When a director and an actor develop an ongoing creative partnership, a certain kind of magic happens, and this was certainly the case with actors Kyle MacLachlan and Laura Dern and director David Lynch. Lynch, who was considered by many to be one of America’s greatest modern filmmakers and sadly died on January 16 at 78, gave MacLachlan and Dern some of their earliest roles, and continued collaborating with them for decades, as they went from fresh-faced newcomers to seasoned veterans.
Read on to see just why Lynch’s long working relationship with MacLachlan and Dern, which started in the ’80s and lasted through the 2010s, was so special.
Kyle MacLachlan & David Lynch: ‘He clearly saw something in me that even I didn’t recognize’
Kyle MacLachlan was virtually unknown when he was cast as the protagonist in David Lynch’s 1984 adaptation of the sci-fi classic Dune. While the film notoriously flopped at the box office, it gave the 25-year-old star his very first screen credit and led to many more successful collaborations with the director.
In 1986, Lynch cast MacLachlan as an innocent college student who gets pulled into a dark world of mystery in the classic thriller Blue Velvet. The film (which costarred Laura Dern), was acclaimed for its distinctive blend of surrealism and small-town Americana and proved to be highly influential.
After Blue Velvet, MacLachlan had his most recognized role with Lynch when he was cast in Twin Peaks as Dale Cooper, a quirky FBI agent investigating the murder of high-school Homecoming Queen Laura Palmer (Sheryl Lee) in an atmospheric Pacific Northwest town. The show, which ran from 1990 to 1991, was a surprising crossover success for Lynch, as millions of viewers were hooked on the soap opera-flavored mystery and charismatic cast, and “Who killed Laura Palmer?” became one of the defining pop culture questions of its day.
MacLachlan reprised his role in the 1992 prequel movie Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me and the 2017 third season, Twin Peaks: The Return, in which he played a variety of Cooper’s doppelgängers. In addition to his Lynch projects, MacLachlan acted in movies like The Flintstones and Showgirls and shows like Sex and the City and Desperate Housewives, but it was undeniably the artsy director who put him on the map.
In an emotional statement shared on Instagram following Lynch’s passing, MacLachlan wrote, “Forty-two years ago, for reasons beyond my comprehension, David Lynch plucked me out of obscurity to star in his first and last big-budget movie. He clearly saw something in me that even I didn’t recognize. I owe my entire career, and life really, to his vision.”
MacLachlan continued, “Our friendship blossomed on Blue Velvet and then Twin Peaks and I always found him to be the most authentically alive person I’d ever met . . . While the world has lost a remarkable artist, I’ve lost a dear friend who imagined a future for me and allowed me to travel in worlds I could never have conceived on my own . . . His love for me and mine for him came out of the cosmic fate of two people who saw the best things about themselves in each other . . . I will miss him more than the limits of my language can tell and my heart can bear. My world is that much fuller because I knew him and that much emptier now that he’s gone.”
Clearly, MacLachlan and Lynch shared a powerful personal and professional bond, and the dreamlike work they created together still captivates.
Laura Dern & David Lynch: ‘He was very protective of me, like a big brother’
As the daughter of actors Bruce Dern and Diane Ladd, Laura Dern was born into the film industry, and she had roles in ’80s films like Foxes, Mask and Smooth Talk. The actress was just 17 when she was cast as MacLachlan’s winsome love interest in Blue Velvet, and it proved to be her breakout role. Dern and MacLachlan’s onscreen chemistry was real, and they began dating during the making of the film. While the charming young stars broke up in 1989, they remain good friends to this day.
Dern then starred in Lynch’s 1990 film Wild at Heart, playing a bad girl on the run—a character worlds away from the girl next door she played in Blue Velvet. Over a decade later, she starred in Lynch’s final film, Inland Empire. In the experimental film, she played an actress falling into a nightmare world. While the abstract nature of Inland Empire confounded some viewers, Lynch mounted an Oscar campaign for Dern’s fearless performance as only he could—by sitting on a Hollywood street next to a “for your consideration” poster of the actress—and a cow.
While Dern was not part of the original Twin Peaks, she had a pivotal role in the 2017 series. In the original show, MacLachlan dictated notes addressed to “Diane” into a tape recorder, but Diane was never seen, leaving the audience to wonder if she was an actual character or just some type of code name (with Lynch, you never know what’s real!). In Twin Peaks: The Return, audiences were thrilled to see that not only was Diane real, she was played by none other than a platinum-wigged, sassy Dern.
Dern worked with Lynch from her teen years into grown womanhood, and the art they created together, while often disturbing, speaks to a beautiful sense of genuine creative connection. Dern has always spoken admiringly of Lynch, saying, “He was very protective of me, like a big brother—he always has been,” and “I just feel so lucky to literally have grown up on- and off-film with him . . . He’s such an amazing maestro and gift to us so I couldn’t be more thrilled to talk about him, it brings me so much joy.”
To have a long partnership like Kyle MacLachlan, Laura Dern and David Lynch’s is a rare gift, and the haunting work they created together will live on eternally.
