Naomi Watts' mother inspired her clean-living lifestyle.

The 52-year-old actress has shared how her upbringing with a "health-conscious" parent has meant she's naturally always cared about what she puts inside her body.

She said: "I’m a child of the ’70s, and I was raised by a woman who was burning her bra, baking her own bread, making her own clothes and only eating whole foods — brown bread, brown rice, brown flour. Everything was health-conscious. So this became my natural comfort zone."

The 'Penguin Bloom' star also insisted that exercise is vital to keep her mental health in shape.

She told Haute Living: “I’m in the middle of my life, and I feel good. I feel strong. Exercise keeps me feeling strong, and it also keeps my head right by fending off any kind of depression. I feel more like myself in my 50s, having accumulated a number of experiences, ups and downs, and gotten through them. And that’s a good feeling.”

And while Naomi is "reasonably happy" in life, she knows that happiness is not always promised.

She said: “You know, happiness is something that I love, and I consider myself a reasonably happy person, but you do have to work at it. It has to be earned. It isn’t always given. You have to make sure things are set up right in your life, and I’m okay with that. I like how things are going today.”