“The Chips Were Down”: Naomi Watts Says David Lynch Saved Her Career (2025)

David Lynch

“The Chips Were Down”: Naomi Watts Says David Lynch Saved Her Career (1)

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“The Chips Were Down”: Naomi Watts Says David Lynch Saved Her Career (2)

Naomi Watts has credited the late David Lynch with saving her career when he cast her in Mulholland Drive. Watts has joined many of Lynch’s collaborators in paying tribute following his death last week.

Watts had a career breakthrough with dual roles in Lynch’s 2001 neo-noir classic and would go on to work with the filmmaker several times throughout the next 16 years. During an appearance on Live With Kelly and Mark, Naomi said Lynch was "very instrumental" in her Hollywood success after years of struggling to land work.

The actress explained: “I wouldn't have stayed [in America] had I not met David Lynch. The chips were down, it was 10 years into flunking auditions.” Naomi recalled that “nothing was happening” in her career despite landing small parts in film and TV shows dating back to the 1980s. Watts eventually got an audition with Lynch, which led to her casting in Mulholland Drive and a hugely successful career that has included two Oscar nominations.

“I wouldn't have stayed [in America] had I not met David Lynch.”

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Reflecting on this difficult time in her career, Watts recalled: “I was literally alienating people. I was making them uncomfortable because I was so like, 'I need a job! I need a job!' 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. I planned on going home multiple times.”

A fortuitous call to audition for Mulholland Drive would change everything for Watts. “Long story short, David Lynch called me in and has a very different way of casting,” Watts remembered. “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?' 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.”

Naomi Watts and David Lynch Worked Together Throughout the 2000s

Watts Became a Member of Lynch’s Ensemble After 2001’s Mulholland Drive

David Lynch and Naomi Watts Collaborations

Project

Naomi Watts Role

Mulholland Drive (2001)

Betty Elms / Diane Selwyn

Rabbits (2002)

Susie

Inland Empire (2006)

Susie

Twin Peaks: The Return (2017)

Janey-E Jones

Watts credited Lynch with being "a real mentor and friend" throughout their numerous collaborations. “He affected so many people — not just the people he worked with, but how he viewed life and what he gave,” Watts said of her friend. The actress is one of many of Lynch’s friends and collaborators to pay tribute to him following his death on Jan 15. Blue Velvet star Laura Dern penned a remembrance on what would have been Lynch’s birthday, where she referred to the director as “Tidbit”. “I will love and miss you every day for the rest of my life,” Dern wrote to Lynch.

Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos has subsequently confirmed that Lynch had pitched a limited series to the streamer before his death. According to Sarandos, Lynch regarded this Netflix series as “his last project” but it sadly never came to pass. “David Lynch was an unapologetic genius. He didn’t want you to understand his work,” Sarandos wrote. “He knew that was impossible and it was part of the ride together. His body of work is remarkable, visionary, bold and artful. I will always wonder about what he had in mind for us with what would have been his last project.”

David Lynch Received Tributes From Hollywood Luminaries After his Death

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  • Twin Peaks star Kyle MacLachlan credited Lynch with plucking him “out of obscurity” to star in the filmmaker’s “first and last big budget movie” with Dune.
  • Steven Spielberg has praised Lynch as “an original and unique voice” after directing him in The Fabelmans.
  • Lynch’s Wild at Heart star Nicolas Cage remembered the director as “solid gold” in his glowing tribute to the Hollywood icon.

Lynch was the recipient of numerous film industry accolades throughout his storied career, such as the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement from the Venice Film Festival and the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. The director received three Oscar nominations and won the French César Award for Best Foreign Film twice.

Source: Live with Kelly and Mark / Entertainment Weekly

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“The Chips Were Down”: Naomi Watts Says David Lynch Saved Her Career (5)
Mulholland Drive

R

Release Date
October 19, 2001

Runtime
147 minutes

Director
David Lynch

Writers
David Lynch

Cast

  • “The Chips Were Down”: Naomi Watts Says David Lynch Saved Her Career (6)

    Laura Elena Harring

  • “The Chips Were Down”: Naomi Watts Says David Lynch Saved Her Career (7)

    Mark Pellegrino

  • “The Chips Were Down”: Naomi Watts Says David Lynch Saved Her Career (8)

    Justin Theroux

After a car wreck on the winding Mulholland Drive renders a woman amnesiac, she and a perky Hollywood-hopeful search for clues and answers across Los Angeles in a twisting venture beyond dreams and reality.

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