As Cooper finished suiting up, the director turned up the music the soaring #TwinPeaks theme“Falling.” It was nipple-hardening awesome.
Written by Jeff Jensen EWDOCJENSEN @entertainmentweekly
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#TwinPeaks @Kyle_MacLachlan on suiting up as Agent Cooper again: Twin Peaks revival is a ‘journey into the unknown’
Diane, it’s 10:13 a.m. on a drizzly Los Angeles morning in late February and Kyle MacLachlan of Twin Peaks fame is sitting at my breakfast table at the Chateau Marmont and speaking into my tape recorder. That’s right: I’m hangin’ with Agent Cooper, drinking damn good coffee. (And hot, too!) Dressed in a sweater and jeans, MacLachlan, 58, is explaining his affection for the quirky detective with the slick sable hair and white knight soul, a regard that has deepened over the course a long career and much seasoning. “It’s a character that’ll be etched on my tombstone — the one most people will remember, I mean,” he says with a laugh. “And you know, it’s nice to have to have one of those.”
To be clear, MacLachlan has no plans to shed the mortal coil anytime soon. He can’t say the same thing about his signature creation, mostly because he can’t say much at all about Showtime’s hush-hush, 18-hour revival of Twin Peaks, written by series creators Mark Frost and David Lynch and helmed entirely by Lynch, premiering on May 21. But when last seen 26 years ago, in the cliffhanger finale of the original series, Agent Cooper was truly corporally challenged and spiritually distressed. His soul was trapped in a red-curtained, demon-populated underworld known as The Black Lodge. (Think: a pop-up jazz lounge for grim hipsters. IN HELL.) Meanwhile, Cooper’s shadow-self doppelganger — imbued with the snarling spirit of denim-clad, serial-killing incubus known as BOB — roamed free in the show’s misty mountain lumber town. “Evil gained a beachhead in Twin Peaks,” says MacLachlan of the moment. Has evil gained any more ground in the decades since? TBD.
One thing he can say with certainty: “I’m getting my own action figure.” You can buy the Funko POP! Twin Peaks Agent Cooper — wearing a trench coat, holding a coffee cup in one hand, giving a thumb’s up with another — beginning April 28. “I have three action figures now. Paul Atreides from Dune. Evil Cliff Vandercave from The Flintstones. And now Twin Peaks. Top that, Tom Cruise!”
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#TwinPeaks: Kyle MacLachlan on creating doppelgängers and Dirty Cooper
In the original Twin Peaks, Kyle MacLachlan was Agent Cooper, one of the great heroes in TV history. On the new Twin Peaks, the star plays multiple Coopers, but none of them are yet the Agent Cooper we know. He’s Cooper’s disembodied spirit. He’s Cooper’s evil doppelgänger, driven by a ruthless desire to survive. He’s Cooper’s evil doppelgänger’s dim-witted, adulterous, everyman double (now deceased). He’s a reincarnated Cooper but sapped of mind, memory, and much personality (though blessed with incredible gambling luck). It’s like co-creators David Lynch and Mark Frost have teamed with their actor to turn Agent Cooper into an art project: the loss of heroic goodness and the flourishing of anti-hero on TV.
That’s just my theory. MacLachlan himself is just having fun. The actor, 58, says the new Twin Peaks presented him with a challenge that was nerve-wracking and thrilling, and he delighted in the creativity of making it work for his longtime friend, Lynch, who directed him in Dune and Blue Velvet. He tells us we haven’t really seen anything yet from Twin Peaks, although, of course, he’s sworn to keep the details secret. “It’s David Lynch,” he says, “and he’s taking you to a place that he wants to go. It’s in his mind, we’re going on this journey with him, so buckle up, here we go!”
We caught up with MacLachlan for coffee and a brief chat about creating his multiple Coopers before he left for France to bring Twin Peaks to the Cannes Film Festival.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Are you pleased with the response so far to the show?
KYLE MACLACHLAN: I am. I thought the reviews were acknowledging that they were seeing something unusual and very difficult to judge because it’s a small portion of what is clearly a longer journey. At the end, there will be a lot of things written, I can imagine, about the experience, whether it was fulfilling or not. But right now, it seems like the reaction we’re getting is, if this is your cup of tea, it’s a pretty great journey to take.
encountered him in the script or when David and Mark told you about him?
I felt challenged, immediately. When we met initially, David said, “We’re doing Twin Peaks, I need Cooper, are you in?” And I said yes — that’s a no-brainer — and then he said, “Well, there will be a few other things, too,” and he didn’t go into great detail about the “other things” that I would be doing that I can remember. But when I read it, I went, “Oh, wow, okay.” I was nervous, but I was — and am — also incredibly humbled that David would give me this opportunity to play a character that is so unlike me and anything I’ve done, that he believes in my ability enough to trust me to do it. Because he’s got no choice! He’s got me! I’m Cooper! But that he has the trust that it would work meant a lot. I still didn’t know if it would work until I saw it the other night. I mean, I remember the filming of it, I remember feeling pretty good about it, but to actually see it, and see if it was successful, I was really pleased.How did you construct the look and tone of this Dirty Cooper?
I remember in the early stages, I said to David, initially out of my own insecurity, that I thought one thing that would help would be black contacts for the eyes. I had seen it done before, used to make it feel like there was an entity in there, behind the eyes. I ran it by him. I half expected him to say no, we don’t need that, but he said that might be good. So we tried a variety of contacts, from very dark to not so much and different styles. I kept asking David, “Is this taking you out of the process, is it taking you out of the journey of this character?” And he said no, it’s working great. It looks like there’s a darkness there, but you’re not completely sure. Everything about him is dark. My skin is mottled, my hair is greasy and kind of long. You know how Javier Bardem did it in No Country for Old Men, where he had that very specific look, where he was almost angelic, but in a demonic kind of way? We wanted something that was like that, but not too over the top. No long scraggily hair, for example. This is kind of coiffed in an awkward way. That was an important part of the look, as well. We found all these elements separately and it worked. It was a great process. I don’t usually get to do that.
