"A love story in the city of dreams."
Mulholland Drive - Characters & Cast
Character Analysis
Betty Elms / Diane Selwyn
Naomi Watts
Motivation
In the dream, she wants to help Rita and succeed as an actress. In reality, she is driven by a desperate, obsessive love for Camilla and a crushing sense of professional failure.
Character Arc
Starts as the 'Ingénue' Betty, a hopeful and talented actress in a dream world. The arc shatters into the 'Failed Actress' Diane, who is consumed by jealousy, drug use, and suicidal ideation after losing her career and lover.
Rita / Camilla Rhodes
Laura Harring
Motivation
In reality, Camilla is motivated by fame and power, using her sexuality to climb the Hollywood social ladder while discarding Diane.
Character Arc
Transforms from the vulnerable, amnesiac 'Rita' who is dependent on Betty, into the successful, aloof, and manipulative 'Camilla' who has moved on from Diane to marry a director.
Adam Kesher
Justin Theroux
Motivation
Initially seeks creative control and domestic stability, but shifts to survival and compliance as he realizes the magnitude of the forces against him.
Character Arc
A director who loses control of his film and his personal life (finding his wife cheating). He is eventually forced to surrender his artistic integrity to mysterious forces.