Wild Card with Rachel Martin - What Kyle MacLachlan learned from his friend David Lynch

Episode Date: June 22, 2025

Kyle MacLachlan says he wouldn't have a career without his friend and longtime collaborator David Lynch, who died earlier this year. His first gig was on Lynch's "Dune" which was followed up by "Blue Velvet" and then by their iconic run together on the series "Twin Peaks". In this bonus episode, MacLachlan shares what it was like to live in Lynch's world. To listen sponsor-free and support the show, sign up for Wild Card+ at plus.npr.org/wildcard See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

Hey, everyone. I hope you enjoyed listening to our full episode with Kyle McLaughlin. If you haven't listened, go check it out. He is an absolute delight of a human being. But I also wanted to share a little more from that conversation that we did with Kyle in Seattle. Before we started our wildcard conversation, I talked to Kyle about his longtime collaborator, David Lynch, who had just died a couple of months before we taped this. Kyle knew David for four decades, and he had worked with him on Dune and Blue Velvet and the original Twin Peaks and the reboot. So we spent a few minutes just reflecting on David, who was definitely one of the most fascinating people

I've ever talked to on this show. And I loved hearing Kyle think back on his time with his friend and his mentor. So I wanted to share that conversation with you in this bonus episode. I hope you enjoy it. And just a heads up, there's a touch of cursing in this episode.

I do want to give you a chance to talk a little bit about David Lynch. Oh, thank you. Because I just, I know he was so, incredibly important. I mean, he was, yeah, he was, I have a career really because of David, because my first two films were with David, Dune and Blue Velvet. And he was like no other person in the world, you know, so specific, so singular, so interesting, so kind, so funny, so generous, such a great sense of humor. And you know, the thing about David that I learned, particularly when we were filming Twin Peaks

is the worlds that he created. So he didn't create Dune, but he created Blue Velvet and he created Twin Peaks, among other things. But those worlds for David really existed. They were in his mind and they were populated by the people that he created and outside when we were actually performing, we were those people.

so I wasn't Kyle or Kale, as he liked to call me. And that's a funny story. You probably know that story, but, well, without that story. Anyway, I was Koop. And he loved Twin Peaks so much that he wanted to be, he wanted to live in that world. He wanted to be in that world. And so he created Gordon Cole.

Gordon Cole, you know. And how much fun was it? And sort of shocking that I was talking to my director and friend as Gordon Cole. And he came up with the whole idea of the heart of hearing thing and the whole thing. It just was, you know. Wait, why did you call you kale? Oh, well, in our first film together, Dune, it was produced by Dino de Larentes. Dino, Dino de Lentis.

He literally talked like this. And he couldn't say my name. Oh, Dino couldn't. So I was Kale, and David just loved that. So he called me Kail. And so I have a son, my wife and I have a son named Callum, C-A-L-L-U-M. But he's not Callum, he's Kaelum. Just that kind of stuff.

So how do I say this and not have it be offensive? What did he see in you? But you know what I mean. I asked myself the same question. You were so young. You went to U-Dub. You were just like a fresh little... I know. I did. I went to U-Dub.

Baby actor person. I was totally baby actor person. I was so, like, clueless. You know, we met... I was out of... I graduated, and I graduated in 82. 82! Is anybody left?

Okay, that's all right. Never mind. I think it was... It was our first meeting, right? We sat in a little bungalow on the back lot at Universal Studios. These cool little old buildings that everyone from Alfred Hitchcock and James Stewart, all the creators were in these little bungalows. They're really nondescript and sort of smelly, actually, because they're so old.

And we sat in this room and we just had about a 20 to 30 minute chat when I met him on Dune. And we didn't talk about the movie at all. We talked about growing up in the Northwest. We talked about our mutual love of red wine. We just kind of rambled, you know, what we did when we were kids, riding our bikes around, what it was like at night, the sound, the smell, the feels of the vibe of being in the Pacific Northwest. And I think he just felt really comfortable.

And I think when he gave me the script, I don't think he really, you know, he still didn't know if this guy can act. And, you know, it's not. that important. But anyway, but we, we did a screen test with him and that screen test is when the bond really established itself and we just, we just, and I'd never been in front of a camera before. This was the first time. Wow. With a movie script, looking at the camera, someone doing my makeup and hair because I was from the theater, we did our own stuff. You know what I mean? I was like, what are these people doing? And they were like, oh, we're just going to do that. I was like,

okay, that's fine. So it was all new. And he was right there. for me. And he was pretty new for him too. I mean, he'd done some shorts and he'd done a racerhead and he'd done elephant man, of course. Brilliant films, but he was still pretty new as well. But I love that he had that intuition to just be like, listen, he's, he can act. But do I want to spend time with this person? Oh, interesting. Is this a person I want to spend time with on this set? I see, I think it was more than that. You're very perceptive. I think it was more than just, oh, but there was a connection there. And that was kind of, and that was, and that was there through our entire relationship.

Yeah. Which was long. Yeah. I mean, we collaborated for a long time. I think of 83 until just recently, yeah, this year. So watching something Lynchian, some of it is not accessible, really, to some people. Yeah. And it becomes apparent, or I would imagine that it wasn't always clear to you what was happening. I was clueless most of the time.

