Naomi Watts dedicated the San Sebastián Film Festival’s Donostia Award to David Lynch on Saturday night, crediting the late director with rescuing her career after a decade of rejection. Holding the trophy aloft, she told him, “I miss you!”
The festival, in its 74th edition, honored Watts for career achievement before a screening of her latest film, “The Housewife.” J.A. Bayona, who directed her in 2012’s “The Impossible,” presented the award. He thanked her for trusting a young director “scared to death” and called her the best travel companion he has known.
Watts said Lynch saw something in her that others missed. After roughly 10 years of turndowns, he cast her in “Mulholland Drive,” a part she said she could not have imagined. He also taught her to trust her instincts, accept uncertainty and stop fearing the strange, she said. At 31, she recalled, many people predicted her career would be over by 40.
Now 57, Watts said she is grateful to belong to a shift that lets women her age keep leading films, adding that women need to see themselves on screen. She vowed she is “still reaching for the stars” and thanked her “Impossible” co-star Tom Holland.
Watts earned Oscar nominations for Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s “21 Grams” and for “The Impossible,” and has worked with directors including Michael Haneke, David Cronenberg and Peter Jackson. Her next projects include “Closing Night” and “Margot & Rudi,” in which she plays dancer Margot Fonteyn.
“The Housewife,” Ben Shirinian’s directorial debut, premiered at Toronto on Sept. 10. Set in 1964 and based on a true story, it follows a New York Times reporter, played by Tye Sheridan, who investigates a suspected Nazi living in Queens and befriends the suspect’s wife, played by Watts. Luke Evans plays the husband. Watts called the role a “mind twister.” One early review was mixed. It praised the period setting and supporting cast but called the second half a clunky legal procedural.
