TWIN PEAKS: FIRE WALK WITH ME Interview: Sheryl Lee Returns

For 35 years, David Lynch and Mark Frost’s Twin Peaks has felt like a mass dream being collectively shared by millions worldwide, all drawn into the spell of its mysterious wisdom.

As time passes, its small-town world of trees, mountaintops, cafés, owls, and on, continues to burn vividly alive in the imaginations of a growing legion of dreamers, many of whom traverse far and wide to experience North Bend, Fall City, and Snoqualmie, Washington (U.S.), the real-life towns that acted as filming locations for the folkloric fictional setting that has become the stuff of myth.

Being a fellow dreamer who has, over the years, written ad nauseam about Twin Peaks, I have a few times ventured into the land of the Douglas Firs for a taste of heavenly cherry pie and damn fine coffee, care of The R.R. Diner (played by North Bend’s Twede’s Cafe). But before last month, it had been a long while.

Fortuitously, since I found myself in the region for the first time in a long time seeing some all-time-favorite bands play The Seattle Zoo - Yo La Tengo and Built to Spill (for whom I once made a music video) - I naturally checked myself into The Roadhouse Inn and headed for The Double R.

Imagine my utter shock upon driving by the town’s charming local theater, The North Bend, and discovering from the marquee that Sheryl Lee would be returning to the home of Laura Palmer for three special screenings of Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me… It was nothing short of a Twin Peaks miracle.

Forty-eight hours later, after two spiritual days spent soaking in the ghostly haunts of Twin Peaks -- the Snoqualmie Falls of The Great Northern, Laura Palmer’s house, Ronnet Polowski’s bridge, Teresa Banks’ motel, and so forth -- I somehow found myself in a booth at The Double R sitting across from none other than Ms. Sheryl Lee herself, the body, soul, and powerhouse realization of David Lynch’s most heartbreaking damsel in profound distress.

If Twin Peaks as a world, an aesthetic realm akin to a collective dream, is so powerfully real to so many viewers across the globe, one can hardly imagine how it must’ve felt and continues to feel for the ensemble cast who populated and lived the dream as it unfolded, first from 1989-1992 and then again with The Return in 2017. And no character in Twin Peaks endured more nightmarish garmonbozia (pain and suffering) than Laura Palmer.

It was by complete fluke that I should have been there in the first place, and more than a little eerie considering the timing of it all, as I’d already once had the honor of making Ms. Lee’s acquaintance almost exactly ten years ago to the day. But I’ve learned better than to question the mystery, so, swallowing the surreality of it all, along with gobs of cherry pie washed down with coffee as black as midnight on a moonless night, I did my best to streamline a lifetime of thoughts/feelings about falling into a place called 'Twin Peaks' with a dreamer who did so with luminous abandon.

ScreenAnarchy: So, when was the last time you were here in town?

Sheryl Lee: Well, I was here briefly for The Return but I didn't get to really experience being here in all of these places.

I'm sure every TWIN PEAKS tourist has their go-to meaningful spot when they come to town. Mine is the picnic site from the pilot where Laura is hanging out with Donna and James. For me, that's one of the most significant places because that's where we see Laura alive and we see her joy. It's kind of the only time. Where does your mind go when you come back to town? Where do you want to go first? What gives you a chill?

Just to go sit in the forest with trees.

Just seeing the mountains and feeling the woods?

Yeah, but just really sitting in the forest. I haven’t really gotten to do that yet.

The last time I spoke to you ten years ago, I was curious how often you watch FIRE WALK WITH ME, because obviously it's a challenging thing for you to have to re-experience and you told me that the only thing that could get you to watch it again at that point, was to watch it with your child and to sort of walk them through that experience.

(Laughing) That answer has changed. I've told my son, “You can't ever watch it while I'm still living!” I did watch it before The Return to step back into that world.

For homework. That makes sense. And what was it like after distancing yourself and actively not watching it? How was your first rewatch?

It was interesting because I was watching it in a way, from a research perspective, because I wasn't just sitting at home thinking, ‘I am ready to watch that’. It was ‘I'm watching this for this reason of returning’, and so that's a bit of a different way of entering into it.

It was not a comfortable watch, and yet I'm such a fan of David's and all the artists that he works with in every department and all the other actors. That part of it was a wonderful delight! To be able to revisit all the other beautiful work in the show, all the other actors, just the range of all the other actors and you know, many of them are not living anymore as well, so, that part was hard.

At the Q&A after last night’s screening, one amazing thing you said is that returning to town, you have both your own memories, but you also have Laura's memories, to some extent. So, in coming back, do you feel like returning to the scene of a trauma at all?