And obviously, we’re supposed to be getting a hint of demon BOB in there, right?
Oh, yeah. Yeah.
How about the wardrobe, the shirt and jacket?
That was David. We tried a few different ones before we found the one we really liked. We went through some jewelry options that were all discarded and rightfully so. Simple is always better. It’s always about finding the character without cluttering the character. In my mind, you want to put in just enough salt. You want to come up from underneath him and stop just when you find him and not go any further. Knowing when to stop is really important.
You also lower your voice, and while we get intensity, even interest in the game of staying alive and in the world, you don’t play his evil with much joy for it.
Yes, I thought there should be gravity there, there should be stillness there. Rhythmically, he should be different, different on so many levels. I tend to be a little more animated in real life and when I work, and Cooper is certainly animated in life and my work. This guy doesn’t have any of that. He is there to be served.
How do you conceptualize a character like this in your head? Do you think of him as a human being? A demon? An idea?
He’s a shark. There’s no remorse, there’s no happiness, there’s that quality when the shark is feeding and relishing it, the frenzy — the inhaling of someone’s soul — that’s him. He, for me, was real, insofar as being a living thing. But it was more about playing his force, his energy, his will. Those were the things that I hung onto, as opposed to making him real. He goes to places I haven’t been much as an actor. There was a thing I did several years ago called Where the Day Takes You (1992), where I was a drug dealer. This character is kind of in that direction, but it was a long, long time ago, so this was a new place for me to go. Thank god it did. I remember thinking, if I’m going to go someplace new, who better to take me there as a director than David? Because I know I am going to be completely protected and cared for. And that’s great for me as an actor I don’t have to self-monitor.I have a visceral reaction to scenes where characters throw up, so part 3 was something of a treat. Your Coopers threw up a lot in that hour. That must have been fun to do.
What was it made of?
I know cream corn was part of it. But after that, I’m not sure what they used.
You also got to play another version of Cooper, Dougie Jones.
That was a fun little departure,. It was all about trying to capture in a few little moments, the awkwardness of that and the reality, of that guy, and the fun of it. He’s s screw-up, a lovable screw up. That was fun. It was very brief, just a day, maybe two days of filming.The first two episodes and part of the third, Agent Cooper exists in these otherworldly, metaphysical spaces — high concept, very personal scenarios of David’s design. What’s it like as an actor to navigate those scenes when you’re performing them? And how much of those sets are built-out and how much of it do you have to imagine?
What advice did he give you on how to move through the sequence that opens part 3, when Cooper finds himself in that space with the woman with sealed-up eyes?
What I have found in those situations is that most of the time the audience will do most of the work for you. So while David will tell me things like, “Look off the edge and watch her fall,” I don’t have to reflect back your reaction, to do the shock or the GASP!, because the audience will do that for you. What I’m doing as Cooper is to be in the moment with my wits about me, taking in everything, recognizing that I’m on an unusual, strange journey. I took the position that Cooper knows that this is going to be crazy, that something weird is going to happen, and he just needs to go with it. He’s going to need to have to use his wits to find his way through, the best way he can, but ultimately, he’s going in the right direction. That’s what I held onto. We filmed that sequence in all sorts of bits across time and I can’t wait to see how they all flow together.
I had no idea. It was an X on the curtain. The first time I saw the trees was when I saw it on screen at the premiere.Was there a description in the script?
No. it was just a voice. I don’t think there was even any dialogue. Yeah, that was odd.
Agent Cooper is back on Earth, but he’s not yet the Cooper we know. Can you describe a bit how you make sense of this Cooper?
There’s that moment in part 4 when Cooper takes the drink of coffee, and I thought maybe, in that moment, his mind would come rushing back.
Yeah, I thought that too. It’s going to be interesting to see how that tension plays out and how the audience responds to it. I was thinking about this and how people are responding to it right now — there is just so much more to come! Each time, each part, there’s going to be such new stuff. And people will go back and start to put the pieces together, they’ll start assembling this story. It’s unlike anything I’ve seen before on TV.New episodes of Twin Peaks air Sundays at 9 p.m. on Showtime.
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@Ringer: @Kyle_MacLachlan’s multifaceted #TwinPeaks performance is astonishing to watch
Kyle MacLachlan Is Currently the Best Actor on TV
His multifaceted ‘Twin Peaks’ performance is astonishing to watch
BY ALISON HERMAN AUG 10, 2017
When Special Agent Dale Cooper introduced himself to the world nearly 30 years ago, he was an immediately comforting presence. Unflappable in his positivity, the FBI envoy to the eponymous town of Twin Peaks was the perfect entry point to the original show’s Lynchian eccentricities: Cooper, as played by Kyle MacLachlan accepted and even embraced Twin Peaks’ many quirks at face value. Cooper doesn’t show up until 40 minutes into the feature-length pilot, well after we’ve been thoroughly discomfited by the sight of Laura Palmer wrapped in plastic; when he does arrive, narrating everything he sees to an unseen woman named Diane, it’s as a steadying force — the eye in the middle of an interdimensional, backward-talking hurricane. If this platonically square lawman could transition smoothly into a world of demonic possessions and clairvoyant Log Ladies, so could we.
