Ready for another Peak performance
You’re on the road with fellow cast members. What’s that like?
It’s one of the best parts. They’re such talented actors, and such warm, kind humans. And fun to be around, they all have such delicious senses of humour. We’ve known each other for three decades now.
There was a long time between the series. Was it difficult to get into the Laura Palmer headspace again?
In some ways it was as if no time had gone by, in others it was as if it was nine lives ago. It was very strange. That character was a part of my life for so long, the essence of her is very easy for me to get in touch with again. But it’s interesting, creatively, doing it 30 years later now that I’ve lived 30 years. I’m a mother now, I’m older, my perspective has broadened and widened. The thing that really gets me is that Laura’s story is a story on TV and in a movie, but in real life the statistics of how much this [sort of sexual abuse] is still happening even 30 years later, aren’t going down. It’s not getting any better. That’s the hard part to deal with.
Is is about the pain humans inflict on each other?
Twin Peaks
I recognise an element of truth in that. Twin Peaks is a very mysterious, complex, multidimensional world. It’s so many things. I certainly think that’s part of it. There’s also this amazing sense of humour that’s part of Twin Peaks, and the dream world, but there’s certainly something in there that mirrors back to us as humans. If there’s anything I’ve learned in 30 years, it’s gonna keep surprising us.
You have one of the most iconic screams in television history. What do you do to prepare for a scream like that? Does it shred your vocal chords?
There’s a way to scream that is less harmful. Usually one learns the hard way how to not do it . . .
Do you think there’s more story left?
I thought it was over after the four days I shot the pilot. Then there was more. I thought it was over after that, then I came back as Maddy. Then I thought it was over after Maddy but we did Fire Walk With Me. And I thought it was over, then we did The Return! So who knows? I don’t know.