Watts up with Naomi

Naomi Watts was living that evergreen Hollywood clich? - the beautiful young actress arriving in LA and hoping for a break.

Then David Lynch came along with a role that could change her career, starring in his latest excursion into the weird and wonderful, Mulholland Drive. Her character? A beautiful young actress in LA hoping for a break.

The similitude isn't lost on the British-born, Australian-trained Watts, who moved to America seven years ago and - like the majority of actors - had to bide her time before being noticed. 'Some of the experiences I've had in LA would be a good source of entertainment,' she says wryly. 'Most of my auditions have been miserable. And while I've worked on good projects, I've been in some absolute turkeys.'

Not so Mulholland Drive. In Lynch's hands, the tale of wannabes, has-beens and egomaniacal directors is more compelling than most films about Tinseltown, winning Lynch the Best Director laurel in Cannes earlier this year and giving Watts a role she describes as the best of her career. Like Twin Peaks and Blue Velvet, it's dark, sinister and downright strange, as Watts's wide-eyed country girl, Betty Elms, finds her thespian ambitions sidetracked by dead bodies, trips to hallucinogenic cabaret clubs (cue Lynch's favourite red velvet curtains) and a mysterious femme fatale with whom she shares some sizzling encounters.

The plaudits for the film, and her performance, are particularly gratifying because of Mulholland Drive's chequered history. It was originally commissioned as a TV series, only for sheepish network executives to pull the plug when they saw the pilot. The project seemed doomed, until Lynch decided to shoot more scenes and turn what he had into a movie. 'It's been a long, protracted road - torture, basically,' says Watts. 'Mulholland Drive was just too out there for the TV networks. It wasn't Ally McBeal.'

So how 'out there' is Lynch in person? 'I had preconceptions. I thought that because of these really dark and twisted films, he'd be an intense, brooding kinda guy. But I couldn't have been more wrong. David's probably the warmest man I've ever met, a real charmer. He'd say things like, "Well I'll be ding-danged, Na-o-mi" in this very Midwest accent. When you first hear him talk, you can't quite believe it.'

Watts's own accent is hard to pin down, a reflection of her nomadic background. She was born in Kent (her father was a sound engineer), and lived all over England before emigrating to Australia with her family when she was 14. It was Down Under that Watts starting acting in the obligatory daytime soap (Home And Away), and more notably in the film Flirting - which also featured a young Nicole Kidman, with whom Watts has been close friends ever since.

At 33, Watts's career may start to match her pal's. 'Because of Mulholland Drive, some people in America are going, "Oh my god, you're an overnight success." I've been acting for 12 years,' she says. 'But fine, if they want to think that, I'll play along. One thing about David Lynch is that all great film-makers will see his films. And now I'm getting my hands on the best material, rather than jumping through hoops to get small parts.'

Meanwhile, she's just finished filming another odd-sounding movie, in Wales. Plots With A View is a comedy about funeral parlours, with a cast that includes Christopher Walken, Brenda Blethyn and the comedian Lee Evans. 'Now there's a bunch of characters,' she says, putting on her best valleys accent. 'I'm playing a Welsh town tart. I've never looked more different.' Indeed, life may never be the same again.