The one thing David Lynch always hated about directors: “It’s pathetic and stupid”
It’s once in a blue moon that a filmmaker as unique as David Lynch will come along. He encapsulated everything that makes an artist special; he wasn’t afraid to reach into the darkest crevices of his mind and pull out ideas, unlocking the parts of himself that many people are too scared to ever find. With a fearless sense of trust in his ideas, he made some of the most surreal and poignant movies in cinematic history, all of which featured incredible performances from his trusted cast of actors.
Lynch often worked with the same stars, like Kyle MacLachlan, Laura Dern, and Jack Nance, clearly harnessing some kind of intrinsic understanding between himself and them. These were actors who were fully on board with Lynch’s visions, no matter how strange or harrowing.
With every Lynch film, you can truly feel his love and dedication to the artform bleeding through each scene, which is something that reflected in his approach to directing. Read any interview with an actor who has been directed by the Mulholland Drive filmmaker and you’ll discover that he treated his stars as his friends, squeezing the best performances out of them because he made them feel safe and comfortable.
“David gives that comfort to let people be their authentic selves and let their freak flag fly,” Dana Ashbrook (who played Bobby Briggs in Twin Peaks) told Far Out. “It gives people permission to not have to do anything the normal way.”
The filmmaker knew that a stressful working environment would only result in actors giving performances that weren’t to the best of their abilities, so Lynch made it his mission to create an environment that was full of love and creativity. What’s the point of making a film if the atmosphere is tense? That’s what made Lynch stand out compared to many of his contemporaries – he welcomed an array of unique people into his worlds and treated them with care and respect, patiently and passionately directing them to greatness.
There’s a great behind-the-scenes video of Lynch reuniting with Sheryl Lee on the set of Twin Peaks: The Return, and for the first time in 25 years, he sees her dressed as Laura Palmer again. You can tell how much he cares for her in this moment – this wasn’t just an employee that he could boss around, this was someone intrinsic to his artistic world.
In his book Catching the Big Fish, Lynch discussed his distaste for filmmakers who don’t see their actors as equals, instead creating an atmosphere of anxiety and hierarchy. “I hear stories about directors who scream at actors, or they trick them somehow to get a performance. And there are some people who try to run the whole business on fear. But I think this is such a joke—it’s pathetic and stupid at the same time. When people are in fear, they don’t want to go to work. So many people today have that feeling. Then the fear starts turning into hate, and they begin to hate going to work. Then the hate can turn into anger and people can become angry at their boss and their work.”
Lynch saw the futility in working this way. He might have made terrifying stories full of abuse, death, and pain, but at the core of his films was a deep appreciation for people and the varied human experience. He acknowledged the strangeness and brutality of living while also knowing that being here, able to create art and collaborate with others, is a true gift.
“If I ran my set with fear, I would get 1 percent, not 100 percent, of what I get,” he added. And there would be no fun in going down the road together. And it should be fun. In work and in life, we’re all supposed to get along. We’re supposed to have so much fun, like puppy dogs with our tails wagging. It’s supposed to be great living; it’s supposed to be fantastic”.
