- 6 minutes ago
Kyle MacLachlan reflects on the “fluke” of working David Lynch’s Dune. The original Paul Atreides reminisces on what it was like to step into the Lynchian adaptation of Frank Herbert’s sci-fi novels; from the dangers of being on set to working with Sting: “It was completely surreal.”
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00:00I want to start with a line in your book. I'm going to look at it to make sure I
00:05get it right.
00:05It's a really good line. This is about kind of your introduction to the world that you live in now.
00:11You say, it's not even like I break into movies. It's as though the movies break through my quiet world
00:16and land directly on top of me.
00:18This is an awesome line. I wonder if you can kind of explain that.
00:22It did feel like that. I mean, that's in reference to Dune, really, which was such a fluke.
00:30How that all tied together. Unless you believe in some kind of weird faith, which I do and don't.
00:41But I was in Seattle, had finished my training as an actor, going to be a repertory theater actor.
00:49That was my thing. And I was about to go to New York.
00:53I was just wrapping up a production I was doing in Seattle before I set out to seek my fortune,
00:59kind of.
01:00And I got a call about a movie called Dune. And they were auditioning young actors in Seattle for the
01:07role of Paul.
01:09And it was so specific that I said, someone's pranking me because I just happened to be a huge, huge
01:14Dune fan, which there are, you know, there are many, many, many.
01:18But I really, really was a fan. I mean, I knew the book incredibly well.
01:22And so I said, somebody's, you know, messing with me.
01:25So when I dug a little further, they said, actually, no, it's for real.
01:30And I went on that audition.
01:32And then that carried me down to Los Angeles, where I met David Lynch and Rafaela De Laurentiis on the
01:39back lot at Universal Studios.
01:42You know, and then the conversation ensued with David.
01:46And he gave me the script at the end of the conversation and said, learn these scenes and come back
01:50and screen test.
01:50And I was like, sure.
01:52You know, I don't even know what I'm doing.
01:55And so here I was kind of on this trajectory to New York and, you know, kind of came knocking.
02:03And I didn't know what to think about that.
02:06Do you feel many years later, like to some degree, like you're here by accident still in some way?
02:13Every day.
02:14Really?
02:15Yeah.
02:15I mean, without that, without that intervention or whatever it was, I would have gone to New York and I
02:23would have, you know, been hopefully involved in musical theater there.
02:26That was my thing.
02:28And, or hired out of New York and I'd be working, you know, at the Alley Theater in Houston or,
02:34you know, somewhere in Milwaukee or, you know, who knows where I would be.
02:38Completely different career, I'm sure.
02:41Completely different life.
02:42Have you ever met another actor who's like, shares this kind of like, man, I truly do not know how
02:49I got here.
02:50There are a lot, I think.
02:52Really?
02:54Yeah, I think, I mean, people, people come, I did it a different way.
02:59I came to Hollywood with a screen test and then got hired and got cast in this major motion picture.
03:05You know, a lot of actors come and they'll be like, they stay with a friend on the couch, you
03:08know what I mean?
03:09They take classes, they're auditioning all the time, they get an agent, you know, and then they get sent out
03:14and, you know, it's this gradual process, you know, and maybe they hit at some point in time.
03:19And that for me was kind of, happened in reverse in a way, because I got cast in Dune, did
03:24the movie, and then finished the movie, couldn't work for a year and a half.
03:30And then...
03:31Because of your contract.
03:32Because my contract stipulated that I couldn't do anything.
03:35I couldn't, I couldn't appear in anything, but I couldn't even do anything because no one wanted to put me
03:39in something and then run the risk of Dune, like, being pushed and stuff.
03:42So they were like, no, you can't do anything.
03:45So I was like, okay, what, um, I, you know, I had, I had nothing, nothing, I had theater, you
03:51know, so I went and did a play, you know, and I came back and I was like, okay, but
03:55it was, uh, and then Dune came out and didn't do very well, as we all know.
03:58And, uh, so that's when I started, it wasn't at ground zero, it wasn't at zero, I had an agent,
04:03you know, and I had a manager, so I had a little bit of the trappings, you know.
04:05And you had been in a giant, and I'd been in a giant movie, yeah, even though it was unsuccessful
04:09and there was a, you know, kind of a stigma to that, it's, it had, I still had a little
04:14bit of something, you know, so I was able to get auditions and stuff, but then I started my auditioning
04:19process, which was a disaster, to be honest.
