SIMPLY ELECTRIC ENGLISH-AUSSIE NAOMI WATTS TURNS UP THE JUICE IN 'THE RING'.

Byline: Bob Strauss Film Writer

'IT IS A NEW CHAPTER,'' Naomi Watts says with the utmost sincerity. ``I feel like the luckiest girl in the world.''

And why shouldn't the English-born Australian actress feel that way? A year ago, after a decade and a half of unsung journeyman work in film and television productions here, over there and down thataways, she earned critical raves for her double-duty work in David Lynch's ``Mulholland Drive.'' Now, Watts has star billing in ``The Ring,'' a big-budget Hollywood horror mystery.

But there are a few reasons why she shouldn't necessarily be so happy. One, ``Mulholland's'' nudity, lesbian love scenes and complete psychological breakdown for one of her characters. Two, ``Ring's'' psychotronically intense, morally ambiguous demands on her reporter character who tries to uncover the secret of a murder on videotape, and upon doing so must perform the most awful tasks to survive. And upcoming, her role in ``21 Grams,'' the latest from the director of Mexico's lacerating ``Amores Perros,'' of which Watts says, ``If it doesn't kill me, it will at least put me in the loony bin for an extended period of time. It's such an intense role, and I have a huge emotional journey to go on. I'm a little bit terrified.

``But hugely excited,'' she quickly adds. ``I know I keep on doing these roles, but they just interest me. I love playing out the human struggle.''

While her own life hasn't exactly been a trial, Watts - the daughter of a rock sound engineer and an occasional actress - admits that, as she muddled her way through jobs on ``Tank Girl'' and ``Children of the Corn IV: The Gathering,'' there were moments of angst about her chosen profession.

``I was questioning myself all the time,'' the 34-year-old actress confesses. ``But I love what I do. I never stopped loving acting, even if I hated everything else around it and questioned that part of it. But I knew this was what I was good at - and the only thing I was good at. I'm someone that likes to do other things, but if I'm not very good at them, they don't hold my interest for very long.''

A character's journey

Besides representing her biggest break yet, ``The Ring'' hooked Watts' interest. Based upon the immensely popular Japanese novel and movie that have spawned spinoffs across many forms of media, the American version, directed by Gore Verbinski (``The Mexican''), features Watts as a hard-nosed reporter, Rachel Keller, whose consuming interest in the supernatural VHS puts herself, her somewhat neglected young son (David Dorfman) and an estranged lover (Martin Henderson), among others, in mortal danger.

``The character was really well-written,'' notes Watts, who speaks with more Aussie than English inflections. ``I liked that she obviously has a journey to go on because of the circumstances that she's in, but she has her own internal journey as well. It's just a really good character for a genre film. And it's not just a genre film, just a bunch of gory images. There's an activity for the audience, and that is to think and invest and doubt and go back and forth. It's a journey for them as well.

``And for me, it was good to play an ordinary woman in an extraordinary situation,'' Watts continues. ``In 'Mulholland Drive,' I played two different women who were so extreme, but not based in any kind of reality. So it was nice to go from that to this. And this one was interesting because she's flawed and she's a real human being. She's no pushover - she's a pretty tough chick. But she's existing in her own world, and perhaps too much so, to the point where her son is missing out a bit.''

No holding back

Watts' ability and willingness to portray such a dicey heroine was, naturally, a major factor in her getting the role.

``I just think she's a tremendous talent and has guts,'' director Verbinski says of Watts. ``She's not worried about how audiences perceive her, so she earns her performance. It's very important in the horror genre - particularly in this case, as a character who is neither a very good mother nor immediately likable - that you have an actor who can really earn your respect throughout the movie. To me, Naomi has that weight - she can play very real.''

That's a big part of Watts' love for acting, of course. But, as previously indicated, she'll be the first to admit that her approach is not easy on the central nervous system. Even what seemed like the most nakedly brave acts - literally and behaviorally - displayed in ``Mulholland'' were the result of massive trepidation.

