Success 'Rings' For Naomi Watts

Naomi Watts is making up for lost time — and on her terms.

The 33-year-old Australian actress has made nine movies in the past two years and has four films in the can, including "21 Grams" opposite Sean Penn and Benicio Del Toro, David O. Russell's "I Heart Huckabee's" and "The Assassination of Richard Nixon."

The pace is a far cry from when she struggled in her 20s making small films of varying quality while Nicole Kidman, her best friend, ascended the ranks. Then came "Mulholland Drive" and last year's hit thriller "The Ring."

"I think I have better taste now than I did then," Watts told the San Francisco Chronicle on Sunday. "I've done movies almost back to back for the past year and a half, and I'm not getting talked into anything for anyone — it has to be my decision.

"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."

Her films also include Wide Sargasso Sea, Matinee, Flirting, The Custodian, Tank Girl, Persons Unknown, Children of the Corn IV: The Gathering, Dangerous Beauty, Strange Planet, The Shaft, The Wyvern Mystery, Le Divorce and Ned Kelly.