‘He put me on the map’: Naomi Watts mourns director David Lynch
Naomi Watts has paid tribute to longtime collaborator David Lynch after his death, crediting the director with “changing my life” while Isabella Rossellini also mourned her former partner.
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Naomi Watts has paid tribute to longtime collaborator, director David Lynch who died at the age of 78 on Friday.
“My heart is broken. My Buddy Dave … The world will not be the same without him. His creative mentorship was truly powerful,” the Australian star wrote on Instagram.
“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.”
Isabella Rossellini who starred in Lynch’s 1986 classic, Blue Velvet, also mourned her former partner.
“I loved him so much,” she wrote on Instagram. “Thanks for all of your kind messages.”
Watts said Lynch’s “wisdom, humour, and love gave me a special sense of belief in myself I’d never accessed before”.
“David invited all to glimpse into that world through his exquisite storytelling, which elevated cinema and inspired generations of filmmakers across the globe. I just cannot believe that he’s gone. I’m in pieces but forever grateful for our friendship,” she said.
Watts has often credited Lynch for her success in Hollywood, saying before he cast her in the neo-noir hit Mulholland Drive in 2001, she couldn’t get a job.
“This film changed my career. David Lynch changed my life. I’m forever grateful.”
The two worked together again in the 2006 film Inland Empire, which used footage of Watts from Lynch’s 2002 online project Rabbits. Watts also appeared in the revival of Lynch’s hit series Twin Peaks, playing Janey-E Jones in a 10-episode arc in 2017.
Watts recalled in a 2017 interview with The Guardian a time when she “wasn’t getting parts” in Hollywood. “I was giving myself away. My soul was being destroyed. I was never able to walk in a room and own it by being me,” she said. “David [Lynch] changed that. It was having someone actually make eye contact, ask questions he was truly interested in, take the time to unveil some layers.”
On Friday, tributes flowed for Lynch, the Oscar-nominated director known for his visionary works Blue Velvet, Twin Peaks, and Mulholland Drive.
Lynch’s family announced that the 78-year-old, who was recently evacuated from his Los Angeles home near Laurel Canyon Boulevard due to the deadly wildfires, had died.
His home was in the area where the Sunset Fire started, which was under mandatory evacuation.
At the time, his producer, Sabrina Sutherland, confirmed that he was safe, according to the New York Post.
“It is with deep regret that we, his family, announce the passing of the man and the artist, David Lynch,” read a statement on his official Facebook page.
“We would appreciate some privacy at this time. There’s a big hole in the world now that he’s no longer with us. But, as he would say, ‘Keep your eye on the doughnut and not on the hole.’ It’s a beautiful day with golden sunshine and blue skies all the way.”
His official cause of death and location of his passing was not revealed.
The famed writer-director had revealed his love of smoking and battle with emphysema, a chronic obstructive pulmonary disease back in 2020.
In November last year, Lynch — who started smoking at age eight but quit later in 2022 — told People he needed supplement oxygen to go on a walk.
“What you sow is what you reap,” Lynch said. “You’re literally playing with fire. It can bite you. I took a chance, and I got bit.”
Lynch added that “it’s tough living with emphysema. I can hardly walk across a room. It’s like you’re walking around with a plastic bag around your head.”
In August last year, Lynch told Sight and Sound magazine that he was homebound because “it would be very bad for me to get sick, even with a cold.”
Lynch was celebrated for his dark and surrealist vision. Gaining attention with the experimental Eraserhead, he was also known for Wild At Heart and The Elephant Man.
Born in Montana in 1946, he was a former painter before experimenting with what was considered at the time to be a radical visual cinematic style and creating memorable, neo-noirish roles especially for actors such as Isabella Rossellini, Laura Dern, and Naomi Watts.
Of her breakthrough role in Mulholland Drive, Naomi Watts recalled the notes Lynch gave her while filming: “I thought I was doing the worst acting to ever hit the screen, because he kept saying, ‘More, more happy …’ He’s a master of creating a surreal atmosphere, but it’s always rooted in truth.”
The film launched Watts’ career as an Oscar-nominated actor with what she has described as the role of a lifetime.
