https://www.maximotv.com Television writer and director Ryan Murphy gives a speech at Naomi Watts' Hollywood Walk of Fame star ceremony on Monday, October 13, 2025, at 6201 Hollywood Blvd in Los Angeles, California, USA.
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00:00Please help me welcome to the stage another Walk of Famer, Ryan Murphy.
00:21Hello. I have been asked to read a greeting from Nicole Kidman.
00:26Darling Nye, nay, congratulations to you on this incredible day.
00:34This is not just a recognition of your achievements.
00:37It's a celebration of your unwavering pursuit of excellence and your dedication to the work.
00:42This honor reflects all that you are, your brilliance, your resilience, your grace.
00:47But behind the glitz and the glamour, above all, you are my longest and most cherished friend in the world.
00:53Hold. There's an authenticity to our 40-year friendship that's rare.
00:58It's the beach swims, the family hangs, the weekend phone calls, and the deep connection that never goes away.
01:05Please hold.
01:08Your heart, your soul, there's an earthy beauty to your being.
01:11And to me, these are the most important things to celebrate today.
01:15I'm sorry I can't be there, but I know there will be many more chances to celebrate you.
01:20I love you, darling Nye, Nick.
01:26And I really screwed up because now I have to follow Nicole Kidman.
01:31All right, here we go.
01:33Miss Naomi.
01:35One day not too long ago in New York City, I was standing behind a monitor watching Naomi Watts.
01:42Actually, Naomi wasn't there.
01:44In her place was Babe Paley in a show I created entitled Capote and the Swans.
01:50Babe was reciting another two-page berserk monologue I had written for the previously present Miss Watts.
01:56And in three minutes, these were the emotions presented in a bravado water-style style that only Naomi can do.
02:03Resentment turned to rage, turned to mourning, back to rage, always rage.
02:08And finally, dignity and acceptance, a lion that roared and then turned circumspect.
02:15These combinations of elements are so difficult to achieve for any actor, let alone one disappearing behind wigs and contacts and dental pieces and cheekbone prosthetics.
02:27And yet for this actress we are all here for today, it seemed effortless.
02:33It never is, but she always makes it look that way.
02:36We did one take, one single take, and then we moved on because we had it.
02:41It was and is astonishing.
02:44Her dexterity and ability to produce lightning in a bottle, but that's what she does.
02:49She's made a career out of it.
02:51Don't cry.
02:52Our DP, in shock at this performance, paused, turned to me, and simply said,
02:59Naomi Watts is one of our best.
03:03And that is the truth.
03:05At most events honoring great burning talents, the tendency is to start with the credits,
03:09but I don't want to do that today because, to me, you don't get the work and the roles and the accolades
03:15without a unique sense of characteristics.
03:17To me, and to so many more, this is what Naomi Watts personifies.
03:23Grace.
03:25Grit.
03:26Hard work.
03:28Loyalty.
03:29Ferociousness.
03:30Beauty.
03:32Glamour.
03:34Entrepreneurship.
03:35No bullshit.
03:37Selflessness, and yet an ability to carve that rare quality into resoluteness.
03:57A star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame is one of our industry's top honors.
04:02It's the Viagra of awards.
04:05You are only gifted this rare achievement if you last.
04:09Naomi has been in our consciousness now for 25 years, and I know she has decades more brilliance
04:15ahead of her.
04:17Her star today is all the more moving to me because she built her career against all odds.
04:23Like all of the iconoclasts we love in this culture, she did it alone at the beginning, with no road map, no ends, and no breaks.
04:3225 years ago, Naomi Watts was a struggling working actor, sleeping on couches, probably not too far from this site.
04:39Auditioning over and over again, and most importantly for us, never giving up.
04:44And when she almost did, she booked that life raft of a job that became her first big break, a pilot for David Lynch, which David wisely turned into a movie showcasing this new, luminous, and unique talent.
04:58That lark, that break, as Edward said, turned out to be Mulholland Drive, which the readers and the critics of the New York Times recently crowned the most important and culturally significant film of the past 25 years.
05:13And after that have come so many classics, 21 Grams, The Impossible, Birdman, The Ring, Inland Empire, and on and on.
05:22I stand here today proud of the fact that I am firmly in my Naomi Watts era, as we speak.
05:31We've done four projects together, two of which have been released and were big, fat hits.
05:35The Watcher, one of the top releases in Netflix history, and Capote and the Swans, for which Naomi received a much-deserved Emmy nomination for Best Lead Act.
05:43We have two more on the horizon. I mean, wait till you see these things.
05:48All's Fair, out in November, and Love Story, on Valentine's Day, in which she steals the show as a late-stage Jackie Kennedy.
05:56My favorite thing about Naomi is she is drawn, almost always, to things that challenge her, make her afraid, a great hallmark of an actor in search of not just the truth, but the human condition.
06:07And recently, I was working on a rough cut of Love Story, a tour-de-force episode specifically written for Naomi, to show all that she can do, and I called her to rave about her performance,
06:20to celebrate another astonishing transformation, to tell her that people who have watched this episode were sobbing at the end by Jackie's final goodbye.
06:30Naomi's reply, which is so like her, wasn't,
06:34I knew it, or nailed it, or great.
06:37It was simply,
06:39Really? I'm good in it?
06:41More than her talent, more than her good works,
06:44it is Naomi Watts' humbleness,
06:47her grace, and her unknowing gravity,
06:49which consistently move me.
06:51No one that I've ever met in my entire life has had a bad experience with Naomi Watts.
06:58Her kindness is perhaps her greatest superpower
07:01in a cynical world where joy now seems to be a privilege granted to so few.
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