LYNCHIAN REALITY

Laura Dern and Naomi Watts Open Up About David Lynch, And Tease Twin Peaks

The actresses recall filming Wild at Heart and Mulholland Drive, tease the secretive Twin Peaks, and open up about the director: “He inspires that trust,” Dern said of Lynch.


David Lynch loves women. They are at the center of nearly all his films—from Blue Velvet to Mulholland Drive—and his groundbreaking TV series, Twin Peaks, which premiered in 1990 and is set to return on Showtime on May 21, with 18 new episodes, all directed by Lynch.

“Who killed Laura Palmer?” provided the motivating plotline for Twin Peaks, but the investigation into the mysterious disappearance of the beautiful high school student really served as an entrée into a dark and fascinating Lynchian reality. The world according to David Lynch is vaguely retro (his women often dress like 1950s starlets); consistently eerie (there is strangeness lurking around every corner); and oddly wholesome (coffee and pie are always present). He is the master of the juxtaposition of the creepy and the sweet, the sexual and the chaste. And at the heart of this tense, intriguing friction, you will always find Lynch’s women.

Interestingly, the director doesn’t seem to believe in auditions. Instead of hearing an actress read a part, he will simply review photographs of her and then decide whether or not he wants to meet her for a chat. “David will look at three or four, or maybe five, different pictures and say, ‘Okay, I’ll see those girls,’ ” recalled Naomi Watts, who was cast by Lynch for his 2001 neo-noir mystery, Mulholland Drive—the film that made her a star. “If you’re the third person on the list and he’s had a great meeting, he doesn’t meet girl number four or five. So my getting the part felt like fate.”

David Lynch’s Heroines Like You’ve Never Seen Them Before

From left: Chrysta Bell wears Tiffany & Co. necklace. Hailey Gates wears Bulgari necklace. Laura Dern. Naomi Watts wears Robert Lee Morris SoHo earrings; Lagos necklace. Patricia Arquette wears Tiffany & Co. necklace.

Photographs by Alex Prager, Styled by Patrick Mackie. Hair by Giannandrea; makeup design by Fiona Connon; makeup by Levi Vieira for MAC Cosmetics. Set design by Thomas Thurnauer. Lighting Designer: Matthew Libatique; Key Gaffer: Jeffrey Ferrero; Key Grip: Tina Dubbe; Production: Josie Heiman; On-Set Production: Linsday Heimer; Retouching: Contact Photo Lab; Photography Assistants: Tyler Parker, Blake Brent; Fashion Assistant: Diana Choi; Hair Assistants: Jessica Mishler, Nancilee Santos; Makeup Assistant: Emily Jade Elliott; Set-Design Assistants: Aaron Wiley, Cliff Collins; Special thanks to Siren Studios

Blue Velvet, Wild At Heart, Inland Empire, and Twin Peaks (2017) “I hadn’t read the script, but I knew the film was Blue Velvet. I was sitting on the floor, waiting to audition, and David walked out. I was startled by every aspect of him. He looked at me, and I was waiting for some magical words. He said, ‘I have to pee,’ and disappeared. When he came back, we talked about life and high school and meditation, and I was ready to audition—but that never happened. He said, ‘Thank you very much,’ and I left. Soon after, I got a call saying he wanted to meet me at Bob’s Big Boy to see if Kyle MacLachlan and I could get along. We ordered malts and french fries, and David was doodling on napkins while Kyle was doodling with a knife in his ketchup. A girl either thinks, These are bizarre men, or, I am in love with both these people and want to spend the rest of my life with them. Needless to say, I fell in love.”

Dern wears a Cartier necklace.

Photographs by Alex Prager, Styled by Patrick Mackie

Naomi Watts wears Bottega Veneta dress; Robert Lee Morris SoHo earrings; Lagos necklace.

Photographs by Alex Prager, Styled by Patrick Mackie

Mulholland Drive and Twin Peaks (2017) “I was in New York and my agent called and said, ‘You have a meeting with David Lynch.’ I didn’t believe in traveling or breaking plans for auditions, but this was David Lynch, and it’s not every day that you get that call. So I flew to Los Angeles and went straight from the plane to meet him. David had that intense ear-to-ear grin, and he was smoking up a storm. He said, ‘How’s your day? Tell me everything!’ I was at a point where I’d been auditioning for 10 years and people would barely make eye contact, but David was genuinely interested in me. I was there for 40 minutes. When I left that room, I thought, No matter what happens, I had a great meeting with a legend.”

Watts wears a Bottega Veneta dress; Robert Lee Morris SoHo earrings; Lagos necklace.

Photographs by Alex Prager, Styled by Patrick Mackie

Lost Highway “During Lost Highway, I would ask David, ‘Am I playing two different people? Is one of them a ghost? A hallucination? Are they both real? What am I playing here?’ And he’d reply, ‘I don’t know, Patricia. What do you think?’ So I had to come up with a whole concept of what I thought Lost Highway was about. I decided to model these two characters after Salome and Jezebel, in the Bible. At some point, I told David that one should have dark hair and blunt-cut bangs like Bettie Page. David said, ‘Who is that?’ I turned him on to the famous nude pinup. David was like, ‘Wow. Bettie Page. She’s the bee’s knees.’ ”

Arquette wears a Tiffany & Co. necklace.

