72. NAOMI WATTS
Mulholland Drive (2001)

In David Lynch's dizzying puzzlebox of a movie, Naomi Watts dazzles in two roles — well, at least two. There's Betty, the chirpy, optimistic, Girl Scout-ish Hollywood newcomer, and there's Diane, the bitter Tinseltown failure who apparently dreams up Betty in an act of wishful thinking as an idealized version of herself. And then there's the character Betty plays in a movie audition. We see Betty rehearse the scene, a run-of-the-mill romantic exchange. And then we see her play it at the reading, where she suddenly opens up and transforms the scene into something real and alive, a desperate, erotic moment of dangerous honesty. In that moment, you can actually see a star being born — not just Betty, but Watts herself.