Two other actors whose careers were launched by working with Lynch were Laura Dern and Kyle MacLachlan who were cast as unknowns in Blue Velvet.
During an episode of the Where Everybody Knows Your Name podcast last year, the Oscar-winning Dern told hosts Ted Danson and Woody Harrelson she had intended to pursue a double major in psychology and journalism at UCLA before winning the part of Sandy in Lynch’s 1986 Blue Velvet.
Dern and Lynch went on to collaborate on three films and a TV series.
MacLachlan has paid tribute to the film great on Instagram saying he owed Lynch his “ entire career, and life” to Lynch after being “plucked out of obscurity to star in his first and last big budget movie.”
Nicolas Cage, who starred in Lynch’s “Wild At Heart,” remembered the visionary auteur as a “singular genius in cinema, one of the greatest artists of this or any time.”
Cage added: “He was brave, brilliant, and a maverick with a joyful sense of humour. I never had more fun on a film set than working with David Lynch. He will always be solid gold.”
Laura Elena Harring, who played opposite Watts in Mulholland Drive, paid tribute to him on her Instagram account: “All artists and humans who came across you will mourn your passing on, but I know you are creating movies, writing, painting and meditating from up above. The Heavens welcome your sweet soul into Eternal Bliss. Goodbye my friend.”
Shakespeare’s Sister singer Marcella Detroit posted on Facebook, “Oh no, such sad news. Sincere condolences for this huge loss.”
Actor Eli Roth said, “Heartbreaking. No words. Sending all my love”, with a broken heart emoji and a black cup of coffee, a recurring symbol in the director’s work.
Oscar-winning actor Lee Grant, who had a cameo in Mulholland Drive and “jumped at the chance to work with him,” called Lynch “a one of a kind artist”.
Famous filmmakers have also paid tribute.
Steven Spielberg said in a statement that he got to know Lynch when he cast him as John Ford in his latest movie The Fabelmans, which was released in 2022.
“Here was one of my heroes – David Lynch playing one of my heroes. It was surreal and seemed like a scene out of one of David’s own movies,” Spielberg said.
“The world is going to miss such an original and unique voice. His films have already stood the test of time and they always will.”
Director Ron Howard remembered Lynch in an X post as a “gracious man and fearless artist who followed his heart & soul and proved that radical experimentation could yield unforgettable cinema.”
Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn wrote on X, “RIP David Lynch. You inspired so many of us.”
Director Harmony Korine told IndieWire Lynch was a “Mount Rushmore-level director.”
“He changed a lot of people’s lives. There will never be another one like him, because he made films at a point in history where nothing like that had ever been experienced before,” Korine said.
He went on to say Lynch “invented a new language.”
“He hit on things that were inexplicable and sacred and beyond articulation. He is a treasure. His work will live forever.”
One of Lynch’s final projects was the third season of Lynch’s iconic show Twin Peaks released in 2017, called Twin Peaks: The Return.
The 18 episodes of the limited series aired on Showtime and starred some of his usual collaborators including actors Kyle MacLachlan, Laura Dern, and Sheryl Lee.
Last May, Lynch posted a cryptic video teasing fans that “something is coming” in his first post in 18 months.
Months later, he released an orchestral album called Cellophane Memories, which he said was inspired by a walk through a forest late at night.
Lynch’s final film was Inland Empire, a three-hour work that came out in 2006.
Lynch was on Facebook and on X and last tweeted on October 17, 2024.
In his second to last tweet he said, “Yes, I have emphysema from my many years of smoking. I have to say that I enjoyed smoking very much, and I do love tobacco … but there is a price to pay for this enjoyment.”
He went on to explain that he had quit smoking and was “in excellent shape except for emphysema.”
“I am filled with happiness, and I will never retire,” he said.
Blue Velvet actor Isabella Rossellini, who is the daughter of Ingrid Bergman and director Roberto Rossellini, was in a relationship with Lynch from 1986–1991.
Lynch was married four times.
His last wife, Emily Stofle, filed for divorce in 2023 after 14 years of marriage.
He leaves behind three adult children, Jennifer, Austin, and Riley.
Originally published as ‘He put me on the map’: Naomi Watts mourns director David Lynch
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