NAOMI WATTS

There's a lot of skeletons in my closet, but I know what they're wearing. I'm not gonna act all ashamed of it.

I'm not this dark, twisted person. Yes, I have my demons and this is my way of exorcising them. It gets them out - and better out than in.

I always love being in the company of women. It's all about good conversation and great wine.

The biggest place I look for validation is from my mother. That's the little girl in me that will never grow up.

When I had dark hair I definitely felt that I was more anonymous.

I'm a tomboy now. I always wanted to fit in with my brother's group, so I climbed trees and played with lead soldiers. But I'm a woman's woman. I never understood women who don't have woman friends.

I had gotten to a place where I truly believed everything I was called: 'not sexy,' 'not funny,' 'too intense,' desperate.' All those labels they gave me, I took them because there wasn't a trace of my true self left.

Pain is such an important thing in life. I think that as an artist you have to experience suffering.

You won't find me in a romantic comedy. Those movies don't speak to me. People don't come to talk to me about those scripts, because they probably think I'm this dark, twisted, miserable person.

Oh, I'm definitely a wild child.

You have to make peace with yourself. The key is to find the harmony in what you have.

If I have to produce movies, direct movies, whatever to change the way Hollywood treats older women, I'll do it. If I have to bend the rules, I will. If I have to break them, I will.

There was a time I was very much blaming the way I felt on L.A, that it was a vacuum of creativity, of humor or anything organic, and I was really angry at the place. But then today I feel completely different - I love L.A.!

It's always nerve-racking to take off your clothes on film. But doing it with a woman felt safer than with a man. You know you can say, 'Don't grab me there: That's where my cellulite is'!

That's one of the lucky things about getting the success later on. I know how I want to dress, I know what kind of house I want to live in, I just know more about myself, and that's true about the roles I want to play and what parts of myself I want to express. You're just more in touch with yourself.

Mum put me in drama classes when I was about 14. I'd been going on about it for some time, so maybe it was a way to shut me up.

There's a set of rules out there somewhere that says it all ends by 40. I hope to be able to defy that because I truly love my work.

On set is where I feel comfortable. The red carpet stuff, talking about the film, explaining your own life, it doesn't come naturally. It's all necessary stuff I suppose but it's not my strength.

We're so afraid of death in our culture, but I think if we understand it better, then we'll appreciate the life we have more.

I find myself gravitating towards drama. It interests me. In the books I read, the paintings I like, it's always the darker stuff.

Whatever is said about roles drying up, I intend to keep working. Certainly now the roles couldn't be more interesting - playing mothers, divorcees. I think it's going to be exciting to play a mother of teenagers. The longer your life, the deeper it gets.

It was total naivety that got me to Hollywood. I thought it was going to happen straight away. I told myself 'give it 5 years, there's no way I'll be here after that if it doesn't happen'. Cut to ten years later!

Of course, I want to look the best I can, but I am playing characters that should match my age, and the women and the material that I am interested in are usually going through something. I have to be able to live in my face and tell the story of the character I've taken on.

There must be a thread in everything I choose to take on, and I can't say it's a calculated thread, but I think you end up doing the work that's resonating with you.

I know it's silly, but I still think I'm 28.