Naomi Watts and Nicole Kidman have been besties since long before they starred in Flirting together back in 1991.

“We really became close when I moved to America,” Watts says of Kidman. “So, yeah, we’ve known each other almost 30 years. We always pick up where we left off. There’s so much to talk about – especially because we’ve both got kids the same age. We talk about everything that normal friends do and also about work stuff sometimes.”

In those early days of her career, Watts was not so sure she wanted to stick it out in America, pursuing an acting calling.

“…When it was like, you know what, I can’t handle it, I’m giving up,” she recalls. “But every time my bags were packed, I’d get a call saying, ‘You’ve got this part.'”

But she managed to carve out a career or herself that includes such memorable films as Mulholland Drive, 21 Grams, I Heart Huckabees, and King Kong.

Watts is 46 years old. Rightly or wrongly, when an actress is in her 40s she starts getting asked questions about plastic surgery.

“I don’t have any judgment about [plastic surgery]; whoever makes that choice, that’s fine,” she says. “It’s not easy watching yourself get older, but when I look at two women in their fifties or sixties or seventies side by side, one who’s had surgery and one who hasn’t, I think one likes themselves a lot more and one looks more dignified and graceful.”

“I hope I get to stay being that woman,” she says. “But I would never say ‘never.'”

Watts also thinks that the flak Renee Zellweger caught last year for showing her newly tucked face was entirely untoward.

“[The backlash] was cruel and unnecessary. I saw a picture and I thought she looked great! She looked amazing!”