Kyle MacLachlan, 66, was born in Yakima, Washington, in 1959. He gave up dreams of becoming a professional golfer, studied drama at the University of Washington, and was hired by David Lynch for his 1984 film Dune. Lynch then made him a star with Blue Velvet (1986) and Twin Peaks, which began in 1990, and he has worked almost constantly since, often playing nice guys in a dark world. MacLachlan lives between Los Angeles and New York with his producer wife Desiree Gruber. In Prime Video’s post-apocalypse drama Fallout he plays the overseer of a fallout bunker styled as an idyllic 1950s suburb who is kidnapped by raiders. It returns for a second season on 17 December.
Someone said you play decent guys with timeshares in the netherworld. Fallout starts off like that and then you screech off the road.
It’s a David Lynch thing. David was quintessentially a 50s guy. Many of his references and some of his trademark expressions, like “peachy keen” and “bee’s knees”, came from that era. In season one we establish this slightly off version of a 50s universe that I think David would have felt right at home in. [My character] Hank is a 50s dad, the world’s a great place, things are going to be OK. But it’s a façade and we see that unravel. Now we’re getting to the heart of the matter, which is, what do we do to survive?
Since Lynch died in January, you’ve been talking and writing about him a lot. Are you carrying his torch?
I’ve been strongly connected to David since Dune, when we became friends. David was not fond of speaking about his work, and I am a people pleaser, so I found myself compelled to answer the questions. It wasn’t my place, but I didn’t have the courage to not talk for him. I think folk wanted to express their profound loss to people from his inner group, including Laura Dern and Naomi Watts, so we became the recipients of the love and appreciation that people weren’t able to tell David. I wish he were here to experience it.
Was part of that bond because Lynch understood the Pacific Northwest?
I grew up in a small town on the eastern side of Washington state. I’d spend summer weekends out with my friends, riding bikes, exploring. We had these “we can do anything” attitudes: we could be whatever we wanted to be. You wanted to go fishing? You grab your fishing poles, jumped your bike, got your friends, and found a river. “Anything is possible” becomes how you think about everything, so I warm to people in the industry like that.
Before acting, you were choosing between business, classical singing and golf. What steered your decision?
Acting was something I enjoyed in school so I rejected it, because there’s no way. It’s a hobby, right? At university I realised actors were my tribe, but I didn’t know how make that into something. I was doing a three-year repertory theatre training programme and Dune happened. I thought someone was prank-calling me initially. I did wonder how they knew I loved the [Frank Herbert] book. I auditioned in a Seattle hotel and based on that audition tape, they flew me to Los Angeles, I met David, and it started. But they found me. I was in total obscurity.
And Lynch set you on the road to playing dark men in offbeat environments?
To some degree. Twin Peaks was such a mindblowing experience for what was possible on television. You have all these young creatives, Michael Patrick King for Sex and the City, Marc Cherry for Desperate Housewives, and it really affected their work. When the idea for a character comes up, they’re like, let’s get Kyle, because he does the odd, mysterious guy with secrets. For me that’s a job opportunity. This was not a plan. I just happen along.
As we can see from both of those shows, you’re also comfortable in a female universe…
It’s my mother. She was very influential and responsible for me doing what I’m doing now. She ran a youth theatre, saw something in me and encouraged it. She wasn’t a stage mother by any means, but we became partners in this.
How was your relationship with your dad [MacLachlan’s parents split up when he was in high school]?
I always thought: I’m my dad’s son, I’m athletic, I play golf and blah, blah, blah. But [my mother] knew all along that this is where I was going to end up.
Did she get to celebrate your career with you?
She passed away in 1986, but I think she had a sense of it. She was so excited for me with Dune. She and her husband came to visit me at Ashland when I worked for the Shakespeare festival, and she was there when I was in an apprenticeship programme at the State Theatre Playhouse in North Carolina.
So it must have been tough when she passed.
I remember having to say goodbye to her with my two brothers. It was a complicated moment. Losing her was really hard. There are so many other things that I know she would have really enjoyed – her meeting her grandchildren and them experiencing the incredible person she was. It’s the whole thing about the cycle of families. To understand your parents or yourself, you have to go back through the previous generation.
Any regrets? Like Showgirls?
While making it I thought the team were good, I thought the choreography was brilliant. I saw the finished project, and [I felt] I’d got it wrong. But it’s grown on me. All you can do is your best.
You’ve developed a gen Z following on social media by recreating Lorde, Chappell Roan, Charli XCX. What gives?
I have always been curious about social media. But the angle has always been one of fun. It’s a place where I can play and let a very silly side out. Working with my wife and her company Full Picture and some of the brilliant young junior creatives that have their finger on the pulse, we’ve started posting together. Their influence, my ideas, their ideas in a crucible of “what ifs”. My son is the final arbiter. If he says it’s cringey, then I failed.
Season two of Fallout is available on Prime Video from 17 December
Photograph by Mat Hayward/Getty Images