Kyle MacLachlan reflects on his experience working on the set of Dune with director David Lynch. Dune is a sci-fi epic set in the distant future on a volatile desert planet, Arrakis, also known as "Dune". The story, based on the 1965 novel of the same name, follows the noble families of Arrakis as they fight for control of the planet's most valuable resource, Melange, a powerful psychoactive drug essential to space travel also known as "Spice". After a devastating betrayal by Emperor Shaddam IV, Paul Atreides (MacLachlan) fights back against the empire with the help of the native Arrakis population, who believe he is the messiah they have been waiting for.
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Lynch is a writer and director known for his surrealist style, and his filmography is described as dreamlike and often disturbing. He is best know for cult classic television series, Twin Peaks, as well as Oscar nominated films such as Mulholland Drive, Blue Velvet, and The Elephant Man. Lynch's eccentricity and his peculiar sense of humor resonates throughout all of his work. His films encourage audiences to take a closer look at the underbelly of polite society and the absurdities that hold daily life together. Dune is Lynch's third feature film and MacLachlan's first major role.
MacLachlan and Lynch maintained their working relationship long after they finished working on Dune, with MacLachlan starring in both Blue Velvet and Twin Peaks. In an interview with AV Club, MacLachlan reflects fondly on the start of their relationship and how Lynch inspired confidence in him while he was auditioning for Dune. The actor states that he does not pretend to understand everything that Lynch does, but nevertheless he trusts him as a director. MacLachlan recalls being around 22 years old and completely out of his comfort zone when Lynch pulled him aside and helped him reset before trying the monologue again. Read the full quote below:
"There’s still the large chunks of data that I don’t understand, and I don’t need to understand, honestly. His movies are experiential, really, and they ask a lot of questions, but there are not a lot of answers provided. But I do remember when I auditioned for the first time for Dune, and I was quite young—I was 22 or 23, and I’d never worked in front of a camera before. And there was this particular scene where I had to address the Fremen, and it’s in the movie and I exhort them along with the fighters and I needed to talk directly to camera for this particular audition, which is an unusual thing to do as an actor and kind of challenging. Anyway, so I started and I think I failed a couple of times and I was getting a little frustrated. And I remember David just came up to me and I said, David, I don’t really know if I can do this. I’m not sure. He wasn’t calling me “Kale” yet, but he said, “Kyle, I know you can do this. You got this. Just relax, breathe. Take your time.” And he just said all the right things that kind of chilled me down. He recognized immediately what I needed as an actor."
MacLachlan & Lynch Are Longtime Collaborators
Fans of Lynch's work recognize that sometimes exploring deeper into his films leads to more questions than answers. MacLachlan offers the insight that even from his position, he does not fully understand every aspect of Lynch's films. The actor states that Lynch is a very controlled director who knows exactly what he wants to show the audience. MacLachlan mentions efforts to not over intellectualize his scripts, but rather to trust the mood and feeling conveyed by Lynch. Having worked together extensively by this point, MacLachlan follows Lynch's direction intuitively with an unspoken understanding.
Lynch has since distanced himself from Dune due to the negative press it received at the time and the feeling that he was selling out with the theatrical cut of the film. However, the director continued to work with MacLachlan casting him as the lead in Blue Velvet just two years later. MacLachlan has had a successful career since, crediting Lynch for giving him his big break. The trust that Lynch fosters on set allows for his actors to create vulnerable and powerful scenes that stick with viewers long after the credits.