Photographs by Alex Prager, Styled by Patrick Mackie

Twin Peaks (2017) “When he works, David Lynch uses a megaphone. Even if there are only three people in the room. I really like that kind of commitment. He’ll have a cigarette hanging out of his mouth, and he’ll say, through the megaphone, something like, ‘I need a little more danger in her face.’ At one point, he felt the table in front of me wasn’t quite dirty enough. He was on the megaphone: ‘Can I get some Bisquick?’ Someone came right over with the Bisquick, and David started rubbing a paste of gunk over the table. The cig was still hanging out of his mouth. That was one of my favorite moments.”

Gates wears Theodora Warre earrings; Bulgari necklace.

Photographs by Alex Prager, Styled by Patrick Mackie

Twin Peaks (2017) “For a long time, I felt like I was swimming in a different lake than everybody else. I would look around me and think, Hmm, maybe I’m not from this land; maybe I should try and venture into some other dimension. I think that is one of the reasons that David and I get along. He functions in all these juicy, mystical, esoteric dimensions. When David asks me to be a part of things, it’s always a bit mysterious. Twin Peaks was no exception: He approached it with a little twinkle in his eye. I couldn’t do anything but say yes excitedly.”

Bell wears a Balmain dress.

Photographs by Alex Prager, Styled by Patrick Mackie

From left: Patricia Arquette wears an Akris jacket and skirt; Tiffany & Co. necklace. Hailey Gates wears a Norma Kamali swim dress and skirt; Theodora Warre earrings; Bulgari necklace; Michael Kors Collection belt; Manolo Blahnik shoes. Chrysta Bell wears a Balmain dress; Tiffany & Co. necklace; Rochas shoes. Laura Dern wears a Monse dress; Cartier necklace; Manolo Blahnik shoes; her own ring. Naomi Watts wears a Bottega Veneta dress; Lagos necklace; Paul Andrew shoes.

Photographs by Alex Prager, Styled by Patrick Mackie
1/8

It’s often only after he casts an actress that he allows her to see the script. Sometimes, he merely describes the character she’ll be playing. “You usually have to read the script in the office,” said Laura Dern, who, having starred in four Lynch projects, including Wild at Heart (1990) and Inland Empire (2006), seems to have achieved muse status. “I’m always excited and surprised by what he asks me to play. Even in the beginning, I signed on because of David. He inspires that trust.”

Lynch’s heroines tend to have distinct, dual personalities (twin peaks, if you will): They are possessed of a prim, decorous side and an extreme sexuality that often attracts bizarre male suitors. “The sex in his films is emotional,” Watts said. “It is not gratuitous. You feel that he is getting at something primal.”

While directing the more intense scenes, Lynch can be uncommonly present. “Wild at Heart was such an intimate movie that he was usually sitting on the bed while we were doing our love scenes,” Dern recalled. “We would get the giggles, and he’d pinch our feet to get us to stop laughing. He was always right there. As we were rolling, he would be able to somehow whisper in my ear, and then go back and hide.”

Like a doting parent, Lynch gives his actresses nicknames: Watts is Buttercup; Patricia Arquette, who starred in Lost Highway (1997), is Solid Gold; and Dern has been Tidbit since she was 16, when Lynch cast her in Blue Velvet. Actresses Hailey Gates (who hosts the Viceland TV series States of Undress) and Chrysta Bell (who is also a musician) are both in the reboot of Twin Peaks, and have yet to be rechristened. Their roles—just like the show itself—remain shrouded in secrecy.

“I can’t tell you much,” Dern said. “But I can tell you that Naomi and I went to his house for coffee and he told us he was cooking something up.”

There is no question, however, that the new Twin Peaks will retain the surreal, dreamlike quality that made the original so addictive—something the artist Alex Prager tapped into in creating her homage to Lynch and his incredible coterie of women.

Related: The Tiniest Bit of New Twin Peaks Footage Was Released

A Look Back at Reese Witherspoon and Laura Dern’s Beautiful Instagram Friendship

Reese Witherspoon and Laura Dern enjoy a beach sunset while on vacation during the weekend of the Big Little Lies finale.

Photo courtesy @lauradern.

Reese Witherspoon and Laura Dern enjoy a beach sunset (and wine) while on vacation during the weekend of the Big Little Lies finale.

Photo courtesy @lauradern.

Reese Witherspoon and Laura Dern take selfies and drink wine while on vacation during the weekend of the Big Little Lies finale.

Photo courtesy @lauradern.

Reese Witherspoon and Laura Dern know how to have a good time while doing press tours for both Wild and Big Little Lies.

Photo courtesy @lauradern.

Reese Witherspoon and Laura Dern celebrate Mother’s Day together. Their mothers watched the movie premiere of Wild while holding hands.

Photo courtesy @reesewitherspoon.

Reese Witherspoon and Laura Dern know how to have a good time while doing press tours for both Wild and Big Little Lies.

Photo courtesy @lauradern.

Reese Witherspoon and Laura Dern know how to have a good time while on set for both Wild and Big Little Lies.

Photo courtesy @reesewitherspoon.

Actors Reese Witherspoon and Laura Dern became close with Cheryl Strayed, the bestselling author of Wild. (And her dog, clearly.)

Photo courtesy @lauradern.

Back in 2014, actors Reese Witherspoon and Laura Dern became very close with Cheryl Strayed, the bestselling author of Wild.

Photo courtesy @reesewitherspoon.

Reese Witherspoon and Laura Dern while on the press tour for their 2014 film Wild, in which Dern plays Witherspoon’s mother.

Photo courtesy @reesewitherspoon.
1/10