Sherilyn Fenn - new AV Club interview

[bosguy1981]

Check out this new interview with Sherilyn Fenn:
http://www.avclub.com/article/sherilyn- ... aks-200898

Very long interview where she seems to review almost every film and TV project I can remember her being in (and then some!) She speaks a lot about Twin Peaks (the pilot, the cherry stem, Kyle & Lara, Billy Zane, etc.) and also speaks more about FWWM than I think I've seen in other interviews.

Most interesting is she says she was set to participate in the movie at first, and then had to drop out because of scheduling and other unspecified issues.

The entire interview is worth reading, but here's an excerpt I found interesting to read about missing FWWM:

I was just doing Of Mice And Men. David was mad at me. I was going to do it. I was set to do it! I was like, “What am I supposed to do?” And then they were going to have me do it in between that and whatever I was going to do next, but he wanted my hair to be cut, and there was this stupid thing where… [Dismissively.] Really, if they’d really wanted me, they could’ve figured it out. Not that they didn’t really want me to do it, but productions like to have you and just you, you know what I mean? The dates were completely conflicting, because I was supposed to be in Santa Ynez filming Of Mice And Men for eight weeks, so… that’s what happened.

[Agent Sam Stanley]

Read this yesterday.

I really like Sherilyn, she seems very centered and has a very strong personality. I dig that.
Although she does seem a little bit bitter about things from the past (Lara Flynn Boyle, FWWM "if they'd really wanted me...")

But I guess it's understandable.
Great interview.

[GeekBoyEric74]

Read this yesterday.

I really like Sherilyn, she seems very centered and has a very strong personality. I dig that.
Although she does seem a little bit bitter about things from the past (Lara Flynn Boyle, FWWM "if they'd really wanted me...")

But I guess it's understandable.
Great interview.

I think it's funny they wanted her to cut her hair, because Norma has totally short hair in the movie, and then in the pilot, it's really long. So it's not like they were that adherent to hair continuity. If Audrey had long hair, you could at least theorize that she cut her hair right before the events of the pilot...but how did Norma's hair get so long?? I have always wondered just what Audrey would have done if she'd been in the movie, considering she wasn't close to Laura.

[Agent Sam Stanley]

Read this yesterday.

I really like Sherilyn, she seems very centered and has a very strong personality. I dig that.
Although she does seem a little bit bitter about things from the past (Lara Flynn Boyle, FWWM "if they'd really wanted me...")

But I guess it's understandable.
Great interview.

I think it's funny they wanted her to cut her hair, because Norma has totally short hair in the movie, and then in the pilot, it's really long. So it's not like they were that adherent to hair continuity. If Audrey had long hair, you could at least theorize that she cut her hair right before the events of the pilot...but how did Norma's hair get so long?? I have always wondered just what Audrey would have done if she'd been in the movie, considering she wasn't close to Laura.

Not to mention Audrey's hair changes a lot from the pilot to Episode 1.

And like you said, considering Audrey wasn't that close to Laura, I figured her part would be too small to be worth it. I think she made the right decision.

As for Kyle & Lara killing the Audrey & Cooper relationship, seriously, I can't even look at Kyle the same way after I read about this...
The guy was the star of the show and he helped his spoiled girlfriend to kill it. And let's not forget he owes pretty much everything he is to David Lynch. That was really nasty.

[bosguy1981]

I think it's funny they wanted her to cut her hair, because Norma has totally short hair in the movie, and then in the pilot, it's really long. So it's not like they were that adherent to hair continuity. If Audrey had long hair, you could at least theorize that she cut her hair right before the events of the pilot...but how did Norma's hair get so long?? I have always wondered just what Audrey would have done if she'd been in the movie, considering she wasn't close to Laura.

Norma's short hair in FWWM is definitely kind of annoying. Why not just pay for some convincing hair extensions? Same for Audrey... they could have given her a short wig, no?

I'm also curious to know more about what the plans for Audrey may have been. I want to know what Sherilyn was going to say next... "and there was this stupid thing where… [Dismissively.]" Something about the scenes for Audrey was stupid, or...?

Has anybody ever had the chance to ask Sherilyn (at the Fest or something) what Audrey's role in FWWM would have been? Wish somebody would ask while she still remembers.

