TIFF Flashback: Naomi Watts Cruised Into Toronto via ‘Mulholland’

When Naomi Watts arrived at the 26th Toronto International Film Festival 25 years ago to promote Mulholland Drive, she had every reason to relax in expectation of a warm reception for the film. It had already had its world premiere at Cannes, where Lynch was named best director and THR critic Kirk Honeycutt wrote of Watts and co-star Laura Herring: “About two-thirds of the way through, Lynch turns the story upside down with the two actresses playing either different characters or, perhaps, their real personalities. Their two performances are … remarkable — so multi-faceted and contradictory.” 

Still, Watts, who played a young actress new to Los Angeles as well as her mysterious doppelgänger, insisted she wasn’t letting the acclaim go to her head during her visit to Toronto. Speaking with the New York Times, she said, “If there are two words that are most overused in Hollywood, they are ‘Get ready.’ I’ve heard that three times now, first after I made Tank Girl in 1995, then after I did some television stuff, and now with Mulholland Drive. Everybody is coming up saying: ‘Get ready. Your life is about to change.’ … I’m not going to get too excited until it really happens.” She continued, “What this year has done is to put me in a position where I have some freedom of choice and some good projects to choose from. I don’t need to get ready. … I’ve been ready.’’

If her dual role in Mulholland Drive was an early indication of Watts’ range, that talent will be further underscored at this year’s festival, where she’s starring in two very different films. In Ben Shirinian’s period thriller The Housewife, she’ll appear as a very proper New York City woman whose husband may be a Nazi in hiding. And in Cody Fern’s family drama Closing Night, she’ll be seen as an emotionally fragile woman dealing with her movie-star sister, played by Sarah Paulson.