Kyle MacLachlan Reflects on David Lynch, 'Blue Velvet', and His Acting Career in New Memoir

This trait – of being grounded, of maintaining distance from fame’s seductions – pervades the memoir. It is refreshingly free of self-mythologising. Instead, MacLachlan writes about his self-doubt, his tendency to people-please and tamp down on his emotions, and his “very strong inner critic”, who is rendered on the page as “Other Kyle” – a kind of ego-driven doppelganger who pops up throughout the memoir as a foil. He’s open about his romantic relationships (he dated his co-stars Laura Dern and Lara Flynn Boyle, as well as supermodel Linda Evangelista, among others) in a way that feels more about holding his younger self accountable for his actions than an exercise in vanity.

That’s not to say the book is without Hollywood gossip. Some of the dishiest parts of Fictional Selves are his recollections about the movies he wasn’t cast in – either because another actor won the part (Top Gun, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, The Matrix) or because he turned down the role and later regretted it (Platoon, Sex, Lies and Videotape). Those curious about how he ended up starring in the notorious erotic drama Showgirls (1995) – and what it was like being dragged through critical hell in the aftermath – will not be disappointed.

Then there’s his television work: as Dale Cooper in Twin Peaks, and later as Cooper’s multiple doppelgangers in Twin Peaks: The Return, his scene-stealing turns in Desperate Housewives, Portlandia and Sex and the City, and what he refers to in the book as “a long line of ‘doctors with issues’” in Law & Order: SVU, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D and others.

Of all the roles he’s played, MacLachlan knows he’ll probably be remembered best as Twin Peaks’ coffee-drinking, cherry pie-loving FBI agent, whose idealism in the face of darkness is his defining character trait. In his memoir, MacLachlan writes that Cooper’s optimism is “a choice, not a result of naivete”. Is that true for him too?

“I think it is,” he says. “As I’ve gotten older, as I’ve matured, my sense of gratitude has expanded – for the career I’ve had, for the relationships I’ve had, for my marriage. I’ve always tried to lead with love. I was embarrassed about it when I was younger, because it seems so – I don’t know – almost childlike. But the older I get, the more I realise we should make the best of the time we have. There’s a lot more that I want to do and have to do. So, yeah, optimism is a choice.”

He seems to be leaning into this sense of optimism. Online, he’s connected with a new generation of fans through his Instagram and TikTok accounts, where he posts goofy skits and executes knowing, self-aware memes – a playful antidote to the relentless onslaught of bad news, bad takes and AI slop that he’s clearly having enormous fun with. He’s also launched a podcast called What Are We Even Doing?, where he sits down with Gen Z actors, musicians and comedians for a cross-generational discussion about life in the entertainment industry.