No, because Laura is at peace now. That part of it is kind of like watching a past life...

You have a distance.

Yeah, and some of the memories are just more feelings, you know? Just how absolutely beautiful it is here, and the power and potency of the nature up here, you know, just the size of the leaves on the trees, just all of it, the falls and the rocks and there's a certain spirit or energy up here. As there is everywhere. Different places carry their own feeling and so to be able to land back in this feeling, this very specific feeling for me, from a time in my life is special.

Last night you were talking about how working with David Lynch allowed you to feel safe to explore dark places and it got me thinking about his film INLAND EMPIRE. I'm wondering if you had any reactions to that film considering it feels in some ways like a meditation on distressed damsels.

Well, first off, my memory is not what it used to be. So, you could ask me about almost any film, and unless I watched it again, I wouldn't remember specifically, unless it's one of the few films that I've seen a whole bunch of times. And the way that I watch films might be different from the way that someone else does. I'm not watching his work in terms of me being a part of any sort of category.

I'm watching him like I am listening to a great piece of music or looking at a painting and just feeling how it touches me and how it moves me. So, there's no comparison happening. There's just ‘This is an incredible artist. Wow, what is he doing? Wow. That is incredible. That's beautiful, that breaks my heart, that touches me, that I've never seen before, that is consciousness-expanding.’

How did watching THE RETURN make you feel?

I was absolutely in awe of him again, and all the other actors, again, just in awe of his vision and those who go along the ride with him. It's like there's no limit to what he does.

TWIN PEAKS is so meaningful to just so many people. How must it feel being the central figure of something that clearly people have such a heavy feeling toward and how has your relationship with that evolved over time?

That was a collaborative effort, meaning every single person that worked on that was part of that character, was part of the story. So, I don't have a sense of feeling like I'm in the center of anything.

I feel like we are all part of that circle, which also includes you all, which also includes the viewers, and the fans, because the life of that story has changed and grown and evolved over years and decades and continues to be a teacher for me in many ways, as I was sharing a bit last night, you know, just how the conversations with fans have changed over the decade, and what we're having conversations about in our world has changed.

Have you spent your entire life processing this thing that happened to you in 1989 through 1992?

Yes… But not necessarily directly. It's not that I'm always processing that character. That's been on and on, you know, one of many teachers in my life.

And now you are a teacher, teaching directors to direct actors.

Yes, Gary Hershberger and I teach together. I don't feel like what we do is teach directors to work with actors. I feel like our intention is to create a collaborative space where actors, directors and writers can come together, because I had worked with many first-time directors, they were new directors, and they'd come out of film school, and they had a really wonderful training.

They were intimidated by actors, and actors are sometimes scared of directors or shy of directors. So, we just wanted to create an understanding where people can come and workshop and grow together and also build a community. You know that sometimes the entertainment industry doesn't feel like the warmest, kindest place to artists.

Right. Not exactly the best reputation for non-exploitative behavior.

So, we wanted to say, well, you know, you can come here, and you can try stuff and meet people and hopefully feel safe.

Did playing Laura Palmer require a sort of reckless abandon? Have you come to discover a safer way to explore in that realm?

I had a lot of support. I mean David and all those actors were incredible. So even though the role was challenging, there are films that I've worked on that were not supportive. That's really hard to deal with. This was not that. This was a wonderfully supportive, collaborative, safe environment.

I guess the reason I wanted to talk about INLAND EMPIRE, whether you have a connection to it or not, is because I believe that Lynch is addressing this very topic in that film. So, while I wasn't saying it was about you specifically, he is the only filmmaker that I've experienced who has such a rich concept of what's required of an actor to descend, you know, to fall into a lost character. And I've been walking around town meditating over the last two days, and I've been thinking about falling in love, or falling in space (faster and faster), you know, and the fine line between the two.

Surrendering.

Yeah, exactly and I think what Lynch requires of his actors, which so few filmmakers are even wise enough to require, is falling into a state of poetic flow or… I don't know, how would you describe it?

Falling into trust, falling into surrender, falling into faith, falling into the unknown, falling into the mystery, falling into the question…

Smelling the blue rose? And the way Lynch talks about consciousness, of course, and meditation, he seems to devote his life to falling into that holy space-

At this point, the host of the Fire Walk With Me screenings apologetically interjects to escort Sheryl to the theater for the post-screening Q&A.

One last thing. I wanted to share this lovely photo I was looking at and thinking about while waiting for you to arrive. It’s a shot of an early-90s Parker Posey and Zoe Cassavetes hugging Gena Rowlands.

(Heavily) Oh yes… she was a great inspiration.