One is a three-hour, $200 million-plus combination of digital effects, yearlong hype and the largest of apes. The other is a frantic $30,000 production depicting an actress desperate for cardboard-thin parts in the B-est of movies.

The films couldn't be more different — and neither could Naomi Watts' career from what it was five years ago.

Tomorrow, Watts hits theaters worldwide in "King Kong." But her balance between blockbuster siren and indie shape-shifter is epitomized by the semiautobiographical "Ellie Parker," now playing at Dole Cannery, featuring Watts in the Hollywood hell of a struggling actress.

She explains her contradictions simply: "That's me. ... I don't want to be boxed into any kind of confined space."

Peter Jackson's remake of the original 1933 "King Kong" is ratcheting the 37-year-old actress to the top of fame's skyscraper. Since David Lynch famously picked her out of a pile of head shots for 2001's "Mulholland Dr.," Watts has filled her years with critically acclaimed performances in such films as "Le Divorce" and "21 Grams," for which she received an Oscar nomination last year.

"People keep thinking I'm this dark, serious person because the work I do is like that," she says. "Yes, the work I'm interested in does tend to be dark in nature, but it doesn't mean that that's who I am."

The blond, blue-eyed Watts is a carefree force who, while frequently found in the pages of glamour magazines, appears more herself barefoot and a bit ruffled. Her 10 years of struggle remain more familiar than her current success, of which she says, "I'm still working it out."

She was born in England and moved to Australia at age 14. Her parents separated when she was 4 and her father, a sound engineer for Pink Floyd, died three years later. Mother and daughter moved frequently. To fit in, Watts would change her accent accordingly and says the transitions bred her acting ability.

Her penchant for dramatic, emotional shifts in character has become her trademark. She fluctuates from grieving widow to drugged-out avenger in "21 Grams," and changes persona while driving from one audition to another in "Ellie Parker."

"We do make such dramatic shifts — we're capable of anything," she says. "You can't just say this is who I am and I'd never do that. It's like, I could say I'm not a murderer, but if someone touched my (hypothetical) child, I could believe wanting to kill.

"I like that behavior can be so unpredictable."

Scott Coffey, the former Kailua boy who directed Watts in "Ellie Parker" and has been friends with her for years, says: "I think what people really respond to is there's a deep, deep pain to her work and she's really willing to examine that."

Before shooting "King Kong" in New Zealand, Watts and Jackson traveled to New York to visit the original damsel in distress — Fay Wray.

Wray, who died last year at age 96, was Ann Darrow in the first "King Kong."

Watts recounts: "At the end of the night, we dropped her off, and she said (whispering), 'Ann Darrow is in good hands.' "