Kyle MacLachlan admits he still doesn’t understand a lot of David Lynch’s movies

There are few actor-director duos as indelible (and successful) as Kyle MacLachlan and David Lynch, from Blue Velvet to Twin Peaks. But despite their cerebral creative connection, MacLachlan admits even he doesn’t always know where Lynch’s head is at when creating his weird, wonderful onscreen worlds.

In an interview with The A.V. Club’s Todd Gilchrist, MacLachlan shares that there wasn’t a singular moment when he pinpointed his and Lynch’s like minds. In fact, there are still many facets of Lynch’s work MacLachlan still doesn’t fully grasp.

“There’s still the large chunks of data that I don’t understand, and I don’t need to understand, honestly,” MacLachlan muses. “His movies are experiential, really, and they ask a lot of questions, but there are not a lot of answers provided.”

That lack of answers, MacLachlan explains, is part of the ambiguity and alien nature of so many of Lynch’s greatest films. When he trusts in Lynch’s “road map,” MacLachlan says, the magic happens intuitively and has continued sparking since Lynch directed MacLachlan’s very first acting role as Paul Atreides in 1984's Dune.

“I think he knows exactly what he’s doing and what he wants to create, but I don’t think I always understand why,” MacLachlan shares. “I think there are things in his films that are there just to put you in a frame of mind, and he’s sort of saying ‘stop thinking and just exist in this time now.’ So I just pretty much give over control honestly to him.”

He continues: “The script is obviously incredibly helpful, but I follow what [Lynch] needs just intuitively. It’s not a lot of discussion. There’s not a lot of intellectual going through stuff. It’s a feeling, it’s a mood, it’s an energy kind of thing.”