Naomi Watts and King Kong

It was Kidman who eventually convinced her to take her shot at Hollywood, where she wound up taking minor parts in films such as Tank Girl and Children of the Corn IV: The Gathering. It was not until David Lynch cast her in Mulholland Drive that Watts finally had her chance at becoming a lead actress and major Hollywood player and earned her recognition not only for her extraordinary talent but also for a kind of wispy, natural beauty.

'I never had the guts to actually give it up,' says Watts of her long and torturous road to the top. 'There was always some small part coming up which saved me from total poverty, and I always had good friends behind me, like Nicole.

'She knew what it was all about and she kept reminding me to hang in. She would tell me, 'All it takes is one film'. And that turned out to be Mulholland Drive, which was a life-saver in many ways because I was about to be evicted from my apartment in LA.

Loving the single girl life?
Most of her appearances in the gossip columns up to now have been down to her love life and her relationship with Aussie hunk Heath Ledger - now very much her ex-boyfriend.

The couple lived together for several years before parting company over a year ago due to that typical Hollywood reason: 'work commitments'.

'I enjoyed my time with Heath,' says Watts with a gentle smile. 'But I'm not sad about it now. If it was meant to be, we probably would have found a way to work things out. I've never had much luck at romance, though. When I was in my twenties I met a long succession of jerks!'

'I'd love to find someone and settle down -doesn't every woman?' she laughs. 'I would like to be able to share my life with someone and be able to come home and just enjoy that kind of warmth and intimacy. Now that I'm getting older I'm thinking more about settling down and children except now the problem is that I'm so busy with work. Life is always like that, isn't it?

'So I'm happily single for the time being and it?s really not easy to meet men when you're working a lot and always travelling back and forth from somewhere. But I'm hoping to take more time off and maybe that'll make my life a bit less hectic.'