Kyle MacLachlan Says David Lynch Wanted To Direct Him & Laura Dern Remotely From Home In A Movie Or Series

Fourteen months on, the movie world still mourns the January 2025 death of David Lynch, including his close friend and longtime collaborator Kyle MacLachlan. The pair, whose friendship began after Lynch cast the actor in his 1984 “Dune” adaptation, last worked together on 2017’s “Twin Peaks: The Return,” the last screen project Lynch ever produced. But according to MacLachlan, Lynch had a couple of ideas for a potential movie or series starring him and “Blue Velvet” co-star Laura Dern, even if it meant directing them remotely due to his health issues.

READ MORE: ‘Unrecorded Night’: Toby Jones Would’ve Been The Lead In David Lynch’s Cancelled Netflix Show

MacLachlan spoke about his friendship with Lynch and those unrealized projects in a new interview on the Louis Theroux podcast. When asked if he and Lynch remained in touch regularly in the director’s final years, MacLachlan replied, “Yeah, we did. We would visit him at his place. Often with Laura Dern, we’d go together. We’d sit on the back. It was like a back porch area, back patio, drink coffee. Either Laura or myself, or David had an assistant then, Michael, would have gone to Porto’s, which is a bakery in L.A., gotten a few chocolate croissants. So we would have pastries and coffee.”

What were these catch-ups like? The “Blue Velvet” and “Dune” actor said the three of them would “just talk, and also talk about future stuff, what was coming, what we could do. [Lynch] was mainly painting towards the end, I think.” But occasionally Lynch, Dern, and MacLachlan did speak about working together again on a film. “We were talking about something, movie or series, but the challenge was that he really couldn’t leave the house easily because of the emphysema,” MacLachlan continued. “So it would have been remote work.”

That would’ve been a strange way for Lynch to direct his friends, but MacLachlan and Dern insisted to the director that it was possible. “We were just sort of talking about it, trying to figure out how we could make it work. And we were like, both Laura and I were like, it’ll work. It’ll be like you’re right there. You know, we can do this,” the actor went on. “But I think for him, and I don’t know if this is true or not, the joy for David was being on set and feeling that space, that sacred space in front of the camera, and like, you know, working that space. So it would have been different.”

MacLachlan and Lynch’s deep friendship started after Lynch cast him in “Dune,” a project MacLachlan deemed “had not gone well.” “He found me, gave me that first opportunity,” recalled the actor. “And then, after the first opportunity was not well received, he came back to me for “Blue Velvet” a second time. And granted, we had talked about “Blue Velvet” while we were filming “Dune,” but he didn’t have to come back to me, you know, especially as I had been identified with a film that didn’t work.”

The pair worked together again on “Twin Peaks,” including the 1992 film “Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me” and the show’s third season on Showtime in 2017, subtitled “The Return.” In between those projects, MacLachlan maintained a steady career, in no small part due to Lynch’s belief in him, something the actor still has “a lot of gratitude” for. So did he and Lynch remain friends until the end? “Yeah, we did,” said MacLachlan. It’s too bad he, Lynch, and Dern never got the chance to team up again one last time.

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