SDCC 2017: 10 Things We Learned From The Twin Peaks Panel
8. At Least One Cast Member Has Never Watched The Original Show
If you haven’t watched the original series of Twin Peaks, then have you ever really lived? This is one question that we suspect Matthew Lillard, a new addition to the cast, is asking himself repeatedly while rocking back and forth in the corner of a room, with his head in his hands.
That’s because, believe it or not, the veteran character actor – who plays twitchy-eyed high school principal Bill Hastings in Showtime’s revival of the show – has never watched the original series, meaning that he is completely bewildered by this season’s episodes.
Speaking at the panel last week, Lillard joked that he planned to watch the original series that night, before explaining what it was like to join the Twin Peaks cast as an outsider:
“I think it’s weird. Anyone else? If you’re not a Twin Peaks dude, you come in it’s a little strange. […] [David Lynch’s] casting process is very interesting. They put a video camera on your face and you just talk about life in general. Then they invite the actor to come over and read pages.”
He then addressed the highly secretive nature of the production, admitting that the cast were mostly kept in the dark, with the pages of the full script being protected by the same security as the Twin Peaks Savings and Loan bank vault, but his pages were still some of the “scariest” he has ever read:
“I got to this scene in episode 9. […] In the middle, the character breaks down hysterically, sobbing. And you sort of know, being a fan of David’s movies and shows, what that looks like. It was intimidating. In his world, you get two takes. So you want to be really good really fast.”