David’s Q&A with Kyle

Both actors are expected to be nominated for the Prime time Emmy Awards for their performances in ‘Stranger Things’ and ‘Twin Peaks’

David Harbour and Kyle Maclachlan both know a few things about being on cult shows — with Harbour’s breakthrough performance on Stranger Things, and Maclachlan’s return to his role on Twin Peaks. Both actors are expected to be nominated for the upcoming Prime time

Emmy Awards for their performances.

David Harbour (DH): I’m sure you get asked this all the time, but I really do want to know. You met David Lynch on Dune. Did you audition for that role?

Kyle Maclachlan (KM): No, David doesn’t audition. I met, and we had a conversation for about 20 minutes. He handed me the script and said, “I want you to come back in four or five days and screen test.” I’d never screentested before. I’d never read a movie script. I was 23. Fresh out of school, and they found me in Seattle.

DH: So you meet him on that movie, and then you have a collaboration for basically 30 years, right? Did you become friends on Dune?

KM: Yeah, pretty much out of the gate. We hit it off. We’re both from the same part of the country, similar senses of humour. Not dissimilar upbringings: suburban, small town, running around with your friends who are kids, jumping on your bike, getting into trouble, going to orchards, and that kind of thing. A little bit like the setting for Stranger Things.

DH: So now, when you guys work together, you come back, and you do Twin Peaks again, is it just like complete shorthand? Did you stay in touch through all those years while you didn’t work together?

KM: Oh, yeah. We’re neighbours in L.A. Now the working relationship, as you can imagine, is incredibly comfortable. There is a shorthand that existed even in the first show. Even in Blue Velvet, we were already developing that, just an understanding of his point of view. Being able to immerse myself in that world, it’s quick and easy for me now. The challenge for this one was there were three or four or five different characters that he wanted me to do. Of course, as an actor, you’re always saying, “Geez, I hope I can bring it.” I don’t know if you have that experience.

DH: Yes, I do. The neurosis of, “Can I bring it?” Oh, god, yeah. You’re telling me that never ends?

KM: No, it never ends. You make it look easy. Especially your work in Stranger Things, it’s just extraordinary. You carry such power, such presence in that role. You’re the rock of that show. It’s really impressive.

DH: Thanks. I work really hard on it. People think that I’ve just been discovered, but I’ve been working for a long time. I sort of got to a certain place in my Hollywood career where I was a supporting player in all these big things. I would show up number six or seven on the call sheet, and just run around with a gun. Be a cop who was kind of a bad guy or something. I remember getting this role, and being like, “I have to really go to work in a different way than I ever have”. It was a lot of time spent in my particular process, which is very quiet and very uncomfortable and a lot of sitting alone in a room.

KM: That’s your preparation?

DH: Yeah. I do a lot of sort of American Method, like Strasbergtype stuff, sense memory and stuff like that. Even in terms of arching the role, there’s a lot of stuff that you don’t see. They’re just secrets for me, just in terms of scenes. Just creating some sort of creative garden, so when you’re lost in a scene, you at least have these flowers or things you can smell, things you can taste as you play a scene. I am proud of the performance, in a way that I am rarely proud of my work. You’ve come back to this role after 25 years. What were the particular challenges that you faced in terms of reinventing this guy?

KM: It took some time. The return to Cooper didn’t actually happen until way late in the series. Which was sort of good, because I didn’t know if I was really going to be able to get back to him. It’s not like you can pull him out and stand in front of a mirror and do him. You have to be him in that moment, in that relationship. When we finally got there in hour 16, I was very pleased. I was like, “Yeah, OK.

He’s been there the whole time”, which was great. The other characters that David asked me to play were frightening, challenging. It was a personality change that happened. I kind of just took my hands off the wheel and let it go. It actually went the right direction, I think.

DH: I’m curious about this, too, because there’s such a style to the acting. It has a dream-like quality to it. Will he come in and say, “I want this to be a little bigger?”

KM: Words that he uses will be like, “I need more of a wind”. Or, “More mystery here”. One of my favourites is, “Elvis. Think Elvis”. I love that. As an actor, I just love that, because it just gives you a whole kind of ball of stuff that you can work with there. It’s not cerebral. You can’t suddenly start thinking, “Elvis! What does he mean by Elvis? Oh, it could be this”. You have to take the pills, swallow the pill, breathe in the gas or whatever. Just go with it. So with Stranger Things you read the script, it’s really compelling, but did you have any kind of hesitation? Were you uncertain about the character or the world? Were they able to explain to you what was going to happen?

DH: It was just my own insecurity and neurosis that was the biggest hurdle to overcome. When I read the script, I thought it was a masterpiece. It was a time when I wasn’t working for three or four months. I had just come off a series that wasn’t very good, and I just remember thinking, “I’m sort of done. I’ll work a little bit, but I’ll go back to New York and do plays”. And my manager said, “[Casting director] Carmen Cuba is really interested in you for this series.” I was like, “Whatever”. You hear that all the time. Then they sent me the script. It was the male lead in a Netflix series, and I thought, “They’ll certainly go with a star or something”. So I read for it as kind of a joke. I never thought it was really going to happen. When it happened, I got really scared.

KM: The show, I think, is so much about various levels of pain and loss. As an actor, you welcome these opportunities, but at the same time, you’re like, “Oh, man. Now I’ve got to carry this. Now, I’ve got to feel this. Every time I come to work”.

DH: The second season was easier, because, in the sense, he opens up a little, too. The first season was the most miserable time in my life. It was sort of the greatest time in my life, too, but I just wanted to work on it so hard.

I was like, “You got a shot at the pro ball here. Why not sacrifice six months of your life to have something resonate deeply if possible”. We went down to Atlanta to shoot it, and I had very little interaction with anyone.

I just would sit in my house and be very depressed.when we wrapped, I drove back from Atlanta to New York with my friend. It was the oddest thing.

I’m normally a loquacious, fun person. I got in that car with my friend, and I couldn’t even talk.

You’re sort of the OG of the cult TV show, aren’t you? Before Twin Peaks came along, I didn’t feel like this phenomena of cult, strange, followers was around.

KM: I think there were popular shows, but I think with both of our shows, I equate “cult” with “passion”. I think that if it’s a cult show, it’s that people are really passionate. About everything about the show: the characters, their lives. They’re so engaged, and they’re so involved. – Variety

Stranger Things is streaming on Netflix.