Naomi Watts 'fought with her agent' over The Ring

Naomi Watts "fought with (her) agent" about starring in the 2002 horror classic The Ring.

The Oscar-nominated star spent 10 years struggling as an actress before she got her big break in David Lynch's 2001 mystery film Mulholland Drive, which she swiftly followed up with the supernatural horror.

Reflecting on her career at the Zurich Film Festival in Switzerland, Watts admitted that she didn't think The Ring was the right move after Mulholland Drive, but her agents eventually convinced her otherwise.

"I tried to say 'no.' There's no certainty to anything you do, ever," she said, according to Variety. "My agents were excited about this. I said: 'Wait. I just got this critical acclaim, so I want to instantly go into a Hollywood blockbuster-y movie?!' I fought with my agent at the time. I didn't know it was going to be a massive hit!"

The Ring, an American remake of the 1998 Japanese film, was a huge box office hit, making almost $250 million (£189 million) worldwide from a $48 million (£36 million) budget. She played journalist Rachel Keller, who discovers a cursed VHS tape that causes its viewers to die seven days later.

Watts, who became a Hollywood movie star thanks to the film, added, "I woke up the horror genre, in a way. It was a lucky, lucky break."

Elsewhere during her career retrospective, the King Kong star remembered feeling "worthless" during her 10-year "grind" as an actress before "genius" Lynch cast her in Mulholland Drive.

"My agent pulled me aside and she said: 'We need to have a heart-to-heart. Honey, you are too intense. You are freaking people out.' I went: 'Yeah, no s**t.' I was desperate! I was behind on my rent; I was getting evicted. I didn't know what to bring to this room," she recalled.

"They told me I wasn't funny last week, so now I am trying to be funny. They told me I wasn't sexy - I'm trying to be sexy. You reshape yourself and try to read the tone of what is needed. That's how it went and I couldn't be myself anymore. I was either an extreme version of myself or a diluted version of myself."

Watts was also presented with the Golden Eye Award at the film festival over the weekend.