Naomi Watts said on Tuesday that she almost quit acting before David Lynch cast her in Mulholland Drive.

Watts said "the chips were down" and she was "desperate" for work after "10 years into flunking auditions" in Hollywood before Lynch agreed to work with her.

Naomi Watts, 56, is a British actress best known for her roles in the films “Mulholland Drive,” “21 Grams” and “Birdman” and TV’s “Feud: Capote vs. The Swans.” She is the author of “Dare I Say It: Everything I Wish I’d Known About Menopause” (Crown).

Mulholland Drive star Watts said Lynch “put me on the map” with her 2001 break-out film about the dark side of Hollywood, which earned him the award for best director at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival alongside an Oscar nod. “My heart is broken. My Buddy Dave… The world will not be the same without him,” Watts wrote on Instagram.

Naomi Watts says her “heart is broken” following the death of her Mulholland Drive director David Lynch. After the four-time Oscar-nominated filmmaker’s family announced Thursday that Lynch died at the age of 78,

Director-writer David Lynch, who radicalized American film with with a dark, surrealistic artistic vision in films like “Blue Velvet” and “Mulholland Drive” and network television with “Twin Peaks,” has died. He was 78. Lynch revealed in 2024 that he had been diagnosed with emphysema after a lifetime of smoking, and would likely not be able …

David Lynch has died at 78. The filmmaker was celebrated for his uniquely dark vision in such movies as “Blue Velvet” and “Mulholland Drive” and the TV series “Twin Peaks.”

David Lynch, whose avant-garde films include "Blue Velvet," "Mulholland Drive" and the groundbreaking series "Twin Peaks," has died at age 78