'I saw all these people looking down at me and I was thinking maybe I had broken a bone or something. But the main thing that went through my head was 'My legs are in the air and my underwear is on display!''
Naomi Watts discusses the perils of working on King Kong, her friendship with Kidman, and life as a single girl

Working on King Kong
Just when Naomi Watts was thinking she wouldn't find another man, she goes and lands a date with the tallest, darkest leading man in Hollywood - King Kong. It's the classic beauty and the beast love story: ape meets girl, ape grabs girl, girl screams, ape scales Empire State Building.

Of course this is no normal ape and Watts is no ordinary damsel in distress. King Kong is a 25ft monster monkey and Watts, the modern version of silver screen legend Faye Wray's Ann Darrow.

The giant ape is a digital creation using Andy Serkis (director Peter Jackson's Gollum friend from Lord of the Rings) in a monkey suit and some state-of-the-art computer wizardry.

'I was worried when I was asked to do the picture,' she says. 'It was like, 'My God, how do you create a love story when one half is not there?'

'But they made a thrilling choice to get Andy in as Kong. To have a real pair of eyes and a soul behind him helped me get rid of my fears. There is a real connection there.'

Filming took Jackson back to New Zealand where cast and crew suffered weeks of misery in cold, wet and dangerous conditions. Fortunately, though, she did not suffer any serious injury during filming. 'I did have a bit of an accident where I fell down a hole,' she says. 'I saw all these people looking down at me and I was thinking maybe I had broken a bone or something. But the main thing that went through my head was 'My legs are in the air and my underwear is on display!'

On her previous life as a struggling actress
Ann Darrow - the female lead character played by Watts in King Kong is a struggling actress, and that is one part of the character which struck a chord with Watts. 'Sure, I know what it is to struggle,' she says. 'I still remember begging for the phone to ring and getting thrown out of so many casting agents' offices that I'm taking nothing for granted. And I guess I'll keep working like crazy - unless I find a great man who's going to sweep me off my feet! (Laughs). I wouldn't take that for granted, either!'

It's now a matter of Hollywood legend that David Lynch's Mulholland Drive gave Watts the kind of sudden visibility which led to a flood of work. Born in the West Sussex harbour town of Shoreham, her family moved to Australia when Watts was 10 following the death of her father, Peter Watts, who was the sound engineer and road manager for Pink Floyd.

The performer in the little girl was present early enough for her father to see at least. 'I was definitely a bit of a show-off as a kid,' recalls Watts. 'I saw my mum on stage when I was about four or five, and she was playing Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady, and I remember seeing her in all this glory of wigs and make-up and talking in a funny voice, and I kept waving to her on stage and she wouldn't wave back. That moment connected me with her and transported me into that whole world of make-believe.

'I felt all the magic and glory, and right then and there I decided, that's what I wanted to be and do. From that point on I was in these little skits and local shows and I loved it.'

Her friendship with Nicole Kidman
As a teenager in Australia, Naomi began modelling, working for a time in Japan, and then acting back Down Under, where she became close friends with fellow Sydney actress Nicole Kidman, whom she met when both auditioned for a bikini ad.

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.'