Naomi Watts waited a long time for stardom.
“It was so torturous. 10 years before I met David, I was so locked in and felt worthless. My manager pulled me aside and said, ‘We need a heartbeat. Honey, you’re so intense. You scare people.’ And I said: ‘Yeah, no shit.’ I was helpless! I’m behind on my rent; I was being evacuated. “I didn’t know what to bring into this room,” he recalled at the Zurich Film Festival.
“Last week they told me I wasn’t funny, so now I’m trying to be funny. They told me I’m not sexy – I’m trying to be sexy. You reshape yourself and try to read the tone of what’s required. That’s how it went, and I couldn’t be myself anymore. I was either an extreme version of myself, or a watered-down version of myself. It took a genius like David Lynch to see through all these quirks I’d created, to undo them and get to the real me.”
However, he was helped by the stamina that came from moving around a lot in his childhood.
“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 getting lost in these characters. I really cared and kept researching. I still do. There’s always more to learn.”
Watts received the Golden Eye Award at the Zurich Film Festival. During the ceremony, he also recalled those difficult early years when he tried to become a successful actor; “There were very dry spells.”
“And then, unfortunately, in my late 20s, I met David Lynch and he changed my career.”
“Mulholland Drive” is widely considered his breakthrough.
“This movie gave me the most incredible role that moved people. They still watch it today. It’s still on ‘best of’ lists. I’m so, so proud to be a part of this movie.”
During the masterclass at the festival, Watts said Nicole Kidman also encouraged him.
“He said: ‘One thing is all it takes, one thing can change everything. That didn’t make sense to me for a very long time. Until David Lynch, then it became very real.’
Immediately after “Mulholland Drive”, he starred in the horror classic “The Ring”.
“I tried to say, ‘No.’ There is no certainty in anything you do,” he said.
“My agents were excited about it. So I said, ‘Wait. I just got critical acclaim, so I want to get into a Hollywood blockbuster right away?!’ At that time, I had a fight with my manager. I didn’t know it would be a big hit! In a way, I evoked the horror genre. It was a lucky, lucky break.”
Watts also received rave reviews for “21 Grams” — “When you get tired and frustrated from doing things too much, extraordinary things can happen,” she said, recalling that intense shoot.
“If there’s a theme in my work, it’s grief. That’s why I do what I do: I’m trying to figure out the meaning of my life. Another is identity. I love the story.” [that asks]: ‘Who are you?’ This also comes from moving around as a kid. I was always on the outside of the group and trying to find my way in.
Watts’ latest role in Ben Shirinian’s “Housewives” also touches on this subject. In the film, set in the 1960s, she plays a housewife who seems perfect but hides her terrible post-war past.
“I’ve never played a character like this, even though I look for flawed women and I’m afraid of being unlikable. But this was extreme,” she said.
He said: “I knew what I was stepping into. I knew it would be a daunting, unforgettable insight. A character like this haunts your dreams at night.”
Having finished the masterclass, Watts admitted that it took him a while to stop focusing on other people’s opinions.
“Vulnerability is a superpower. It took me a long time to know and own that. I wish I had learned to be myself sooner and [care] less about pleasing people. Some people are born with this level of self-confidence; I was never that person.
“I still doubt myself a lot, but I’m not pretending it’s not a real thing. I’m trying to see it as a gift. It’s more effective than just bullshitting me through it all.”
She said being open about menopause, as well as its challenges, was liberating.
“Menopause became a huge topic of discussion because I experienced it early in my life and had no idea what was happening to my body. I once talked about it with my partner, who is now my husband. [actor Billy Crudup]and he was supportive, so I said: ‘How about I own the story?’ Actually, even though it’s not a joke, I’m also involved. Why are we suffering instead of some normalcy? Just have it.
He remembered his first conversation with Crudup about it.
“I was crying in the bathroom, trying to scrape off my estrogen patch. I told him what was going on, I was so nervous, and I thought: ‘He’s not going to want to be with me anymore!’ He said: ‘Wait. It’s great that you’re taking care of yourself. Why are you ashamed?’ She was so sweet… And sexy. “I felt safer than I’ve ever been.”
She founded Stripes Beauty, a brand designed for women in perimenopause and menopause.
“Men should be curious and compassionate. Ladies, our job is to share the story.”