David Lynch explains how Marilyn Monroe inspired ‘Twin Peaks’
The films of Marilyn Monroe and David Lynch are worlds apart. Lynch’s strange and surreal movies have left him in a position of critical acclaim, even if they are something of an acquired taste. Meanwhile, Monroe’s approach was more direct, widely popular at the box office, and transformative in terms of Monroe becoming the Hollywood icon she remains.
Interestingly, though, Monroe had inspired Lynch’s iconic TV show Twin Peaks. He’d originally been set to write a film about the legendary actor, but the project was eventually abandoned. With the groundwork done, Lynch eventually turned his attention back to Monroe, who made her way back into his television narrative.
In the book Room to Dream, Mark Frost, co-writer of Twin Peaks, remembers how the original movie was meant to go down. “An agent at CAA brought us together to work on a feature called Goddess for United Artists. We both wanted to expand the story beyond strict realism and inject lyrical, almost fantastical moments to it, and we started seeing a synchronistic way of working together.”
Goddess was meant to deal with several moments from Monroe’s life, including her strange meeting with Bobby Kennedy. Frost was pleased with the way the script turned out, but the producers of the movie were not, and in the end, the project was scrapped. But still, Monroe looked to be on the duo’s mind.
In an interview with Vanity Fair, Lynch said that Monroe deeply inspired the Twin Peaks character Laura Palmer. “You could say that Laura Palmer is Marilyn Monroe, and that Mulholland Drive is about Marilyn Monroe, too. Everything is about Marilyn Monroe.” Evidently, the Hollywood icon was on Lynch’s mind an awful lot.
The comparisons between Palmer and Monroe are understandable. Both are blonde women who died tragically at a young age and inspired a state of mourning in their respective communities. For Palmer, that was within her hometown and for Monroe, it was global. There were several conspiracy theories surrounding Monroe’s death in a similar manner to how Palmer’s death was investigated in Lynch and Frost’s TV show.
In another conversation, Lynch explained just what it was about Monroe that made her such an iconic figure. “It’s hard to say exactly what it is about Marilyn Monroe, but the woman-in-trouble thing is part of it,” the director told Vice. “It’s not just the woman-in-trouble thing that pulls you in, though. It’s more that some women are really mysterious.”
