By KYLE MACLACHLAN (Penguin Random House; 2026)
For David Lynch fans this memoir, written by one of his most important collaborators, is required reading. FICTIONAL SELVES also happens to be a terrific book: engrossing and gossipy enough to satisfy enquiring minds, but with a likeable and heartfelt air that bespeaks a life well lived.
Kyle MacLachlan is a veteran actor who’s worked extensively with David Lynch, and the connection goes much deeper than mere professional admiration. It was Lynch who jump-started MacLachlan’s film career by casting him in DUNE (1984), and the two hit it off so well that MacLachlan was chosen to headline Lynch’s BLUE VELVET (1986). Neither film did much for MacLachlan’s Hollywood standing, but the Lynch created TWIN PEAKS (1990-91), in which McLachlan starred as FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper, boosted his celebrity status greatly. He and Lynch had a falling out during TWIN PEAKS’ second season, and on the 1992 spin-off movie TWIN PEAKS: FIRE WALK WITH ME (in which MacLachlan’s screen time was greatly reduced), but patched up their differences by the late 2010s, when TWIN PEAKS: THE RETURN (2017) was made.
MacLachlan, writing in present-tense prose that’s often broken up by arguments with his doppelganger “Other Kyle” (“is he even real, and holy mackerel, am I? Or am I just a character too?”), offers plenty of unheard (by me) stories about the making of these projects. He claims he was forced to sign a contract for five DUNE movies and three non-DUNE related projects for Dino de Laurentiis, a contract that, needless to say, was nullified after DUNE’s unimpressive box office takings. MacLachlan also alleges that many of BLUE VELVET’s most memorable elements, such as the “duck walk” he does early on in the film and Dean Stockwell’s lip-synching of Roy Orbison’s “In Dreams,” were spur-of-the-moment additions, and that Lynch checked out entirely during season two of TWIN PEAKS, allowing the show to fall prey to network interference and degenerate into irrelevance, with the nastiness of FIRE WALK WITH ME being due, apparently, to Lynch taking out his frustrations on TWIN PEAKS’ major figurehead Laura Palmer (Sheryl Lee).
MacLachlan’s roles in non-David Lynch affiliated films like THE DOORS (1991) and SHOWGIRLS (1995), upon which he clashed with those films’ directors Oliver Stone and Paul Verhoeven, are covered, as are his parts in TV series like SEX AND THE CITY (1998-2004) and DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES (2004-2012). He also details his childhood in Yakima, Washington (not far from where Lynch grew up), his early years as a theater performer and his introduction to film acting, which he describes this way: “It’s not even like I break into movies, it’s as though the movies break through my quiet world and land directly on top of me.” For good measure, McLachlan provides some (though not too much) dirt on his high-profile love affairs with BLUE VELVET’s Laura Dern, TWIN PEAKS’ Lara Flynn Boyle and supermodel Linda Evangelista, and laments the roles he missed out on in high profilers like PLATOON and TOP GUN (both 1986).
Throughout, Maclachlan assumes an appealingly humble and self-effacing tone, owning up to his many mistakes and admitting his career has been a charmed one (“lottery-like” is how he sums up his fortunes). In short, MacLachlan, despite the oft-rude interjections of Other Kyle, comes off as something quite rare in present-day Hollywood: a genuinely good guy.