Naomi Watts mourns Mulholland Drive director David Lynch: ‘He put me on the map’
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British actress Naomi Watts said “my heart is broken” following the death of her Mulholland Drive director David Lynch. The US filmmaker, whose work included surrealist TV series Twin Peaks and films such as The Elephant Man and Blue Velvet, died on Thursday at the age of 78.
It came five months after Lynch revealed he had been diagnosed with emphysema, a chronic lung disease, after “many years of smoking”. 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. “His creative mentorship was truly powerful. He put me on the map. The world I’d been trying to break into for 10-plus years, flunking auditions left and right.
“Finally, I sat in front of a curious man, beaming with light, speaking words from another era, making me laugh and feel at ease. “How did he even ‘see me’ when I was so well hidden, and I’d even lost sight of myself?!. “It wasn’t just his art that impacted me – his wisdom, humour, and love gave me a special sense of belief in myself I’d never accessed before.”.
Watts said Lynch “seemed to live in an altered world, one that I feel beyond lucky to have been a small part of” as she revealed she was “in pieces” over his death. “…David invited all to glimpse into that world through his exquisite storytelling, which elevated cinema and inspired generations of filmmakers across the globe.