Fourteen episodes into Showtime’s Twin Peaks: The Return, Dale Cooper has yet to arrive at all. That absence is key to the disorienting atmosphere of the long-anticipated follow-up. (Lynch directed all 18 parts of The Return and cowrote the script with his creative partner, Mark Frost.) Gone, for the foreseeable future and much to viewers’ consternation, is our dependable lodestar through bizarre behavior and existential evil. In his place are a handful of enthusiastic participants in Twin Peaks’ mournful, terrifying new landscape. All of them are played by MacLachlan, and collectively, they make up the best performance currently on TV.
Notoriously, the first Twin Peaks ended on a brutal cliff-hanger: In an attempt to rescue his girlfriend Annie Blackburn (Heather Graham), Cooper plunged into the Black Lodge, the otherworldly locus of evil from which emanated the dark forces plaguing Twin Peaks. He never made it out, and was instead overtaken by a Lodge-minted doppelgänger. In the wrenching final shot of the series, the doppelgänger looks into a shattered mirror and reveals the face of Bob (Frank Silva), the spirit who raped and murdered Laura Palmer while inhabiting the body of her father, Leland (Ray Wise). The plot of Twin Peaks is never easy to convey on paper, but the significance of that reveal was clear enough: Our pure-hearted hero had been overtaken by the very essence of malice and cruelty. And thanks to ABC, which canceled the series just two seasons into its run, he seemed fated to stay that way.
Until now. The Return doesn’t shy away from the implications of that unhappy ending, which imprisons and incapacitates its hero in an unambiguous victory for the forces of darkness. Rather, it’s about those implications, and MacLachlan is essential to communicating the themes of loss, change, and decay, in no small part because he embodies them.
By splitting in two, MacLachlan’s multifaceted performance crystallizes the series’ black-and-white divide between virtue and vice. On one side, MacLachlan plays the doppelgänger, commonly referred to as Evil Cooper. Since we last saw him (in 1991), Evil Coop has grown accustomed to life outside the Lodge. He has recruited henchmen, grown out his hair, and taken to wearing a leather jacket—affectations that would be admittedly silly if MacLachlan didn’t play them with such dead-eyed seriousness. With his artificially darkened eyes, robotic voice, and imperturbable menace, Evil Cooper is chilling; it is easy to understand why Diane, revealed in The Return to be a platinum-bobbed Laura Dern, breaks down in sobs after seeing him in prison. In Evil Cooper’s unsettling confidence, MacLachlan gives us the horrible mirror image of regular Cooper’s smooth professionalism.
While the real Cooper is stranded, Evil Cooper has thrived, and worse yet, the world has allowed him to thrive. It’s a sickening state of affairs even before you consider that all the murder and violence is being perpetrated by a man who one who once bonded with Sheriff Harry Truman over their love of donuts and damn fine coffee. For many Twin Peaks cast members, the visual effects of age underscore the melancholy of a place where so much time has passed and yet so little has changed or improved. For the remarkably preserved MacLachlan, however, the reverse is true: His similarity to his younger self only enhances the differences in his characters, who appear almost unnaturally arrested in time rather than swept away by its inexorable flow.
On the other side of The Return’s Manichean split is Dougie Jones, the character who’s directly replaced regular Cooper and therefore absorbed much of the audience frustration at his continued absence. Dougie is even harder to explain than a typical Twin Peaks plot development, but here goes: At some point during his 25 years on earth, Evil Cooper created yet another clone of himself, who went on to become a Las Vegas insurance salesman named Dougie Jones, with a wife, Janey-E (Naomi Watts); and a son, Sonny Jim (Pierce Gagnon). When the original Cooper is finally released from the Lodge, he’s supposed to switch places with Evil Cooper, but ends up swapping with Dougie instead (who gets beamed back to the Lodge through an electrical outlet, because David Lynch). Real Cooper then takes Dougie’s place in Vegas, turning one of The Return’s most significant story lines into a comedy/tragedy about a shell-shocked, brain-damaged lost soul trapped in the exurban, middle-class life of a white-collar professional. It sounds even more convoluted than the first switch-up, and it sort of is — but the genius of Twin Peaks is that it’s all show and no tell, because Lynch’s visual storytelling is so strong it obviates the need for traditional exposition. None of the Dougie-Cooper–Evil Cooper relationship is spelled out for us; we just pick up on Lynch and Frost’s nonverbal cues.
Exactly who Dougie is or how he came to be is thus less important than what he represents, which is what happens to a fundamentally decent person like Dale Cooper when stripped of all but his most essential mental functions and forcibly ejected back into the real world. This setup offers plenty of opportunities for laughs, and MacLachlan has proved himself to be adept at a certain kind of slow-motion slapstick. In one scene, Dougie’s assistant leads him from room to room with the prospect of hot coffee, which he clutches and slurps like a child; in another, Dougie obliviously devours a slice of chocolate cake while Watts aggressively comes onto him. (What follows is an interlude as bonkers as the phrase “David Lynch sex scene” implies.) Even the mere sight of MacLachlan in an oversize green blazer — the original Dougie was on the heavyset side — has a clownlike charm to it.
But Dougie Jones is more than just a vessel for the humor that’s always punctuated Twin Peaks; he’s essentially the purest, most uncut version of the goodness that’s always defined Dale Cooper and that’s managed to survive his time in the Lodge. MacLachlan conveys the pathos of Dougie as well: Dougie is a man who can barely use the bathroom properly and yells at an inappropriate volume, but he’s also a loving father who plays catch with his son and a good Samaritan who uses his winning streak at a casino to help an old woman. It’s sad to witness Cooper in this reduced state, yet moving to see him forge connections with others and make their lives better, almost in spite of himself. The best in him wins out, a hopeful sign in a world where the best largely hasn’t.
