Whatever happened to Laura Palmer?
SHE shot to global fame as the murder victim who was “wrapped in plastic” in television series Twin Peaks. Three decades later, where is actor Sheryl Lee today?
Stellar
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THE question: “What year is this?” The answer: a 10-second bloodcurdling scream delivered by one of the most famous yet enigmatic characters in TV history.
When Twin Peaks: The Return came to a halt last September, capping a comeback legions of fans had long desired but hardly expected, the heroine at its heart, Laura Palmer, was once again a victim: of circumstance, of time, of creator David Lynch’s maddening refusal to clear up a mystery. What else was there to do but scream?
Actor Sheryl Lee, who has played Laura Palmer across the series and in its 1992 film prequel Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me, tells Stellar that stepping back into the role was just as discombobulating. “It felt like time was circling back on itself,” she says. “My real experience [filming those new episodes] was completely non-linear. It took me to places I hadn’t gone before.”
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Twin Peaks did the same to television viewers when it arrived in 1990, upending the conventional primetime drama model in favour of something wholly original. It also made a star of Lee, an unknown tapped by Lynch to portray Palmer, whose unsolved murder — her body was famously discovered wrapped in plastic in the series’ first episode — was the red herring at the centre of a show that became a cult phenomenon.
Lee was 22 when the series premiered; today, at 51, spying Laura Palmer’s iconic prom photo sparks less of a nostalgic jolt than a blank stare. “It’s almost as if it’s not me, as if it’s a friend I knew long ago. It’s just such a completely different life.”
Last year’s reboot was scrutinised endlessly by keyboard warriors and ardent fanboys; when asked to imagine the first go-round of Twin Peaks under the shadow of the internet, Lee answers quickly: “I could not have handled it. I look at what social media has done to the business, to the art of acting... I wouldn’t have made it. Even in the early ’90s it felt like getting on a roller-coaster. But one that was in the dark.”
Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me put Laura Palmer’s origin story into far darker context than the series — she used drugs, suffered psychological trauma and had been sexually assaulted and abused by her father. Up until then, Lee had little-to-no exposure to film sets.
“So I had nothing to compare it to, there was no way for me to know what shoots or directors were normally like,” she says, before pointing out that Lynch and the crew were “an incredible, supportive, creative, collaborative group of people. That was really my school.”
The subject matter, on the other hand, still haunts her — more so in the era of #MeToo. “Laura’s life was so brutal — and I know it sometimes reflected back pain or hit a nerve in viewers,” acknowledges Lee. “The thing that is so devastating to me is how much it happens in real life. The statistics enrage me.”
Lee has never stopped working — millennials know her from TV’s One Tree Hill, while Gen X movie fans also want to talk to her about 1994’s Backbeat, a biopic chronicling the early years of The Beatles.
Four years ago, it was reported she had nearly gone broke and couldn’t land jobs owing to a rare blood disorder. Asked how her health is now, Lee — who has a son, 18-year-old Elijah, with ex-husband Jesse Diamond (son of pop legend Neil) and lives in the LA area with her “four-legged daughter” Sochi, a German shepherd — answers with a laugh.
“Well, there are two things I’d like to say about that. First, it was a very disrespectful, sloppy, untrue, misquoted article. And unfortunately, people don’t fact-check anymore. I don’t know who started that or why it seems to be OK. It doesn’t matter if it’s true — just get it out there. That’s what matters most.
“The second part, though, is that I am 51 now. Lives have ups and downs and challenges. Some are emotional, some involve health, some are spiritual. And I did have a health challenge. It’s still in my life but I work with and manage it. I’m grateful to be where I am now. I’m listening and learning.”
Lee and a few of her co-stars will arrive in Australia at the end of this winter for a national “in conversation” tour that will include meet-and-greets with fans. She isn’t bothered when asked to talk about Laura Palmer at length.
“In all honesty,” she reveals, “it doesn’t really come up that often in my life. But when it does, I love David and the work so much that I don’t mind. I always knew how special it was, but 30 years [later] we had so much of the same crew and I appreciated it even more. As we age, things just deepen.”
As for another go at Twin Peaks — what year was it, anyway? — Lee is fine either way. “Oh, my word. To me, everything in life is up to fate’s hands. I know nothing about anything! And that’s in every area of my life.”
Twin Peaks: Conversation With The Stars begins in Melbourne on Saturday, August 25; for tickets visit drwe.com.au.