Naomi Watts Quotations

There's a lot of skeletons in my closet, but I know what they're wearing. I'm not gonna act all ashamed of it

I always love being in the company of women. It's all about good conversation and great wine.

When I had dark hair I definitely felt that I was more anonymous.

The biggest place I look for validation is from my mother. That's the little girl in me that will never grow up.

I'm not this dark, twisted person. Yes, I have my demons and this is my way of exorcising them. It gets them out - and better out than in.

I'm a tomboy now. I always wanted to fit in with my brother's group, so I climbed trees and played with lead soldiers. But I'm a woman's woman. I never understood women who don't have woman friends.

I had gotten to a place where I truly believed everything I was called: 'not sexy,' 'not funny,' 'too intense,' desperate.' All those labels they gave me, I took them because there wasn't a trace of my true self left.

Pain is such an important thing in life. I think that as an artist you have to experience suffering.

You won't find me in a romantic comedy. Those movies don't speak to me. People don't come to talk to me about those scripts, because they probably think I'm this dark, twisted, miserable person.

You have to make peace with yourself. The key is to find the harmony in what you have.

If I have to produce movies, direct movies, whatever to change the way Hollywood treats older women, I'll do it. If I have to bend the rules, I will. If I have to break them, I will.

It's always nerve-racking to take off your clothes on film. But doing it with a woman felt safer than with a man. You know you can say, 'Don't grab me there: That's where my cellulite is'!

That's one of the lucky things about getting the success later on. I know how I want to dress, I know what kind of house I want to live in, I just know more about myself, and that's true about the roles I want to play and what parts of myself I want to express. You're just more in touch with yourself.

Mum put me in drama classes when I was about 14. I'd been going on about it for some time, so maybe it was a way to shut me up.

There's a set of rules out there somewhere that says it all ends by 40. I hope to be able to defy that because I truly love my work.

On set is where I feel comfortable. The red carpet stuff, talking about the film, explaining your own life, it doesn't come naturally. It's all necessary stuff I suppose but it's not my strength.

We're so afraid of death in our culture, but I think if we understand it better, then we'll appreciate the life we have more.

I find myself gravitating towards drama. It interests me. In the books I read, the paintings I like, it's always the darker stuff.

Whatever is said about roles drying up, I intend to keep working. Certainly now the roles couldn't be more interesting - playing mothers, divorcees. I think it's going to be exciting to play a mother of teenagers. The longer your life, the deeper it gets.

It was total naivety that got me to Hollywood. I thought it was going to happen straight away. I told myself 'give it 5 years, there's no way I'll be here after that if it doesn't happen'. Cut to ten years later!

There was a time I was very much blaming the way I felt on L.A, that it was a vacuum of creativity, of humor or anything organic, and I was really angry at the place. But then today I feel completely different - I love L.A.!

In your 20s - and these are generalizations of course - I feel like I didn't care about as many things or as many people, or even myself, as much. There's more recklessness and more ruthlessness; you're not as considerate of how things land with other people I think.

Some movies are the kind you take home with you at the end of the day, and some, you can let go.

The thing that I love about acting is the fact that I can help people feel things, know themselves or feel less alone. It's my form of expression, in the same way that someone might paint a picture or sing a song in that you're hoping that it moves somebody outside of their own way of thinking.

It's unusual to spend even three full hours away from my newborn baby, it's like a piece of my body is back in the hotel room, and it does feel strange. But I love my work, though, it's not just a job for me, punching in my time card. I've always loved what I do, it's what makes me happy and I figure if I'm happy I'll be a good Mum too.

I love being outside with trees and water, lying down somewhere or walking. I do transcendental meditation, which keeps me calm and steady.

Nicole was always there with her door open, her arms open, her ears open - just what you need.

I think film is a director's medium and the good filmmakers that I like tell the darker stories. Therefore, I'm always inclined to follow people like David Cronenberg.

My mum put me in drama classes when I was about 14. I'd been going on about it for some time, so maybe it was a way to shut me up.

I'm not happy unless I've got a little bit of fear going.

It'll take me a lot longer to read a script if there's no director attached.

Never say never - and I certainly don't judge anyone who does it. But most of the characters I play are going through some kind of emotional turmoil, so my job requires me to have expression. If my face was froze, what right do I have to play that part? All the women who haven't done anything to their faces are still able to play great roles. And some of the ones who have done something have messed it up- they look freakish. Anyway, for me it's about playing women with rich lives - and the longer the life, the deeper the wrinkles.

I got knockback after knockback at auditions. Just before ‘Mulholland Dr.’ my agent told me I was so intense I was freaking people out. She told me I was a brilliant actor but the feedback was that I made people feel uncomfortable because I was so nervous and intense. I just sat there and blubbed. My mum was staying in LA at the time and I went to her and said: ‘I just can’t do this. I’m not cut out for it.’ She just said: ‘Don’t believe a word people say about you. Forget them.’

