Kyle MacLachlan Remembers David Lynch, ‘the Best Version of Human’

Anyone lucky enough to have had their hearts fixed by one of David Lynch’s projects is mourning the loss of the visionary filmmaker at the age of 78. Joining the outpouring of appreciation online is Lynch’s longtime collaborator and friend, actor Kyle MacLachlan, who shared a touching tribute to the Mulholland Drive director on social media. Alongside pictures of the two of them over the years, MacLachlan writes, “Forty-two years ago, for reasons beyond my comprehension, David Lynch plucked me out of obscurity to star in his first and last big budget movie. He clearly saw something in me that even I didn’t recognize. I owe my entire career, and life really, to his vision.” MacLachlan is referring to Lynch’s adaptation of Dune, in which he starred as Paul Atreides.

MacLachlan shares his first impressions of Lynch, saying he saw in him an enigmatic, intuitive, and creative man: “He was in touch with something the rest of us wish we could get to.” MacLachlan cites working with Lynch on his next film, 1986’s Blue Velvet, and his follow-up series, Twin Peaks, as when their friendship really blossomed, poignantly writing, “I always found him to be the most authentically alive person I’d ever met.”

“David was in tune with the universe and his own imagination on a level that seemed to be the best version of human. He was not interested in answers because he understood that questions are the drive that make us who we are. They are our breath.” 

While the world has lost a remarkable artist, MacLachlan has personally lost a dear friend. “I can see him now, standing up to greet me in his backyard, with a warm smile and big hug and that Great Plains honk of a voice,” he writes. “We’d talk coffee, the joy of the unexpected, the beauty of the world, and laugh. His love for me and mine for him came out of the cosmic fate of two people who saw the best things about themselves in each other.” Indeed, MacLachlan often played variations of Lynch’s avatar in his films, as Lynch represented parts of himself through Jeffrey Beaumont in Blue Velvet and Agent Dale Cooper in various Twin Peaks projects. Alongside performers like Sheryl Lee, Laura Dern, and the late Jack Nance, MacLachlan might be the actor most associated with Lynch’s work.

He concludes, “I will miss him more than the limits of my language can tell and my heart can bear. My world is that much fuller because I knew him and that much emptier now that he’s gone. David, I remain forever changed, and forever your Kale. Thank you for everything.” 

The duo last worked together on 2017’s Twin Peaks: The Return, in which MacLachlan reprised his role as Agent Cooper (and a couple of doppelgänger/tulpa variations of Coop).