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.

She said of her religious beliefs "I have some belief but I am not a strict Buddhist or anything yet". The same year Naomi Watts took the part of Frances Heffernan a girl who struggles to find friends behind the walls of a Sydney Catholic school in the award winning mini-seriesBrides of Christ and had a recurring role in the soap opera Home and Away as the handicapped Julie Gibson. She is presented as an inaugural member of AIDS Red Ribbon Awards.

After moving to America Watts appeared in films including Tank Girl (1995) Children of the Corn IV: The Gathering (1996) and Dangerous Beauty (1998) and had the lead role in the television series Sleepwalkers (1997–1998). She then received nominations for the Academy Award and the Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Actress for her portrayal of Cristina Peck in Alejandro González Iñárritu's neo-noir 21 Grams (2003). For her leading role as Maria Bennett in the disaster film The Impossible (2012) Naomi Watts received second nominations for the Academy Award and Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Actress and a nomination for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress.