Naomi Watts remembers David Lynch and how “instrumental” he was in her Hollywood career.
In a new interview, the Mulholland Drive star revealed how the filmmaker kept her from quitting acting.
“[Lynch] was very instrumental to me even being in America,” Watts said on Live with Kelly and Mark. “I wouldn’t have stayed had I not met David Lynch.”
Watts told host Kelly Ripa and guest co-host Anderson Cooper that when she met Lynch, “the chips were down,” and it had been “ten years of flunking auditions.”
“Nothing was happening,” she added. “I was literally alienating people. I was making them uncomfortable because I was so like, ‘I need a job! I need a job!’” she recalled. “So much so that my agent at the time said, ‘You’re too intense. You’re making people uncomfortable.’ Yeah, I need a job. I’m desperate, I need to work.”
Before starring in the 2001 film directed by Lynch, Watts had starred in 1995’s Tank Girl and 1996’s Children of the Corn IV: The Gathering. Watts noted that due to the lack of big opportunities, she had “planned on going home multiple times” and then got a call from Lynch.
“Long story short, David Lynch called me in and has a very different way of casting,” she said. “He sat me down and just looked me in the eyes and asked me questions, and most of the time I was like, ‘How do I get out of your way? How do I speed this up?’ [Because] I’m sure I’m not right, because I just had that programming: I’m not funny, I’m not sexy, I’m too old, I’m too this, too that. And he just saw me and was able to sort of lift these veneers.”
Watts would land the role in Mulholland Drive and the filmmaker became “a real mentor and a friend.”
After Lynch’s death, Watts paid tribute to the director with a touching message on social media.
“My heart is broken. My Buddy Dave… The world will not be the same without him. His creative mentorship was truly powerful. He put me on the map. The world I’d been trying to break into for ten plus years, flunking auditions left and right,” Watts wrote on Instagram.
Watts ended her tribute, saying, “I just cannot believe that he’s gone. I’m in pieces but forever grateful for our friendship. I’m yelling from the bullhorn: Godspeed, Buddy Dave! Thank you for your everything.”
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Watch Watts on Live with Kelly and Mark in the video below.