Naomi Watts revealed on Live With Kelly and Mark (via Entertainment Weekly) that she was on the verge of quitting acting before she met the late David Lynch, who cast her in the lead role in 2001’s Mulholland Drive. The film’s critical acclaim and global success led to Watts turning To a star after “10 years” of “failed tests”. Lynch died on January 15 at the age of 78.
“I wouldn’t have stayed (in Hollywood) if I hadn’t met David Lynch,” Watts said. “The chips were down, it was 10 years of failed auditions (and) nothing was happening… I was literally isolating people. I was making them uncomfortable because I was saying to myself, ‘I need a job!’
Things got so bad for Watts that my agent at the time said, “You’re too intense.” “You make people uncomfortable,” the Oscar nominee recalled. “Yes, I need a job. I’m desperate, I need to work. I planned to go home several times.
“In short, I was called by David Lynch and he had a completely different way of casting,” she continued. “He sat me down and looked me in the eye and asked me questions, and most of the time I was like, ‘How can I get out of your way?’ I’m not hot, I’m old, I’m too this, too that. He just saw me and was able to kind of lift that shell.
Watts and Lynch would go on to work together on projects like “Rabbits” and “Twin Peaks: The Return,” which co-starred the director’s other muses like Kyle MacLachlan and Laura Dern. After news of Lynch’s death spread online, Watts took to Instagram to share an emotional tribute and tell her fans that “the world wouldn’t be the same without him.”
“His creative guidance was truly powerful,” Watts wrote. “The world I had been trying to break into for over ten years, failing tests left and right. Finally I sat in front of a curious man, radiating light, speaking words from another age, making me laugh and comforting me. How did he even see me when I was so completely hidden, that I had lost sight of myself? !
“Every moment together felt charged with a presence I had rarely seen or known,” Watts continued of their time together. “Maybe because, yes, he seemed to be living in a changing world, a world that I feel lucky to have been a small part of. David invited everyone to take a glimpse into this world through his remarkable storytelling, which has elevated cinema and inspired generations of filmmakers around the world.” .
“I can’t believe he’s gone,” Watts concluded. I’m torn but forever grateful for our friendship.
The actress is currently making the press rounds in support of her new book, “I Dare I Say It.” After Lynch cast Watts in “Mulholland Drive,” Hollywood finally came forward with lead roles in projects like “The Ring” and “21 Grams.”