“A pariah in business”: how David Lynch almost killed Kyle MacLachlan’s career
Somewhere between a long-standing collaborative relationship with David Lynch and an ever-growing social media presence, Kyle MacLachlan has earned himself a devoted cult following of cinephiles and Gen Z-ers. Brimming with charisma both on and off-screen, he’s become a firm fan favourite, but it wasn’t always that way.
MacLachlan and Lynch may have honed a well-respected and revered creative partnership now, but their first cinematic venture together wasn’t quite as successful as they hoped. The pair first linked up on Lynch’s 1984 adaptation of Frank Herbert’s Dune, a film that would earn the director ridicule and critique for decades to come.
The future Twin Peaks star took on the role of main character Paul Atreides, who would later be portrayed by Timothée Chalamet in Denis Villeneuve’s take on the sci-fi. An impressive supporting cast included huge names like Patrick Stewart and Sting, but even they couldn’t save Dune from disaster at the box office.
Translating Herbert’s ambitious sandworms and desert landscapes to screen proved to be a difficult task, one that the studio and producers were not up to tackling. Critics attacked the film’s screenplay, cinematography, special effects, and more, and Lynch would even come to criticise the film himself.
Lynch wasn’t the only one who received backlash for the poor attempt at adaptation. As the actor recalled during an appearance in the Criterion Collection Closet, MacLachlan struggled to find work following the flop of the film. “I felt like I was a pariah in business,” he remembered, “No work, no nothing.”
The next film MacLachlan landed was another Lynch project, but one which would be remembered much more fondly than Dune. While the pair were working together on the sci-fi flick, Lynch let MacLachlan read a copy of the Blue Velvet script, and he was instantly impressed. Despite the failure of their first project, they resolved to continue working together.
Though there were some delays to filming following the reception to Dune, Blue Velvet would hit cinemas two years later in 1986, garnering a very different legacy. The dark, intense film was much more in Lynch and MacLachlan’s remit and would become a cult classic, a highlight in the director’s filmography.
“As traumatic as Dune was for him – I know it was,” MacLachlan remembered, “Blue Velvet was a whole different reality, and we were in our element.” MacLachlan landed a series of other roles in the years that followed, including a part in Oliver Stone’s biopic about The Doors, and he would continue to hone his relationship with Lynch.
By the early 1990s, the pair worked together on the soon-to-be cult classic television show Twin Peaks, which spawned one of MacLachlan’s most iconic characters in Dale Cooper. They had clearly realised that their talents were not within sci-fi blockbuster territory but within strange surrealism and cult classics. MacLachlan’s delivery of the words “Damn good coffee” is still endlessly quoted to this day.
Fortunately for MacLachlan, his fear that he might be a “pariah” in the industry following the failure of Dune would not come to fruition. Through the continued belief of Lynch and his own talent, MacLachlan would become a cult figure with countless cult projects to his name. From Blue Velvet to Twin Peaks, his legacy extends far beyond the poor first iteration of Paul Atreides.
