Ian Gavan/Getty ImagesNaomi Watts has two words of advice for anyone walking the iconic red carpet at the Palais des Festivals de Cannes: "Own it!"
How so?
"I don't know, " the Oscar-nominated actress said with a laugh last night at Calvin Klein and Independent Film Project's annual party at Cannes. "It requires a lot of help from professionals—your hair and makeup team obviously and whoever is dressing you."
Watts recalled the first time she stepped onto that carpet.
"I think I was shaking like a leaf," she said. "It was very nerve-wracking. It's the biggest red carpet I think I've ever been on. It's so broad and wide and so many people, so many photographers, so many people calling your name and you don't know which way to look. It's quite unnerving."
Not that Watts is actually complaining. "It's grand," she said.
Watts, who looked glam last night in blond extensions, a pink cocktail dress and a long sparkling necklace of Bulgari jewels, was honored by Calvin Klein Collection, CK's Euphoria fragrances and IFP along with Rooney Mara, Lupita Nyong'o and Julianne Moore.
She also updated us on her jump into comedies. She actually has three coming up: Birdman with Emma Stone and Edward Norton, St. Vincent De Van Nuys opposite Melissa McCarthy and Bill Murray and While We're Young with Ben Stiller.
"I had just done a couple of things back to back that were quite intense and it was time," Watts said. "I've been saying I've wanted to do it. It was a matter of finding the right material."
But, she also explained, "They're not strictly comedies. They're sort of on the darker side of comedies. They're not romantic comedies. They're not slapstick."
As far as her more serious projects go, Watts is set to star opposite Bryan Cranston in the thriller Holland, Michigan. She's also in talks to join Matthew McConaughey and Ken Watanabe in director Gus Van Sant's Sea of Trees, according to The Hollywood Reporter.