Naomi Watts was ready to quit acting before she met David Lynch, who cast her in what would be her breakthrough role in Mulholland Drive.

Hollywood has been mourning the loss of the groundbreaking director who gave us Twin Peaks, The Elephant Man, Blue Velvet, Mulholland Drive, and so much more. David Lynch was beloved by those he worked with, with Naomi Watts crediting the director for giving her a second chance in the business when she was ready to call it quits.

“I wouldn’t have stayed had I not met David Lynch. The chips were down, it was 10 years into flunking auditions,” Watts said on Live With Kelly and Mark (via Entertainment Weekly. “I was literally alienating people. I was making them uncomfortable because I was so like, ‘I need a job! I need a job!’ So much so that my agent at the time said, ‘You’re too intense. You’re making people uncomfortable.’ Yeah, I need a job. I’m desperate, I need to work. I planned on going home multiple times.“

Watts continued, “Long story short, David Lynch called me in and has a very different way of casting. He sat me down and just looked me in the eyes and asked me questions, and most of the time I was like, ‘How do I get out of your way? How do I speed this up?’ [Because] I’m sure I’m not right, because I just had that programming: I’m not funny, I’m not sexy, I’m too old, I’m too this, too that. And he just saw me and was able to sort of lift these veneers.” Lynch cast her in Mulholland Drive, after which he became “a real mentor and friend.” Watts would reunite with Lynch on Rabbits, Inland Empire, and Twin Peaks: The Return.

After Lynch’s death, Watts posted a tribute on Instagram, saying, “The world will not be the same without him. His creative mentorship was truly powerful. He put me on the map. The world I’d been trying to break into for ten plus years, flunking auditions left and right. Finally, I sat in front of a curious man, beaming with light, speaking words from another era, making me laugh and feel at ease. How did he even ‘see me’ when I was so well hidden, and I’d even lost sight of myself?! It wasn’t just his art that impacted me – his wisdom, humor, and love gave me a special sense of belief in myself I’d never accessed before.“