“I had no idea why”: the one actor David Lynch “couldn’t bear the sight of” on set
Generally speaking, David Lynch didn’t have a lot of hate in his heart. He’d very rarely be caught speaking ill of anyone or anything, but sometimes, he didn’t even need to use any words to get the point across.
One thing the filmmaker most definitely despised was ‘It’s a Small World’, the theme to the Disney theme park attraction of the same name. Everyone who’s been on it knows that it gets on your nerves after about five seconds, with the notable downside being that the ride is significantly longer than that.
He was adamant that it was the worst song in the history of music, and even if you disagree, it’s one of the most irritating earworms ever written, at the very least. He also hated Glenn Ford for what he did to Frank Capra, but in the grand scheme of things, one song and one actor isn’t an awful lot of hatred to have.
However, as Yoda would say, there is another. Lynch famously abhorred every second of his big-budget Dune adaptation, disowning the sci-fi blockbuster as soon as he could. He tried his best to make the movie with one hand tied behind his back, but one of the cast members got on his nerves through no fault of their own.
Patrick Stewart was a late addition to the ensemble, with Lynch remembering his standout performance in a stage production of Henry IV. After his original choice for Gurney Halleck dropped out, the future Jean Luc Picard was brought in, and the director proceeded to treat him with simmering disdain for the duration.
“David Lynch, I should make clear, was devoted to his cast,” Stewart wrote in his memoir, Making It So. “He never gave the impression that he was concerned only with visuals and special effects. He checked in with us constantly and was at times even complimentary, though never to me, personally. Something was most definitely up.”
As the shoot progressed, he expected “a thaw or at least a normalisation of our director/actor relationship,” which never happened. “At times, I felt like a part of the set and nothing more. And I had no idea why.” He did find out why eventually, and for anyone who’s ever seen Patrick Stewart, it’s the most ridiculous reason for an auteur who holds a grudge against an established performer.
Why did Lynch give him the cold shoulder from the first to the last day of Dune? Because he was bald. Yes, Patrick Stewart. When he’d seen him onstage, he was taken by “a middle-aged man with long, dark hair, going grey, that hung limp around his gaunt, pale face.” When Stewart arrived on the set, he was instead greeted by “this hairless, suntanned, healthy-looking fellow.”
The X-Men alum was convinced that since he was such a late addition to the cast, Lynch had no other choice but to persevere, even though he bristled at his baldy napper. “I also understood, just a little, why he sometimes seemingly couldn’t bear the sight of me,” he added. “Still, I wished he would have said something to clear the air and not make me feel so uncomfortable.”