04:22I have, I have some questions about that, uh, but, in the book you relay your, your first Hollywood experience,
04:30which is on the set of Dune, which is in Mexico, and, for instance, they are burning giant piles of
04:36rubber tires to get the type of black smoke that David Lynch is seeking.
04:41At the time, I assume you're like, I guess this is just what movies are.
04:46Now that you've been on many other sets, I'm curious when you look back at it.
04:51You know, they, it never would have happened, you know, it was completely poison that was, you know, in clouds
04:58of black smoke, burning tires, and it would occasionally waft right through the scene, and there were times when we
05:06were actually speaking, and the winds would shift, and the smoke would come through, and you'd go to take a
05:12breath in, and you actually, you couldn't take a breath in,
05:16and then, and then you, you couldn't speak, because your vocal cords were froze, and you just had to put
05:22your hand up and said, need some water, please, thank you very much, and, uh, then the wind would shift,
05:27you know, and you'd go on with it, um, but everything on that picture was new, obviously, to me, and
05:33everything,
05:33I just said, oh, I guess this is movies, you know.
05:36Sting is on that set.
05:37Yeah.
05:38Uh, he's in the movie.
05:39You're, like, playing guitar with Sting.
05:41Yeah, that was crazy.
05:42Arnold Schwarzenegger has taken over your hotel gym for some reason?
05:45Yes, he's there, working out, because he's doing Conan Part 2.
05:49Okay, I mean, was this all as surreal as it sounds?
05:52Yes, it was completely surreal.
05:54Um, Sting was just about to embark on the Synchronicity Tour.
05:58Uh, every breath you take had come out.
06:01Um, he was, like, kind of the talk of the town, really.
06:05Um, really nice guy, and, um, you know, he, I played a little guitar, and I brought my guitar with
06:11me from when I came down to Mexico City,
06:12and I would bring it to a set, and bring it to my, my little room in there, and so,
06:17he said, yeah, you want to learn a couple songs?
06:19I said, yeah, I said, okay, sure, and he said, and I said, I like Roxanne, and maybe a message
06:24in a bottle is sort of hard, and he's like, all right, right.
06:26So, we sat in his room.
06:28His engineer was programming.
06:29I'm not sure what he was doing, actually, but he was, he appeared to be programming, it was a keyboard,
06:34but I think it was more than that,
06:35and so all the, kind of, all the loops and everything, they were putting those in.
06:40And, uh, and I like music, and I had kind of a fantasy as, you know, pretty much every young
06:46man at that age can play a little guitar does,
06:47of, like, being in a band, and, you know, someday, you know, just performing for people, and, uh, here, this
06:53thing, you know, he's, like, the guy.
06:55So, I was just sitting there, absolutely fanboying out, and trying to, you know, learn new songs, which I can
07:01still kind of remember.
07:02Really?
07:02Yeah, yeah.
07:03I can't play, my fingers are absolutely dead.
07:05I haven't played forever, but I can kind of remember.
07:07Kind of remember it.
07:08Yeah, from all the way back then.
07:10Mm-hmm.
07:10So, this role in Dune, I believe, other actors up for the part that didn't get it included Tom Cruise.
07:17Yeah.
07:18And Val Kilmer.
07:18Yeah.
07:19Val was pretty close, evidently.
07:22Um, but they decided, they kept looking, they just said to me, you know, we're not completely sure.
07:29We wanted to do one last sweep of the country, I guess, because they went to a couple, like Dallas
07:36and Chicago and Seattle, San Francisco.
07:40And they found me, they, I, they, the, the, the hooks, they caught, the rake, you know, pulled me.
07:48Like, when you watch Timothee Chalamet now, in Dune, do you see yourself?
07:52I don't really, but I, when I watched the movies, I was very nostalgic.
07:57Really?
07:57Well, I just, I felt like I was revisiting something.
08:02Like, when I, when the scene in the box, you know, he puts his hand in the pain, pain box,
08:05right?
08:06And it was almost word for, because it's from a book, you know what I mean?
08:09And it's almost word for it, and I'm like, oh, God, I remember that day, and I remember working with
08:13Sean Phillips, and I remember, wow, costume, and then how the camera moved, and the choices I made walking.
08:19I mean, I was like, everything came kind of flooding back in a very unexpected way.
08:23Um, but, and I, I was like, and then I was like, oh, that would have been a great scene.
08:28I wish we'd done that scene in the tent.
08:30That would have been really good, you know what I mean?
08:31Or, you know, you see something, and you're like, oh, I love that scene.