Though nothing is guaranteed with a David Lynch production, Dougie appears headed toward a confrontation with Evil Cooper, bringing both halves of MacLachlan’s performance together. Prior to production on The Return, MacLachlan was the only actor who had access to the entire script (others have admitted they had no idea what was going on outside of their own scenes, or even in them), and it’s increasingly clear why. More than any other player, MacLachlan is charged with personifying the project of Twin Peaks: The Return.
With every tic and affectation — every burst of violence from Evil Coop, every slurred pronouncement from Dougie Jones — MacLachlan further delineates the differences between the first Twin Peaks and the follow-up. At first, the tensions in this season simply seemed like a result of Lynch and Frost making the story they wanted to make, regardless of nostalgia. But heading into The Return’s final stretch, frustrated nostalgia almost seems to be the point. It’s even written into the text: The typically catatonic Dougie comes alive whenever he makes contact with iconic motifs from the original show, like coffee or cherry pie. These aren’t meta references for meta’s sake. Instead, they’re part of The Return’s larger meditation on how much or how little people, places, and things can shift over, well, almost 30 years. We see it in the diminished state of Catherine Coulson, who was dying of cancer when she filmed her last scenes as the Log Lady; we see it in Amanda Seyfried’s Becky Burnett (née Briggs) following in her mother Shelly’s footsteps by getting trapped in an abusive relationship. Most of all, though, we see it in everything MacLachlan is doing, and how well he’s doing it.
Link (TP)
#WaWine #TwinPeaks @WineSpectator interviews @SHO_TwinPeaks star & #PursuedByBearWine vintner @Kyle_MacLachlan. #WaWine #TwinPeaks
Toasting the Return of ‘Twin Peaks’
Actor and Washington vintner Kyle MacLachlan returns as Agent Cooper
Donuts? Check!
Cherry pie? Check!
Damn fine cup of coffee? Check!
Agent Dale Cooper and those peculiar folks of Twin Peaks are back after 25 years.
“Sadly, we did lose the Log Lady,” says Kyle MacLachlan, the actor who became a cultural icon as Agent Cooper when the original TV series debuted in April 1990. The Log Lady (played by Catherine Coulson) may be gone, but MacLachlan and much of the original cast returns this Sunday night, May 21, with 18 new episodes of Twin Peaks on Showtime.
MacLachlan’s résumé includes Desperate Housewives, Portlandia, Sex and the City and the cult classic film Blue Velvet, but he’s also known by our readers as the owner of Washington state’s Pursued by Bear wine label. The wines have received outstanding reviews from Wine Spectator since the first release, 2005.
Recently, MacLachlan chatted with me about the new Twin Peaks and what’s ahead for Pursued by Bear. Even after more than 30 years in the business, he essentially remains a good-hearted guy from eastern Washington.
It’s easy to forget now, but in 1990 Twin Peaks was groundbreaking TV. The Internet was still a pup and we didn’t yet have 18 million TV channels to distract us. Created by eccentric genius director David Lynch, it was edgy and weird and funny and unpredictable and totally different from anything that had been on TV. It laid the foundation for future shows like Lost, True Detective, American Horror Story and Stranger Things.
“Agent Cooper was probably my favorite character I ever played,” MacLachlan, 58, says. Fortuitously, many of the exterior scenes for the original show were shot near his hometown of Yakima. “Going back and putting on the suit and seeing all the people I haven’t seen for years. That, combined with working with David Lynch again—it was exciting.”
The new episodes were written by cocreators Mark Frost and Lynch, who also directed. Considering how leaky Hollywood can be, the updated Twin Peakshas been shrouded in secrecy. MacLachlan is forbidden to reveal anything, but has this to offer: “This is not a return to Twin Peaks. It has new stories to tell and new places to go.” There are new, younger cast members along with the original players.
MacLachlan credits director Lynch for launching his movie career and his interest in wine. MacLachlan was doing theater in his home state when Lynch chose him for the lead in 1984’s Dune. It turned out to be a big-budget dud at the box office but it established MacLachlan.
During production of Dune, the director gave MacLachlan a bottle of Lynch Bages. “Drinking this wine caused me to re-evaluate everything I knew about wine,” MacLachlan said in a 2008 Wine Spectator interview.
As his passion for wine grew, he decided to make his own and joined with winemaker Eric Dunham of Dunham Cellars to launch Pursued by Bear under the Dunham Maclachlan label. Following Dunham’s death in 2014, MacLachlan has been considering the future of the brand.
“What started as a hobby has sort of become a small business,” MacLachlan says. “It kind of stood up and said, ‘Here I am!’”
MacLachlan trusted Dunham with every aspect of the business, but has taken on a stronger role since his passing. His winemaker is Dan Wampfler, formerly of Dunham and now with Abeja. For now, MacLachlan says, the wine will continue to be made at Dunham but that could change.
Beginning with the 2014 vintage, the Dunham Maclachlan name will be dropped and the label will just be Pursued by Bear. “I felt like more than anything, the brand needed its own identity,” MacLachlan says.
I hope he keeps making wine, because they’re always impressive. As for Twin Peaks, I can’t wait, but one thing’s for sure: I’m stocking up on donuts.
Link (TP)
#TwinPeaks Paves the Way for a Cooper vs. Cooper Showdown
Could the arrival of Dougie on ‘Twin Peaks’ point to how the revival will end?
Twin Peaks has thrown a wrench into the works that even fans of the David Lynch/Mark Frost-created series could not have expected. While parts one and two of the revival followed the stories of both Agent Dale Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan) and his evil doppelganger, part three introduced yet another Cooper — this one going by the name of Dougie Jones.
