Naomi Watts has blasted the Academy Awards for snubbing her J. Edgar leading man Leonardo DiCaprio.

The Aussie beauty says she is staggered Titanic actor Leo is not among the Best Actor nominees for this month’s Academy Awards following his stirring performance as disgraced FBI boss J. Edgar Hoover.

“I think he did an incredible job and it was a brilliant performance,” says Naomi. “I was quite shocked he wasn’t nominated actually because he certainly deserved it.”

Naomi recently admitted her nerves almost got the better of her at the start of her career.

“It is a hard slog,” says Naomi. “I think I had to learn how to be myself and relax before people noticed me.

“People in America like confidence and I wasn’t like that. It made it so much harder.”