08:34That would have been fun to shoot.
08:35But I didn't really feel like, like I was watching the movie, but I was kind of in the movie,
08:40too, a little bit.
08:41It was a weird sensation.
08:43So you weren't really able to, like, enjoy it is a loaded word, but.
08:47Sit back and, I mean, a little bit, a little bit, because I love the book so much.
08:50I love the story.
08:51It was, it was, and it was really fun to see some of the, the, some of the larger, the
08:56scale of things, you know what I mean?
08:57When you see the worms in the desert, and, you know, and I know it's a lot of, a lot
09:00of CGI and stuff, but I was like, wow.
09:02And, like, ah, they really move fast, don't they?
09:04I was like, you know, we never really had, we had a side, slice of a worm on the side
09:08of a box car, you know, on a railroad, kind of chugging along that I was running after like this
09:12with a hook, you know.
09:13It was very low.
09:15So, in some ways, it was like, just kind of, what's the word, not, lo-fi, it was like lo
09:21-fi, you know, in some odd way.
09:24But it was, but it was my Dune, you know, and it was full of those kind of wonderful memories.
09:30Do you, did you ever have a conversation with David Lynch about these new Dune movies?
09:34No.
09:35No, he didn't want to see them.
09:36Oh, he didn't want to see them?
09:37No.
09:38Yeah.
09:38No, he was not interested.
09:41I don't know if he ever saw anything that I, other things that I did.
09:44Really?
09:44Yeah, yeah.
09:45You just do it and move out.
09:47And part of that, I think, is, and particularly with Twin Peaks, the character of Cooper, I was Cooper for
09:55David.
09:56I mean, I was, I was Kale, which he used to call me.
09:58Yeah.
10:00But I was Cooper.
10:01So, whenever he'd see me, he'd be Kale sometimes, but sometimes he would see me when I'd go visit and
10:05say,
10:05Coop, you know, how you doing, you know?
10:08And I was like, he really, there's a big, he really, he's, I'm Cooper.
10:13In the Twin Peaks verse.
10:15It's very Lynchian.
10:17This, you're like a small town innocent being drawn into an increasingly dangerous dream world of David Lynch's.
10:25Yeah.
10:25Which is, of course, like what all the movies are about.
10:27Yeah.
10:27But it sounds like this was sort of your experience in actual real life.
10:30In real life.
10:31Yeah.
10:31I go to visit him and, you know, you're in that environment.
10:34And it's, it was a wonderful environment because he, he, he talked about the, the, the artist's life, the art
10:42life.
10:43And David was someone who every day, created something every day.
10:47So, he got up and he made something.
10:50Or he, he, music, or he wrote, or he painted, or, you know, he was always creating.
10:57And I didn't really know the extent of that until after he was gone.
11:02And I went to visit, to check in on, you know, the house and everyone.
11:06And they were cataloging his, his archive.
11:10And there was like massive, massive amount of stuff that, you know, drawings and paintings and little things on matchbook
11:18covers that he had done.
11:19This little sequence and stuff.
11:20Just things like that.
11:21He just, there was no material or medium that he wouldn't create with or use or create on somehow.
11:32Which I think in some odd way I began to understand why TV to him was just another canvas in
11:39which he could tell the story.
11:40It wasn't TV.
11:41He wasn't making something for TV.
11:42He was like, I'm working in this medium and I'm making what I want to make the way I want
11:47to make it.
11:47Which had nothing to do with TV at the time.
11:49Right.
11:50You know, back in 89.
11:51And did, did you ever, like, do you know what he saw in you?
11:55Clearly he saw something, you know.
11:56I never really asked him, actually.
11:59I, I, people, you know, said, what is it that David listened?
12:02I'm like, we had a friendship.
12:06He must have, you know, he, he casts based on meeting and conversations.
12:12There's something about me, my personality.
12:14Maybe because we share the same look.
12:16You know, we grew up kind of in the Northwest.
12:17We have similarity in that way.
12:22And I think he kind of understood that I could, I know he understood that I could take the audience
12:29into this world that he had created, which he recognized as being something challenging.
12:33And, and they would go with me because I've come across, I'm just kind of, you know, I'm a regular
12:38guy from Yakima, you know, which is a good part of who I am.
12:41But I also had this other side, which was sort of drawn to this darkness that he could kind of,
12:47you know, he's pretty smart and he sensed it.
12:49And I think that combination is why he, you know, he cast me, I think.
12:54And I think that's what I'm doing.