Naomi Watts Almost Quit Acting Before Joining David Lynch’s ‘Mulholland Drive’

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On a recent Tuesday, Naomi Watts revealed that she was close to leaving the acting world altogether, until David Lynch chose her for the role in “Mulholland Drive.

He played a crucial role in my life. Without meeting David Lynch, I likely wouldn’t have stayed in America,” Watts explained during his interview on Tuesday morning’s show Live! With Kelly and Ryan, with Anderson Cooper standing in for regular co-host Mark Consuelos.

Following a decade-long struggle to secure work in Hollywood, Watts finally crossed paths with Lynch, who recently passed away at the age of 78. As she put it, “Things were tough. I was practically driving people away…making them uneasy by constantly asking for jobs, such as ‘I need a job, I need a job,’ to the point where my agent at the time told me, ‘You’re too intense. You’re making people uncomfortable.’ To which I responded, ‘Yes, because I need a job and I want to work.’

During her audition for Lynch’s 2001 movie, she mentioned that the director had an unusual casting approach. She explained, “He didn’t follow the traditional path; instead, he sat me down and conversed with me, asking questions. I kept feeling like I was in his way or trying to speed things up because I felt unsuitable for the role due to my beliefs about myself: I’m not humorous, I’m not appealing, I’m too old, I’m not this or that. But he looked past these surface impressions and managed to peel back the layers.

Naomi Watts portrayed both Betty Elms and Diane Selwyn in the movie “Mulholland Drive.” David Lynch received an Oscar nomination for best director for this film, and afterward, the actress acknowledged that he turned into a valuable mentor to her as a friend. Just recently, Naomi Watts shared on Instagram that it wasn’t just his artistic influence that touched her; his wisdom, humor, and affection instilled in her a unique sense of self-belief she had never experienced before.

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2025-01-21 23:54