[GeekBoyEric74]

I think it's funny they wanted her to cut her hair, because Norma has totally short hair in the movie, and then in the pilot, it's really long. So it's not like they were that adherent to hair continuity. If Audrey had long hair, you could at least theorize that she cut her hair right before the events of the pilot...but how did Norma's hair get so long?? I have always wondered just what Audrey would have done if she'd been in the movie, considering she wasn't close to Laura.

Norma's short hair in FWWM is definitely kind of annoying. Why not just pay for some convincing hair extensions? Same for Audrey... they could have given her a short wig, no?

I'm also curious to know more about what the plans for Audrey may have been. I want to know what Sherilyn was going to say next... "and there was this stupid thing where… [Dismissively.]" Something about the scenes for Audrey was stupid, or...?

Has anybody ever had the chance to ask Sherilyn (at the Fest or something) what Audrey's role in FWWM would have been? Wish somebody would ask while she still remembers.

Even when the show was airing, my friends and I used to joke about how Twin Peaks was ahead of the rest of the country when it came to getting hair extensions. Donna between seasons 1 and 2 was the worst culprit.

[Jasper]

I'm also curious to know more about what the plans for Audrey may have been. I want to know what Sherilyn was going to say next... "and there was this stupid thing where… [Dismissively.]" Something about the scenes for Audrey was stupid, or...?

I think in the past she's mentioned being upset about the direction the show took in the second season, and that having an impact on her lack of desire to be in FWWM. Maybe that's what she was going to say.

As for Kyle & Lara killing the Audrey & Cooper relationship, seriously, I can't even look at Kyle the same way after I read about this...
The guy was the star of the show and he helped his spoiled girlfriend to kill it. And let's not forget he owns pretty much everything he is to David Lynch. That was really nasty.

It's a tragedy. I think he regrets it and has more or less owned up to it, at least saying something about him being partly responsible for smoothing too many of the edges from the character.

I'd keep in mind that the folks in charge could have insisted that the young actors follow the arc and not let their personal lives poison their professional work. Someone has to be the adult in situations like that.

[Brad D]

Mark and David laid the law down with Kyle, whatever he had to say was enough to tank the Coop-Audrey story, per Harley Peyton.

[Agent Sam Stanley]

It's a tragedy. I think he regrets it and has more or less owned up to it, at least saying something about him being partly responsible for smoothing too many of the edges from the character.

I'd keep in mind that the folks in charge could have insisted that the young actors follow the arc and not let their personal lives poison their professional work. Someone has to be the adult in situations like that.

That's what I can't understand about the whole thing. I can see Kyle being stupid and submissive to his trophy spoiled little girlfriend, but I can't understand why David and Mark would go along with it.

Kyle: It's gonna be Lara's way, I mean, my way, or I won't sign for a second season. Simple as that.

David/Mark: If you refuse to sign for a second season because your girlfriend is uncomfortable with creative decisions about characters, cross your fingers that she'll marry you and you'll live happily ever after for all of this to be worth it, because we're gonna tell this to everyone in the show business and no one will risk hiring you anymore. Good luck with your career.

But no, they did everything the guy wanted and even covered, so it wouldn't look bad to their careers.

What they got in return: poor ratings (in part because of this decision), cancellation of the show, and both Kyle and Lara refusing to be a part of FWWM (in the end Kyle agreed probably because his relationship with Lara wasn't top of the world anymore and he realized what he's done) but still asked for his part in the movie to be as minimum as possible.

I can see now why David never worked with him again, after many years of collaboration.
The guy's pretty selfish.

[Audrey Horne]

Pretty sure they were already into the second season when this came about, shooting and especially script-wise. That's why some of the post Laura killer reveal is padded with extra Nadine and James and Little Nicky scenes.

I'll go out on a limb and say New York magazine (two covers!), MTV music awards, Entertainment Weekly's What's Hot on TV, the lead-in on Entertainment Tonight's Women of Twin Peaks, the magazine spreads, the Emmy nomination, and the announcement of the Playboy cover over the span of summer and fall of 1990 had something to do with it. The fact that her character is tied to and would only be more tethered to the main character of the show (Agent Cooper) is enough of a red flag for rising actors on a successful television show jockeying for notice. Hell, if I were in Boyle's place, I'm not sure I wouldn't have done the same thing!

