Naomi Watts is reflecting on her final moments with David Lynch, the filmmaker who changed her life—and, according to her, wasn’t anywhere near finished creating.
More than two decades after Mulholland Drive made Watts a Hollywood star, she shared memories of her last lunch with Lynch and fellow collaborator Laura Dern, just weeks before his passing at age 78 in January.
“We had a beautiful lunch at his house,” she told the Los Angeles Times.
“I knew he’d been unwell but he was in great spirits. He wanted to go back to work—Laura and I were like, ‘You can do it! You could work from the trailer.’ He was not, in any way, done. I could see the creative spirit alive in him.”
Lynch, the visionary behind Twin Peaks and Eraserhead, passed away from cardiac arrest, with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease cited as an underlying cause.
His death left Watts heartbroken.
“So deeply, deeply upsetting,” she said of losing the man she described as “a real mentor and a friend.”
Watts owes much of her Hollywood journey to Lynch, who gave her a career-defining role in 2001’s Mulholland Drive, followed by appearances in his projects Rabbits (2002), Inland Empire (2006), and Twin Peaks: The Return (2017)—the latter ultimately being his final work.
While still processing the loss, she held onto the warmth of their last meeting.
“I thought I would see him in a couple of weeks [after that last lunch] because I was here in L.A. There’s a lot I could share but I want to be private about it because of his family. But it was a really powerful meeting that filled me with just so much love and hope.”
Beyond just a collaborator, Lynch was the reason she stayed in Hollywood at all.
“He was very instrumental to me even being in America. I wouldn’t have stayed had I not met David Lynch.”
For Watts, Lynch wasn’t just a director—he was an artistic force, a mentor, and a friend. And if that final conversation proved anything, it’s that he was dreaming up stories until the very end.
