“I was just, like, dying!”: the funniest scene in David Lynch’s ‘Wild at Heart’ and why he cut it
There’s a reason why there had to be a whole new word invented to describe the work of David Lynch: his vision was so singular, his cinematic voice so unique, it could only be his, it could only be Lynchian.
Overwhelmingly, people seem to apply that term to the aesthetics like his use of black and white, then cut through with bold red or neon, his glamorous yet sinisterly normal suburban sets, his checkerboard floors and velvet curtains, and so on. But ‘Lynchian’ goes well beyond that.
It has to incorporate his love for non-linear plot lines, his obsession with dream sequences or dream-like moments, his use of music, and crucially, his toeing the line between severity and ridiculousness.
Twin Peaks is a great example of that from start to finish. On one hand, you have this harrowing, slowly unravelling story about use and evil, but on the other, you have these kooky characters finding fish in coffee percolators and turning into door handles. Even in the most serious moments, there are elements of silliness, like in the infamous eighth episode of Twin Peaks: The Return, where the birth of BOB sees Frank Silva’s smiling face emerging, looking silly, stretched out like a balloon. Even as the embodiment of evil is born, it warrants a little giggle.
But then, on the other side, there were some moments when even Lynch himself knew he’d taken that so far. He wasn’t out trying to write comedies, so on the occasion when it all got a bit too laughable, he had to pull it back.
One major moment of that came during the making of Wild at Heart. Overwhelmingly, that romance flick is probably the closest Lynch ever got to something light-hearted. Part of that came from David Lynch’s love for Freddie Jones and having him appear as a stroke of lightness or comedic relief, telling Chris Rodley, “I love Freddie Jones. He’s one of the greatest human beings on the earth, Freddie Jones. I love that guy!”
Jones’ role in Wild at Heart was actually supposed to be much more significant, though. “Originally, he had this huge monologue that was from Barry’s [Gilford] book about pigeons, ‘rats with wings’,” Lynch explained. It was going to be an outright ridiculous moment in a bar alongside Laura Dern and Nick Cage as Lula and Sailor, but it had to be cut, simply because they could not get through it.
“It was so funny, I was just, like, dying! I had to wear a cowboy hat, dark glasses and a kerchief across my mouth; I couldn’t stop myself from laughing!” Lynch recalled as he kept on ruining his own takes from behind the camera. “I knew it was wrong,” he said, “And if I didn’t lose it, Laura would lose it. And then one time, Nick lost it. And sometimes Freddie would lose it”.
Jones was simply too funny for them to even be able to get all the way through the monologue, so in the end, they had to cut it to not hold up production, doing take after take through the giggles. “It was just one of those things where it got worse and worse,” he said, laughing at even just the memory of it.
