Twin Peaks is on a lot of people’s minds this year, between the death of David Lynch in January and the original series marking its 35th anniversary. With that in mind, a group of actors from the show are touring this year, with a series of events called Twin Peaks: Conversations with the Stars.
Last Thursday night we caught the Philadelphia-area stop, at the Scottish Rite Auditiorium in Collingswood, N.J., where the panel included Ray Wise (Leland Palmer), Kimmy Robertson (Lucy), Harry Goaz (Deputy Andy), Dana Ashbrook (Bobby Briggs) and the executive producer of Twin Peaks: The Return, Sabrina S. Sutherland. Laura herself, Sheryl Lee, is part of some stops on the tour.
The evening began with a presentation of “Part 8,” the most acclaimed episode of The Return, which featured a musical performance from “The Nine Inch Nails,” followed by a surreal depiction of the 1945 Trinity Test and how it birthed the series’ mythology, leading into a 1950s pastiche that’s disturbed by both extreme violence and a gross bug-like creature. It’s the most uncut David Lynch thing Lynch ever made, and The Return’s highest achievement.
Then came the panel, in which the actors shared stories from the original series, The Return, and other Twin Peaks moments. Some of the stories were familiar, and others were new.
(Note: Recording was forbidden, so I’ll share the gist of what people said.)
Sutherland shared what it was like to make a location visit to Washington state, during pre-production of The Return, to see which locations were still intact and which were not; the Double-R Diner and sheriff’s station required a great deal of dressing. But Robertson said her “knees buckled” when she walked back into the station for the first time.
All shared stories of when they were first cast, including the other roles they were up for, while Goaz kept mentioning that when he was first cast on the show, he had been working two jobs and going to school.
But the unmistakable star of the show was Ray Wise, the accomplished actor who, yes, killed Laura Palmer. The 77-year-old actor kept being asked one of the series’ key questions: where did Leland end and BOB begin? — and gave varying answers throughout the evening.
Of the moment in Season 2 when Leland’s hair turns white overnight, Wise shared that he had to undergo an hours-long hair-dye procedure that later had complications. Not long after, he appeared in a movie with Harvey Keitel, where Keitel was given a “great wig,” leading Wise to wonder why he went through the dye job.
He shared at one point he was considered for a bank commercial, which was seeking to cast “a Leland Palmer type,” but that he didn’t get the role. I’m going to assume this happened after the first season, since after that, “a Leland Palmer type” meant “guy who became possessed by an evil spirit and murdered his daughter.”
And yes, he sang. The Mairzy Doats song, of course.
Sutherland shared that had Lynch not passed, he was planning to participate in this very tour, via Zoom. And then the evening ended with about 10 minutes of behind-the-scenes footage from The Return.
There’s the presence of quite a few people (Lynch himself, Miguel Ferrer, Robert Forster) who are no longer with us. It’s pretty jarring to see the Black Lodge as a set, with cameras and people milling about. They now use an app to create the backwards-talking Black Lodge effect.
The tour continues through the end of October, and there will also be some events at or near the locations, and an event at the Kiana Lodge, which was used not as the Black Lodge, but rather the Great Northern Hotel.