While this third Cooper didn’t last long, his impact on where the story may be going can’t be overstated enough. When the Red Room came calling for the evil Cooper, his body began to reject a creamed corn-like substance. While he was able to hold it in, Dougie was not so lucky. Instead he vomited up the vile substance and disappeared into thin air, landing in the Red Room.
When the evil Cooper had a vision of this other doppelganger in the Black Lodge, he finally let the vomit come out. It seems that Dougie was created for the purpose of replacing Cooper in the Red Room when the time came.
As he came to terms with what was happening, the Man with One Arm (Al Strobel) tells Dougie, “Someone manufactured you. For a purpose, but I think now that’s been fulfilled.” Dougie then changed shape, in the end becoming a gold marble that the Man with One Arm takes possession of — along with the Owl Cave ring he had been wearing.
What the one-armed man doesn’t explain is who manufactured him, though it should be clear to viewers. Evil Cooper had 25 years to find a way to stay out of the Red Room forever and created a doppelganger to do so. Instead of facing his own personal nightmare once again, he created a life that then built a family, only to have it be snatched away when Dougie was pulled to the Red Room.
In his place is Cooper, free of the Black Lodge but nearly catatonic as he familiarizes himself once again with the real world. While much of Cooper’s storyline in parts three and four is played for comedic effect, it is hard not to be excited about where this could all be heading.
For the first time, both Cooper and his evil doppelganger exist in the world. While the special agent may not be himself just yet, perhaps that cup of hot coffee he spit out will help pave the way. When it does, fans must be expecting a showdown between the two Coopers.
After all, one is willing to do anything and kill anyone to avoid returning to the Black Lodge, while the other is bound to have some pent-up aggression given that he’s been stuck in that bizarre dimension for over two decades. Should this battle eventually come to pass, it’s going to be interesting to see what form it takes.
Given that the evil version of Coop is in South Dakota, while the original is in Nevada, it’s going to take some time to bring the two together. When it does, chances are it’s going to be on very familiar ground: Twin Peaks.
Thus far, not much of the story has occurred geographically in Twin Peaks. However, as the Log Lady (Catherine E. Coulson) explained to Deputy Sheriff Hawk (Michael Horse), the answer to the Cooper mystery is waiting for him in the small Washington town. As the story progresses and more plot threads are tugged on, revealing even more twists and turns, it should be expected that these men will end up back where the story began.
When that happens, as a vision of the Man with One Arm tells Cooper, “One of you must die.” While Twin Peaksmay be abstract, surreal and incredibly over-the-top most of the time, it all boils down to a battle of good versus evil. The question is who will be victorious.
Twin Peaks airs Sundays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on Showtime. Keep following THR.com/TwinPeaks for more coverage of the series, including interviews and theories.
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#TwinPeaks Star @Kyle_MacLachlan on Divisive Finale: “Good Art Asks Questions”
"What are we left with? I’m still asking myself those same questions,” the erstwhile Agent Cooper tells THR about the revival’s controversial ending.
“What year is this?”
Welcome to the four most gutting words in Twin Peaks lore, uttered by Federal Agent Dale Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan) in the final moments of David Lynch and Mark Frost’s 18-part Showtime revival. Just as the original series ended on a powerful cliffhanger — one in which a dark Dale Cooper doppelgänger cackled the words “How’s Annie?” into a mirror, paving the way for this menacing monster to lurk throughout Twin Peaks: The Return — this new version of the cult-classic supernatural thriller concluded on a similarly confounding note, with Cooper and a woman who looks exactly like Laura Palmer (Sheryl Lee) standing outside of the Palmer residence on a dimly lit street in sleepy Twin Peaks, the world apparently completely unaware of their existence.
It’s a haunting ending, and a polarizing one, to put it lightly. Even those who loved Lynch and Frost’s vision for the final notes of Twin Peaks were left in the clutches of despair, without any easy answers and with the very likely possibility that we’ll never see Cooper and Laura on our screens. For his part, series star MacLachlan is similarly unsure about the future of Twin Peaks, and is similarly left “reeling” after watching the finale. Read on for his thoughts on what Lynch unleashed in the finale.
What does it feel like, having the complete Twin Peaks out there in the world now?
It’s incredibly satisfying to have it out there. It’s something that’s going to be floating around in our consciousness for a while now. It’s also difficult. I don’t like saying goodbye to characters that I really love and care about — not just the ones that I play, but also the cast, and to see them come into my home every week was really nice. It was really a pleasure to me. I’m going to miss that. And I just love what David Lynch creates. It’s unlike anything that’s out there. He’s an artist. He compels you to think and feel things that are not that comfortable all the time, and questioning, questioning, questioning…I’m going to miss that, you know?
Given the way you’re talking about the ending, does this feel like a definitive conclusion to you? Do you feel like we’ve just seen the end of Twin Peaks?
I don’t know. They have had no discussions. I have had no discussions about anything beyond what we’ve seen. That’s where it is right now. I don’t have any other answer than that, I guess.
If this is the end, does the question of “What year is this?” feel more satisfying to you than “How’s Annie?” as a final landing spot for Cooper? In other words, are you OK with this as the ending for Twin Peaks versus how things were left at the end of season two?
(Laughs) You know, it’s a good question…I would love playing Cooper forever and ever. It’s just one of those characters who seems to fit. David and I have worked to make this amazing world and character. I love it. I hate saying goodbye. I hate not seeing him every week on the television. In terms of “What year is this?” I think it just asks more questions. He’s left us with the direction to go back through and watch and absorb and take in what we’ve just seen again. But apart from that? I am still processing it myself. I’m still processing what I saw. I know I filmed it. I filmed it a long time ago, actually. But I had no idea how it was going to fall into the context of everything. I’m still reeling. Reeling, I think, is the word about what it all means.
