Although she had been acting for more than 15 years, Naomi Watts finally had her big breakthrough role when she was tapped by David Lynch to portray an aspiring starlet in "Mulholland Drive" (2001) – the director’s bizarre, darkly nightmarish vision of Los Angeles. Originally made as a pilot for a projected television series, the film found a second life when producer Alain Sarde and StudioCanal joined forces to provide funding for Lynch to re-imagine his vision as a feature film. After its premiere at Cannes, "Mulholland Drive" went on to confound or captivate critics and audiences, but nearly all were certain that Watts emerged as an actress of force and presence in such critical and/or commercial hits as “The Ring” (2002), “21 Grams” (2003) and “King Kong” (2005).