Kyle MacLachlan credits late David Lynch for his 'Twin Peaks' personae

Kyle MacLachlan recently opened up about taking inspiration straight from the late director David Lynch himself to shape Dale Cooper in Twin Peaks.

During a Q&A session at the FBI Film on Film Festival on Sunday night, June 15 after a special 35mm screening of the Twin Peaks pilot, the 66-year-old American actor admitted he “borrowed some mannerisms” from Lynch while creating the character of Cooper.

MacLachlan revealed, “I didn’t really study an FBI agent or anything like that, I kind of just created my own version. But I did borrow from David a bit, I borrowed some of his mannerisms.”

He added, “He has great enthusiasm for certain things, you know? Trees and coffee, of course, and pie. Some of the things that he just loved. And he’s so childlike in his wonder of these things, and I wanted to have a little bit of that in Cooper.”

The Blue Velvet star went on to give credit to Lynch, who passed away on January 16, 2025, at the age of 78 years, for giving him his first movie role as the lead in the 1984 film Dune.

In 1984, they collaborated again to work together on Blue Velvet and Twin Peaks afterwards and the Lost Highway director gave MacLachlan the nickname “Kale.”

“He always had confidence in me, even when I was uncertain,” he remarked, referring to his first-ever screen test for Dune.

“I lost my focus and kind of put my head down and said, ‘I don’t know if I can do this.’ And he came up to me and said, ‘Kale, you’re going to be great,’” the Fallout actor recalled.

“You got this. Take a minute, start when you want.’ I’m like, ‘OK.’ Something about him and just absolute belief. And I finished the scene and got cast in ‘Dune,’ and that started our relationship,” he said.

It is pertinent to mention that Kyle MacLachlan and David Lynch also returned to the third season of Twin Peaks in 2017.