``Of course, I was completely terrified,'' she says. ``Before we started shooting, I went up to David's house and bawled to him about how nervous I was about the nudity. I think that I had three scenes where I was supposed to be topless - and through tears negotiated him down to two.

``And of course, a number of other scenes were incredibly confronting and terrifying. But as an actor, that's what you want. You look for those opportunities that are going to challenge you.

``And I didn't for a second feel like I was exploiting myself. Even if it was something that was gross to look at or 'Oh my God, she's naked,' you've created such a psychological background that it warrants that exposure. I didn't feel like it was gratuitous at all. I felt that it was gonna be difficult and it would almost kill me, but you run toward those kinds of challenges as an actor. It feels good to be presented with it.''

Yes, but there she mentions that near-death experience again. It's not all sturm-und-drang for Watts' career these days, however. In between ``Mulholland'' and ``Ring,'' she shot a quirky little Welsh comedy, ``Plots With a View,'' for which she's happy to report she played ``this kind of ditsy, trying-to-get-ahead floozy; it was fun, a nice break from playing intensity.''

Bring on the work

And although she'll be seen as a pregnant woman losing her husband in the upcoming ``Le Divorce,'' at least she did it for director James Ivory, who with producing partner Ismail Merchant is known for hosting delightfully civilized film sets (and this one was in Paris last spring, no less).

Even the all-Australian outlaw saga ``The Kelly Gang,'' in which she has a small role as the famous riding rebel's love interest, was a fun job in which she provided most of the story's limited amount of lightness.

It was also the project on which she met fellow Australian Heath Ledger. Both actors refuse to comment on widespread reports that they're an item, but Watts has nothing but good things to say about the 23-year-old ``Four Feathers'' star.

``Heath's a wonderful actor,'' Watts says. ``Obviously, he's got that movie-star quality in an old-fashioned way. He's got that really powerful, manly voice, that soulful look behind his eyes, and he's obviously quite a bit handsome, too. But above all, he's a real actor - and really there for you. I was really struck by how much he gave to me off-camera.''

And what about those symbolic tattoos young Ledger has such a fondness for? Shared?

``I'm not going to say,'' Watts responds with a hearty laugh. ``But I will say that I like tattoos. Not too many tattoos, and I don't like those ones that are too literal. I like ones that are just something for you to understand.''

Cultural blend

Watts describes herself as equally English and Australian, and she credits the two countries' different cultural influences as stabilizing elements for the often unbalanced acting life.

``I feel like I'm a hybrid of both cultures, and I'm happy that I spent time in both,'' she says. ``I was born and raised in England, and they were my formative years, which they say are the most character-building. But then I moved to Australia at 14, and you're very impressionable at that age. It's like a whole new part of you that's developing and it really informs who you are for the rest of you're life.

``In Australia, they're very laid back, candid and honest. In England, you've got that beautiful English reserve, of which too much can be annoying. But combined with my Australian candor, I can fall back on my English reserve, so they kind of complement each other.''

For New Zealander Henderson, working with a fellow Antipodean on ``Ring'' was comforting, but working with the special mix that is Naomi Watts was even better.

``Meeting her and realizing that she was a very cool, down-to-earth girl and that we had a lot in common just because of our cultural backgrounds, it certainly put me at ease,'' Henderson says.

As for why so many of her Down Under compatriots, including best friend of many years Nicole Kidman, are doing well in Hollywood these days, Watts says it's no mystery.

``There's something about the Australian attitude,'' she says. ``They take the work seriously, but they don't take this whole thing seriously. The whole Hollywood deal is kind of a joke to them, in a way, and I think maybe people here find that refreshing.''

In Watts' case, heritage or training or even luck had less to do with working her way up the international acting ladder than the most basic motivation of all.

``You know what your strengths are, and this is something I felt good at and I knew how to do, and that brought me joy whilst doing it,'' she says. ``So I just had to stay focused on that dream and jump over the obstacles. Yeah, I questioned it all the way, but there were things to keep me invested and bites all along the way. I wasn't completely in denial - there were things feeding me as I went along.''

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Naomi Watts of `The Ring' has traded obscurity for Hollywood's bright lights

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