It was a lucky, lucky break.”
Watts also earned raves for “21 Grams” – “Extraordinary things can happen when you get tired and irritable from doing things too much,” she said, recalling that intense shoot.
“If there’s any theme in my work, it’s grief. It’s why I do what I do: I’m trying to figure out the meaning of my life. Another one is identity. I love the story [that asks]: ‘Who are you?’ That also comes from my moving around as a kid. I was always on the outskirts of the group, trying to find my way in.”
“I never played a character like this, even though I look for flawed women and I’m not afraid of unlikeable. But this was extreme,” she said.
She said: “I knew what I was stepping into. I knew it was going to be a daunting, haunting understanding. A character like that comes to you at night, in your dreams.”
“Vulnerability is a superpower. It has taken me a long time to know that, and own that. I wish I’d learn earlier on to be more myself and [care] less about pleasing people. Some people are born with that level of confidence – I was never that person.”
“I still have a lot of self-doubt, but I don’t pretend it’s not a real thing. I try to see it as a gift. It’s more effective than just bullshitting your way through it all.”
Being open about her hardships, as well as menopause, proved to be liberating, she said.
She recalled her first conversation about it with Crudup.
“I was crying in the bathroom, trying to scratch off my estrogen patch. I told him what was going on, so nervous, and I thought: ‘He’s not gonna want to be with me anymore!’ He said: ‘Hold on. It’s great that you are taking care of yourself. Why are you ashamed?’ It was so sweet… And sexy. I felt safer than I ever felt.”
She ended up founding Stripes Beauty, a brand designed for women navigating perimenopause and menopause.
