Real reason Kyle MacLachlan rejected a role in Sex and the City reboot, And Just Like That
Kyle MacLachlan has revealed why Twin Peaks will never return and the reason he refused a role in Sex and the City reboot, And Just Like That.
When it comes to ordering a coffee, Starbucks is Kyle MacLachlan’s safe space.
At more gourmet establishments, the actor is customarily met with a knowing nod and a wink, and often finds a cheeky message scrawled onto his takeout cup.
“Damn fine coffee” it usually reads, referencing the common catchphrase uttered by his character Dale Cooper on Twin Peaks, the beloved cult television series that aired from 1990 to 1991 and again in 2017, and has proven to have by far the longest tail of any project in his four-decade screen career.
“But everyone is pretty cool about it,” he tells Stellar nonchalantly, with the grace of a man who has learnt to embrace the ardour of fans.
“In those places they want to say: ‘I know who you are’ without saying it out loud.”
Indeed, the 66-year-old isn’t one to get frustrated when asked to revisit his famous screen roles, which is fortunate given he has more than a few that have stood the test of time.
He’s particularly accustomed to questions from Twin Peaks fans about the show’s enigmatic and ultimately unsolvable meaning.
And since the death of its creator David Lynch in January, MacLachlan doubts he will ever be able to give them any kind of closure.
“It’s a nice idea that it could possibly come back,” he offers thoughtfully when Stellar asks if he could conceive of somebody else rebooting the franchise.
“But no, I feel that without our creator guiding us, it will never work. So we are left with what we have. And thank God we had a second go, and The Return [the 18-episode limited event series that aired in 2017] was able to happen, and was just really a gift for David – and a gift for me.”
Listen to a new episode of the Stellar podcast Something To Talk About below:
Although he misses his friend, MacLachlan says he feels Lynch’s influence everywhere, including on his latest project, Fallout. “That’s the beauty of who he is,” MacLachlan says, before pausing to correct himself.
“Or who he was. That impact, the surreal quality of the work that David did, is felt all over the place, certainly in Fallout. I mean, there are situations in there that are really unexpected and frightening. Surreal is a great word. He’s definitely had an imprint there.”
Much like Dune – his first collaboration with Lynch, a divisive 1984 take on Frank Herbert’s novel that hit cinemas decades before the more recent series helmed by Denis Villeneuve – Fallout takes place in a harsh new reality where warring factions are engaged in a bloodthirsty battle for survival.
Having been revealed as the mastermind behind the catastrophe, MacLachlan gets to fully embrace his arc as villainous Hank MacLean now the show is returning for a second season.
“The key to any bad guy is creating the character in such a way that they actually believe what they’re doing is helpful,” he says of playing men like Hank, Blue Velvet’s Jeffrey Beaumont and Paul Atreides in Dune.
“That’s the scary part: they’re committed to something that’s ultimately not right. And in Hank’s case, he’s driven to do the bidding of the company.”
MacLachlan has consistently been drawn to projects that many would consider to be niche or art house. And the dawn of the streaming age has provided far more opportunities for less mainstream stories to be told, with MacLachlan citing Benito Skinner’s biographical comedy series Overcompensating and the neo-noir drama The Lowdown as examples of the diverse storytelling he has worked on this year in addition to Fallout.
“It’s a wonderful time to be working as an actor, because there are so many different experiences and audiences have so many different shows that are able to be made,” he points out.
Thanks to streaming, new generations of viewers are also discovering his impressive back catalogue, which includes Desperate Housewives and How I Met Your Mother.
And in recent years, the 1995 movie Showgirls – which was a critical and commercial bomb at the box office – has been re-evaluated and embraced as a camp classic that was misinterpreted on its original release.
Then there’s the Sex And The City franchise, which was briefly brought out of retirement – albeit without his involvement – for the three-season reboot And Just Like That …
MacLachlan declined an offer to film a cameo as Trey MacDougal, the former husband of Charlotte (Kristin Davis).
As he explains to Stellar, “I felt that the Trey-Charlotte relationship merited more, particularly the way they ended it.
“And I said, ‘If these characters were to come back together again’ – and now there’s not an opportunity for that – ‘it should be something that has a deeper resonance and a deeper impact.’
“And that, sadly, was not what was presented to me in the one time that there was an opportunity.
“I just said, ‘This is doing a disservice to these characters.’ I felt it was not right, but I said I would welcome an opportunity to come back in a fuller, richer way, because I did enjoy that relationship.”
MacLachlan did eventually reunite with Davis as a guest on her podcast Are You A Charlotte?, and a TikTok video of the pair went viral last month.
Endlessly curious about social media, the actor keeps followers entertained via his popular Instagram account, and is getting some expert tutelage from the likes of Kaia Gerber and Dylan O’Brien on his own podcast What Are We Even Doing?
As for other guests on his radar, he tells Stellar: “I would be interested to talk to Jacob Elordi or Julia Garner … any young actors.
“But I’ve been able to mix it up with musicians, comedians, entrepreneurs as well – the whole gamut of people that are now so facile with social media and telling their story online, which didn’t exist when I was a youngster.”
Fallout season 2 premieres on Wednesday on Prime Video, with new episodes dropping weekly.
Originally published as Real reason Kyle MacLachlan rejected a role in Sex and the City reboot, And Just Like That