Have you been surprised at all by the reaction to the finale? I also think “reeling” is a great word for it. It’s polarizing on a profound level, but “reeling” is a great way to describe how even the people who loved the ending are feeling after the finale.
Well, good art asks questions, you know? It doesn’t always provide answers. I think that’s what we’re experiencing right now. (Laughs) It’s not always the most comfortable or the most satisfying feeling. It’s also asking us to consider what we’ve just seen. That’s how I’m looking at it.
When you filmed that final scene on the street outside of Laura Palmer’s house, did you know you were shooting the ending of Twin Peaks?
I don’t know if I knew it was the end end, but I knew it was near the end. I knew it was going to be the culmination of everything that had come before. I don’t know if David had any other ideas at the time. This was in September or October that we shot this in Seattle, and we didn’t finish filming until April the next year, so I didn’t know for sure. But I knew that it would seem to be what was going to be what ended up being the last scene of these 18 hours.
It’s very sad imagining Dale Cooper as anything less than a victorious white knight shining bright through a dark world, but is that how he should ultimately be viewed — as a tragic character, given the ending?
Again, I don’t know. It’s certainly a hero’s journey. I have the same questions that everyone has. Is this it? Was he successful at all? It just asks so many questions, which will resonate with people for a long, long time, as opposed to having…not a happy ending, but an ending of some kind. There are certainly some triumphs, like with Killer BOB. But beyond that, what are we left with? I’m still asking myself those same questions.
You must be happy that, at the very least, Dougie Jones gets a happy ending.
Yes! (Laughs) That was a nice moment, wasn’t it? We’ll put that one on the plus side.
In terms of other moments on the plus side, it was so spectacularly satisfying to watch you say, “I am the FBI.” Was it as satisfying to play that scene as it was for us to watch it?
Yes, it really was. Cooper had been tucked away for such a long time. To be able to wake up…and to be honest, I was hoping that I was hitting the right tone with it. It had been a long time. Bless David, he was there to help in case anything felt like it needed more of this or less of that, or whatever. But the writing is so perfect for Cooper. His movements through space are so dynamic, and so efficient, and so precise, and those things all came back from the original character. He cuts right through things in a very kind way. He gets the job done. All of those kinds of things came back to me kind of quickly. In watching it, I went, “OK, that worked.” I was pleased with that, I will say.
What does it feel like knowing all roads led back to both Cooper and Laura Palmer, or at least to Sheryl Lee?
That was profound. I remember coming to work early on, and the makeup trailer is where you see everybody, because that’s the first place you report to in the morning. I came in and walked in and sometimes it would be Mädchen Amick or Harry Goaz, and that morning, Sheryl was there. It was just so great to see her. It carries with it so much weight and experience about where we’ve been and what this story is about. We are these people that are bringing to life David’s vision and his world and his creation in front of the camera. I think we recognized the responsibility with that, and also we felt like we were chosen somehow, in a very special way. You’re humbled by that and by his trust in you and his belief in you, that you are the vessels. We both felt that, I think. We both had this connection to each other because of that. She’s a special person. Very special.
I don’t think anybody expects to see David Lynch come out and reveal his intention behind the ending of Twin Peaks. But have you had any conversations with him? Has he illuminated the ending for you?
I don’t ask him, and I wouldn’t ask him, actually, knowing him as I do now. Because the whole journey was for the audience to experience and to take away from the experience their own interpretation. He’s just presenting his creation, and we all have our own take on it. I think as I’ve gotten older I’m less inclined to want those answers, and I’m more inclined to just let the experience sit with me and dig down in me and awaken or resonate or touch those things in me that he wants to as an artist. He’s special. (Laughs) So I wouldn’t ask him.
Final question for you. What’s going to happen to the Mitchum brothers with the FBI if Cooper isn’t around to attest to their hearts of gold?
That’s a very good question. (Laughs) I have full faith that those guys are going to be “A-OK,” as Cooper would say. How could they not be with the ministration of the three ladies they have with them? They will be fine.
Link (TP)
@Kyle_MacLachlan weighs in on #TwinPeaks film vs. TV debate
It was 26 years ago when Kyle MacLachlan took home a Golden Globe for best actor in a drama series for his role as Agent Dale Cooper in David Lynch’s original Twin Peaks. On Monday, Maclachlan found himself nominated again — albeit in as best actor in a limited series — for his show-stopping performance in Twin Peaks: The Return.
“I’m thrilled to be nominated,” says MacLachlan. “It’s the role — well, three roles — of a lifetime.” Humbly, he adds, “All credit goes to David Lynch and Mark Frost for writing these extraordinary characters.”
Shortly after hearing the news of his nomination, Maclachlan spoke to Entertainment Weekly and discussed his experience reprising his iconic role.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Congratulations on your Golden Globes nomination! As a major Twin Peaks fan, I couldn’t be more excited for you. What were you doing when you found out the good news?
KYLE MACLACHLAN: That’s very sweet of you. Thank you very much. I was actually dropping my son off at school. We were in the car, and he was so excited. He wanted to send a gif back [to my publicist]. So he found a couple of funny gifs to respond to the “Congratulations” text with. I didn’t know what he found, so of course, I looked at my phone after I dropped him off and was like, [laughing] “Oh, so that’s what we sent out. Okay.” I think there was a duck dancing that was very excited, and somebody else doing something else silly. It was pretty great.
You won a Golden Globe in 1991 for the role of Agent Cooper on Twin Peaks and here you are again at the ceremony. What does that feel like?