But I mean, you had, did you, over those many years, though, did you start to learn the signs or the language shorthand or? Kind of. I kind of knew where he was going. Puzzle. In the moment. Yeah. I got that. But the, the, the, the assemblage. The putting together of the film was all here, David, you know, all here, and why one thing would lead to the next and why he chose a particular angle, a particular lens, the rhythm of a scene, what music he was thinking that was going to go in, what was the sound going to be behind everything, you know. And that was his genius. He just knew. And he also really loved happy accidents, you know, of something. happened during filming someone made a mistake or did something different and he'd be no no no no

keep that you know keep that um he loved when that happened when we were filming twin peaks there was a scene and then we talked about it in the hospital room and the lights were flickering and there wasn't anything that the electrics could do about it so they said well just when you walk in the guy was sort of flicking the light switch and he said we've got some problems with the electricity so we're just and he was like trying to fix it There it was, okay. Now it's in the scene, you know. And he did a weird, there was another weird thing, this guy was so funny because he was like, I asked him a question, like, you know, is this room available for us or something,

some kind of just question like that really kind of fast and blurby, and he went, Jim? He thought I asked him his name. David said, we're keeping that. It's like life, right? That was the thing about David. It was really about the realness of life. Yeah. You know, the unexpectedness of life. And there are bizarre, surreal, random things that happen all the time.

All the time, you know. And the tendency on film is, oh, yeah, that's too weird. You know what I mean? And David loved that, you know. But that's art. You know, I say, David, he is a true artist. And people, you know, people talk about the fact that he followed his muse, you know, he followed what was happening inside, how he felt.

nobody there was no other guide for him but what was coming out from his from his unconscious and his belief in that really powerful stuff

it's really powerful as an actor working with him looking at that going God you know it's inspirational you wrote the most beautiful New York Times essay

oh that man thank you it's worth looking up thank you I was so honored to be asked you know to say write something

for the New York Times you know, nice about your friend. I said, I would love to. I would love to. You describe him as a lifelong mentor, though, for you. Can you sum up? Or what is guidance he gave you that you still hearken back to?

Black coffee. Really just comes down to black coffee. Fixes all your ills? All your ills. Go right away. And some cherry pie occasionally. That's pretty good. It's just one of the best characters

in entertainment. He was one of the greatest characters. one of the greatest introductions, too, driving up the mountain. Yes. You know, I mean, with the tape recorder. What's your name? Diane. Diane. Diane.

How could you forget Diane? God's sake. Tell me about the last time you saw him. He was with Laura Dern. Yeah, with Laura Dern. Yeah, we were, so David lived close to me, actually. And he had a, he was suffering from emphysema at the time. So he, when you went over for a visit, he liked to be out.

outside, which in LA you can do, harder here. So he would be sitting on his back. He had kind of a back, kind of a patio, and a long table. And because of the emphysema, he didn't want to have close contact with anybody, just in case he didn't want to catch anything, which was true, which was right. So we would sit at one end of the table, Laura and I, and he would sit at the other. And we would just talk, and he'd be there sitting, remembering, reminiscing, laughing, talking about some things that we wanted to do still.

He was very much about the next thing and trying to figure out a way to direct, but to do it remotely. And that was going to be an option. And it was no like, certainly he was not in the best of health, but there was like, we got more work to do. And that was how we left it. And we would, he loved a chocolate croissant.

and a big cup of coffee. So I went over to, we'd go to Portos, which is this really great bakery in the valley, and get some croissant there and bring them back and, you know, open up the box, and he'd be like, yeah, it was like a donut. You'd think the donut would be, but it was always a croissant.

He would just stuff the donut. And so much fun, so much fun. Okay, last question. So for a lot of people, Twin Peaks did define, like, this part of Washington, you know, culturally. for a while. But this is home home to you. How have you seen this place change?

What keeps you coming back? I do. You know, Washington is, it's two states for me. You know, it's the west side east side. I grew up in the east side, you know, much different, obviously. And then the traverse between Yakima and Seattle, which I did many times back and forth. between going to school at the U and going through North Bend,

when you had to drive through North Bend, you know, before the circumvented. And, you know, it's the same, but it's, you know, it's just a little bigger, a little faster, a little more populated than when I was here, you know. And but the beauty remains, the people remain just so friendly and so nice. And then this just beautiful forests. When you drive through there, you know,

when the mist comes down off the tree, He's just like, this is one of the most beautiful drives in the world. And I was a kid, I was like, ah, can't wait to get that. Trees, so many trees. God, more fucking trees. I know. Stop talking about the trees. But they're so beautiful.

I guess we grow up and mature, right? If you like this episode, you should definitely go back and listen to the David Lynch episode of Wild Card if you haven't already. It is just an amazing experience. And if you haven't listened to our full episode with Kyle McGlop. Boclin, be sure to check that out as well. This episode was produced by Rommel Wood with help from Lee Hale and Taylor Hutchison. It was edited by Dave Flanchard and mastered by Quazy Lee.

Wildcard's executive producer is Yolanda Sangueni, and our theme music is by Romteen Arablee. We'll be back in your feeds on Thursday with a conversation with former first lady Michelle Obama. We'll talk to you then.