Hotels are temporary people storage, no matter how big the boxes are. Remember that.

I like complicated women. I like women with strength and contradictions...

I was never completely destitute. I think I borrowed money once off a friend, but I've always been quite careful with my money, having come from not much of it.

I don't think of myself as a terribly confident person. But I have a survival mechanism that was instilled in me by my mother.

Sometimes they come to you and it's a small role, so it's about the experience and the journey and mixing with people you know you will learn from. Or sometimes it's a scene in a movie that you think, 'I just have to play this person.'

Who are we when we leave our families? Who do we become? What are we capable of? That's something that never leaves us. It begins at that point in your life when you leave the nest, and I don't think we stop wanting to explore that question.

I consider myself British and have very happy memories of the UK. I spent the first 14 years of my life in England and never wanted to leave. When I was in Australia I went back to England a lot.

Oh, I'm definitely a wild child.

I go to a dance class myself called BBS - Body By Simone - its little mini dance routines and I am often the oldest person in the room although I forget that. I'm fairly fit.

I think I have better taste now than I did then.

There was a time I was very much blaming the way I felt on L.A, that it was a vacuum of creativity, of humor or anything organic, and I was really angry at the place. But then today I feel completely different - I love L.A.!

I love the energy and the knowledge. I barely know how to use this thing [mobile phone]. I get by.

Liev cares about a lot things. Israel is one of them. We had the good fortune of going there a couple of years ago. To share that experience with him was a great pleasure.

My spirit had been broken a bit over the years by my having to work on films I didn't love. Hollywood's a surreal place, and it really is an assault on your spirit.

I think in my 20s I was just all about having fun.

I feel like personally I have more drive now than I did then probably because I care more and also because I've reached the mid-life point.

I think every time you take on a new role, you're trying to help find that voice and you add your own bits and pieces along the way but with Noah [Baumbach] it's already done.

Noah Baumbach writing is really wonderful. I think the way he plays out each character with a unique voice is really impressive, and rhythmically his dialogue works.

We're all the same, we all think its better somewhere else; its better being older if you're younger - or its better being younger when we're older.

If we could just trust the moment that we're in and live it in the way that you best can embrace it, it would be much better for all of us.

I don't know that any woman could ever not think about that at some point - even making the choice not to do it and getting to the place of peace of choosing not to be a parent, there would have still been some struggle in between. I'm not a man but I don't think it would occupy their minds as much.

I think whether you've got children or not you're just more aware of others as you get out of your 20s.

Sometimes you arrive late in the process of filming, which makes it a little scary because they've already got this well-established technique going on, and all of the relationships are comfy and cozy. You have to figure out how to fit in, which can always be a scary first day.

Directors are our teachers, and I'm always craving to work with a great director. They're pretty much the first thing that interests me about a project.

What you want, as an actor, is a great leader. I can't bear it when I work with a director who is wishy-washy and says, "What did you think?"

The use of violence in movies is a subject that's worth addressing. I'm not standing on a soapbox or wagging a finger, but I'm interested in those subjects for sure.

I want collaboration, but if they don't have a plan or their vision isn't clear, it's nerve-wracking. So, someone that's very sure of the vision is what you want, most of all.

You're always nervous about how a film lands with an audience.

Female roles in comedies are usually quite silly, I think.

It seems like a lot when you have three movies back to back but that's not really how it is.

I felt I grew up when I was about 28. I feel pretty much the same. I get reminded when I look in mirrors that I am not. Hopefully, you keep growing and keep planning things as you go along.

I meditate. I do transcendental meditation and I have been doing that for a long time and that does just clear the mind. I am not religious at all.

We had met with Ben Stiller here in LA when I was shooting The Ring and he was doing Meet The Fockers and we have friends in common. But we didn't know each other well. He's fantastic and we really had a great time on this and we were both laughing at where we were at, this other couple, and how it was mirroring what we were going through as well. It was clever writing in that way.

Dance was one of the things that led me to acting even though I say I fell in love with acting fairly early on and its true but around 16 and 17 I got heavily into dance but I think I just came into it too late and I was never going to be really great at it so I let it go and the dance led to more acting classes.

I have a bit of a frustrated dancer in me.

I've always loved to dance and keep fit but more recently I feel like I cannot keep up any longer and my back starts to hurt. And I get angry and then I have to really learn to forgive myself and go: you know what, you're nearly twice the age of some of the people in this room, give yourself a break.

I was going on years and years of auditions and being told I was too this, too that, not enough of this, not enough of that, to the point where I was so afraid and diluting myself into absolutely nothing.