It’s very surreal, to be honest. I think it’s a testament to the power of that character. Dale Cooper has a resonance with people that I think is very special. And also I think the expectations of the Twin Peaks, let’s say, un-nostalgic return, which is what I think a lot of people thought what happened was not the case. This was an entirely new direction. Same characters, obviously, but a dramatically new story, new focus. The fact that that could also resonate in the same way that it did over 20 years ago I think speaks to the power of David Lynch and the creative genius that he is. You’ve got to have the words and the character and the story to be able to be even considered in any of these categories, and we certainly had that.
How would you say that TV has changed in the 20+ years since you first started working on Twin Peaks?
The obvious response, of course, is that there’s a tremendous amount more of opportunities. There are so many extraordinarily talented people working in television. So many auteurs are working in television, which back in the day was not the case. David was one of the first filmmakers to do something on episodic television, so he broke ground on that, for sure. I think at the end of the day, people really love the character, and they love story, and they love engaging with interesting people. There’s an abundance of that right now on television — almost so much that we don’t have time to catch up on everything, you know. I think that once again, we are seeing people who want stories. They want to go on a journey with these characters, and that’s never changed. There’s just more of it.
It’s become a heated debate as to whether Twin Peaks: The Return should be considered a TV show or a film. Where do you stand on the matter?
I think it’s kind of both. David was very specific about calling them hours and not episodes. So they’re 18 hours, and the way it was written and directed as if it were a long film. In other words, we didn’t break it into pieces when we were filming. So I think structurally, it is a film. Obviously, it was broadcasted on television and intended for television, but I think you could make the argument that it also works as a film. The very first one that we did was episodic, but when they screened Twin Peaks, the original pilot, at the Television Academy, it held up as a film, which makes complete sense to me because it’s directed by David Lynch. It just felt like it was a feature. And when they screened the first two episodes [of The Return] in Cannes this year, it had exactly the same results. It was seamless. The first two hours felt as if they were a film. So I think you could definitely make that argument.
As you mentioned earlier, you play three completely different characters in The Return. Did you find one to be especially challenging, or one that you enjoyed playing the most?
Dougie was a lot of fun. All were challenging in different ways. There was an awful lot of patience and trust that I had to have with Dougie because most of it is nonverbal. I just did what I thought was right, and if David laughed, then I knew that I was in the ballpark. And then for Mr. C — I call him Mr. C — that is something I’ve never done before. There were shades of it earlier in my career, but never as complete as that. It was difficult because, as an actor, you want to engage with the other actors back and forth. And this guy existed in his own space and area and was not about any kind of relationship with anybody. He is a very dark being and it was challenging for me to do that, particularly when I was working with people I knew well, like Laura Dern and David Lynch. Having to maintain that character was really challenging.
The way that you were able to take on those three distinct roles at once and transition from each of them so seamlessly just blew me away as I watched every Sunday night.
It was challenging and exciting to be able to have the opportunity, I’ve got to say, because David didn’t have a choice with Cooper. It was me or nothing. So he really put his faith in me that I could go to the places that he needed me to go to. I’m very honored to have him think of me like that. It’s very special.
Were you expecting there to be this much outpouring love and support from fans?
The social activity has been really strong and the fan base that engages with all of the cast members on the show is incredibly supportive and participative. One of the beautiful things I find is how the show is inspiring all of these creative people that are out there to create something with the Twin Peaks seed, whether it’s a drawing, or a Christmas tree, or a tableau, or a costume, or anything. It’s providing this inspiration to people to find their inner Peaks. It’s been really fun to watch that, and that is something that is purely in the world of social media. That was something that we obviously weren’t capable of enjoying in the original go-round 25 years ago. I find within the world of Peaks fans, there’s a wonderful back and forth between them. I may provide the outlet, but they are interacting amongst themselves and celebrating and sharing a show that they love so much.
Link (TP)
@DarrenFranich Two great people, one great podcast! @Kyle_MacLachlan talks to @EWDocJensen about that #TwinPeaks show.
Link to podcast : https://art19.com/shows/twin-peaks-podcast/episodes/8b528da8-5076-441e-8ebe-f9ef3d82d92e
Twin Peaks: Kyle MacLachlan on what he thinks the final scene means
When a bewildered Agent Cooper stepped back and asked “What year is this?” during the final few moments of the Twin Peaks finale, fans weren’t the only ones left in a state of confusion. Kyle MacLachlan, the versatile actor who flawlessly executed the portrayals of three very different characters during the Showtime revival, was equally baffled.
In a special bonus episode of EW’s A Twin Peaks Podcast: A Podcast About Twin Peaks, the actor joined Entertainment Weekly’s Twin Peaks scholar and podcast co-host Jeff Jensen to discuss his characters’ development and journeys throughout the 18-episode run of the David Lynch masterpiece. Below, MacLachlan shares what it was like to film some of The Return’s most memorable scenes, how he interprets that last haunting scene in front of the Palmer house, and if there are more seasons to come. To hear an extended version of the interview, listen to the episode embedded below, or subscribe to EW’s podcast here.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: I’m still picking up the pieces of my obliterated brain that spilled all over my floor after watching the two-hour finale. I was stunned, I was emotionally staggered, I was confused – but in good ways. I’d love to know how you’re feeling now that the world has seen all of Twin Peaks and The Return is essentially over. How are you feeling about the end of this journey?
KYLE MACLACHLAN: It’s been bittersweet. It was a sequence because the first [stage] was, of course, wrapping up the filming, and then knowing that was finished. And then there was, of course, the excitement of what was to come. And then as you said, the finish-up of the series. It’s a mix of having felt like I was involved in something monumental. That’s the primary feeling, and having such gratitude for that experience to return to working with David. I feel like David’s vision of Twin Peaks was realized with the help of all of us, and the folks at Showtime, and everybody. He made this amazing creation.