[Ross]

Pretty sure they were already into the second season when this came about, shooting and especially script-wise. That's why some of the post Laura killer reveal is padded with extra Nadine and James and Little Nicky scenes.

I'm pretty sure Audrey is exactly right here. The Cooper/Audrey romance was planned for the post-Laura episodes, which is when Kyle nixed it.

I've also heard that Kyle's situation was kind of unique in that he had "part ownership" in the Cooper character, which basically granted him veto power.

[Audrey Horne]

Yeah, I'm pretty sure that is correct also. Kyle had some sort of uncredited co producer contract. I think a lot of contract changes happened between the two seasons. One obvious one is Kimmy getting opening credits recognition. (Whether that results in more money for this situation, I'm not sure).

From what Sherilyn told me after prodding, I got the sense that she didn't know any of this was put into effect until further down the line. That she was still filming scenes like the Denise in Cooper's room under the impression that the show was still going in the direction she thought it would progress. Not that she ever knew what would happen beyond script to script, but that she had no idea there were behind the scenes machinations occurring between Kyle and production. I got the sense from her when she caught on and complained they were much further into the series.

I don't want to get into it, but some thirty year old actor dating a 19, 20 year old actor is... Well, a whole lot of things. (Yeah, I get the irony that the Cooper, Audrey characters echo this... But this was a highly stylized serial in aesthetic fantasy old movie inspired/soap land, not realism.). Rant over.

[Agent Sam Stanley]

Pretty sure they were already into the second season when this came about, shooting and especially script-wise. That's why some of the post Laura killer reveal is padded with extra Nadine and James and Little Nicky scenes.

Hmm, makes sense.

I always thought the whole thing came about after the episode Cooper found Audrey in his bed.
They were supposed to make love (offscreen, obviously) and have breakfast together downstairs the next morning. That's how the next episode was supposed to begin in the first draft of the script. They changed all that later to Cooper's moral speech at Kyle's request. (Can't remember where I read all this, maybe WIP but I'm not sure, can someone confirm this?)

I figured it would make no sense for them to get romantically involved after the moral speech scene, that 's why I thought that's when the whole thing happened.

I'll go out on a limb and say New York magazine (two covers!), MTV music awards, Entertainment Weekly's What's Hot on TV, the lead-in on Entertainment Tonight's Women of Twin Peaks, the magazine spreads, the Emmy nomination, and the announcement of the Playboy cover over the span of summer and fall of 1990 had something to do with it. The fact that her character is tied to and would only be more tethered to the main character of the show (Agent Cooper) is enough of a red flag for rising actors on a successful television show jockeying for notice. Hell, if I were in Boyle's place, I'm not sure I wouldn't have done the same thing!

I think that what really threatened Boyle was the idea of Kyle starting to notice what was so special about Sherilyn that was getting everybody's attention (maybe that'd become more obvious after they started doing romantic scenes together), so she did what she could to stop it and keep her "lead in a hit show" boyfriend.
Such a coincidence all the love fell apart after the show got cancelled...

[Ross]

Hmm, makes sense.

I always thought the whole thing came about after the episode Cooper found Audrey in his bed.
They were supposed to make love (offscreen, obviously) and have breakfast together downstairs the next morning. That's how the next episode was supposed to begin in the first draft of the script. They changed all that later to Cooper's moral speech at Kyle's request. (Can't remember where I read all this, maybe WIP but I'm not sure, can someone confirm this?)

Audrey probably knows the details better than me, but I don't think the writers had planned on Cooper actually going through with a romance with Audrey that early. And I don't think the original script actually had them making love offscreen, it just left the viewer to question what actually did or didn't happen by starting the episode at breakfast. Audrey was smitten with Cooper at that point.

I think the idea to actually go through with a romance came in the second season, and sort of happened organically because of the undeniable chemistry between them, and the fact that Fenn had become the break out star of the first season. The plan was for that romance to kick in post-Laura storyline.

[Agent Sam Stanley]

And I don't think the original script actually had them making love offscreen, it just left the viewer to question what actually did or didn't happen by starting the episode at breakfast. Audrey was smitten with Cooper at that point.

Yes, that's what I meant by making love offscreen
There was no indication of making love in the script, but Cooper finds Audrey naked in his bed, episode ends, next episode we see them having breakfast together, Audrey smitten and all, it's implied they made love. If not, they needed to explain what was the outcome of that scene at some point.