I can’t recall seeing you play someone as evil and as menacing as Mr. C before. It was such a shock at first but you convinced me completely. The moment I think of when I think of Mr. C is the arm wrestling match and how you sold that confrontation and exertion of will and dominance over another evil man. What did you like about playing Mr. C?
A couple things come to mind. There’s the understanding that I’m going to have to alter myself to do this character as an actor. And then there’s the belief that you have to have that you can do it. And that’s supported by the look, the wardrobe, the dialogue, and then there was the support from David that expected me to do that. He asked me and then it was, “You’re going to do this.” Once I embraced it, there was a terrific sense of freedom and calm that came over me once I committed to the character what needed to be done. That surprised me, actually. It helped that that was [Mr. C’s] state of being. For the most part, he was very demanding and quiet and powerful. It’s the belief that I could do that and it was a process that was helped a lot by David.
You were equally marvelous in the comic performance of playing the “Dougie” expression of Cooper and the protracted stay with this character in what was one of the most glorious moments of all the 18 hours: the awakening of Agent Cooper in the hospital. It felt like it was one of the purest nostalgia rushes of this experience. Can you talk about shooting that day, and was it easy for you to click right into that moment?
As I remember, it was close to the end, actually. So in the sequence of things, it was right where it should be. I didn’t really know what to do, what to think. I had been out of Cooper mode for a number of weeks so I didn’t know what was going to happen. But I tell you, the writing is so critical to Cooper, and the delivery and the lines and the straightforwardness of what he does, that I just jumped in. When I watched it, I said, “Yeah, that’s Cooper.” It’s been 25 years, he looks different and he’s maybe got a gravitas to him that might be a little bit more expected because of the passage of time. There’s still enthusiasm there, it’s not quite as boyish but it’s still there. It seemed to be the right balance. To be honest, I think we just hit it somehow. I don’t really know how to explain it but it did seem to be the right tone at the right time.
I’d love to talk about the finale and the climax to Cooper’s arc. It was quite a journey watching the final defeat of Mr. C and the destruction of BOB, but everything else after that was very unexpected. We had this very surreal meditation on maybe what happily ever after is for this character, [and] for Laura, if that’s possible. And maybe even some critique or reflection on certain heroic choices that he makes. What was your interpretation of Cooper’s final moments?
Especially the stuff with Diane, how did you feel about that?
I’m still sort of… I’m not sure, to be honest. Having seen it, I don’t know… First of all, I’m unable to say, “Oh, David meant this or David meant that” because I don’t know. Not because he asked me not to [say anything], but I don’t know. So, for myself, I consider them more kind of meditations, other possibilities somehow. It was something that was like a journey with these characters, and I hesitate to say too much or try to define it because I think so much of what we’ve seen over the past 18 hours has been open to people’s interpretation which has certainly created a lot of different thoughts and feelings from people. So I’m still processing what I saw and what that journey is and means.
I think the moment that staggered me the most was after Cooper and Laura leave the Palmer house and are standing in the street, and Cooper’s like, “Wait, what year is this?” I got this sense from that moment of this guy [being hit with the realization] that 25 years of his life had been robbed and he’s gotta deal with it. Could you offer any insight into what you were feeling in playing that moment?
That particular sequence we filmed very early on in the whole series. We filmed it up in Seattle at the Palmer house where I’d never actually been before, which was interesting. I remember not quite understanding where it was going to fit [in the story] even though I had read everything. So I didn’t know what to make of it. To me, it felt like something had gone wrong. What it was, I didn’t know. I remember [while] filming it, you couldn’t help but feel the hair on the back of your neck raise up because of the scream that Sheryl Lee gave which was in the middle of the night and blood-curdling. But there was some kind of a flash of understanding. What that understanding is, I’m not certain.
I know what I was thinking about and playing, but ultimately I’m not sure what David’s thoughts were. I’d have to go back and [watch] a second viewing to really get what he is communicating there. I had a similar physical sensation when I saw the pilot and the last image of that was a hand that reaches in and takes the locket, and there’s a scream over it and you realize that there are darker forces at play here. You realize that, oh my gosh, something just ripped open and what it is there are horrors somewhere. That’s what it left me feeling.
The show is really not about answering things, it’s about asking questions. Which is frustrating to some, and to others kind of exhilarating.
Kyle, will there be more Twin Peaks?
To my knowledge, there have been no discussions as of yet so I don’t know. I don’t know.
We’ll watch it!
I’ll mention that to David for sure! [laughs] I hope there would be a lot of people who would do that.
Link (TP)
@crisvector The necessary “I AM THE FBI” episode 16 poster of #TwinPeaks with the legend @Kyle_MacLachlan as Dale Cooper @SHO_TwinPeaks @TPeaksBrasil
@TheAVClub @Kyle_MacLachlan celebrates #TwinPeaks Day by being his usual adorable self
Today is February 24—i.e., Twin Peaks Day, the first time FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper, tape recorder in hand, first crossed the border into David Lynch’s surreal take on small-town America. People are celebrating the occasion in all sorts of ways—could we interest you in our coverage of the show’s recent Showtime revival, or a few meditations on its ongoing cultural impact, perhaps?—but it’s hard to top series star Kyle MacLachlan, who remains utterly devoted to his apparent lifelong goal of being an adorable dork pretty much all of the time.
MacLachlan posted a short video for fans of the series on Instagram today, and, as ever, the real joy is in how much fun he’s clearing having, opening with a quick “Diane” before turning to the camera, twinkle-eyed, and wishing everyone a happy day. Dale Cooper may be gone—possibly for good—but it’s always nice to know that MacLachlan is out there, keeping his spirit alive.
Link (TP)