[IMG:L]The year was 1990 and TV viewers were both fascinated and flummoxed by the hottest yet most bizarre new series to hit network television, well, ever: David Lynch’s Twin Peaks. More than just a cult classic, the enigmatic, moody, often unfathomable series was an instant pop culture sensation, the center of the most heated water cooler debates of the day (just what WAS the deeper metaphorical meaning of the Log Lady, anyway?), and then just as quickly faded like a fever dream after only two seasons on the air.
But it’s far from forgotten: Just in time for the release of Twin Peaks: The Definitive Gold Box Edition, a 10-disc DVD set overseen by Lynch himself, Hollywood.com pulled up a stool at Norma’s diner for a trip down memory lane with actress Madchen Amick, who recalled her breakthrough role as the abused waitress Shelly Johnson, remembered ditching her Baywatch bikini for the Pacific Northwest and ruminated about the splendors of some damn fine cherry pie.
Hollywood.com: Was it a life-changing event to be cast on the show?
Madchen Amick: It really was, especially considering that I was 16 at the time. I had just moved to Reno, Nevada. It was my first gig really. I made a deal with my parents that I would move away from home–and if I couldn’t support myself within a year, I would move back. Within that year I got Twin Peaks, so it was quite life-changing.
HW: I want to know about your very first meeting with David Lynch. How was that for a 16-year-old girl from Reno?
MA: It was fantastic. I love his work, but I was young, I was a teenager, so there was only so much I knew. I had gone in for casting stuff with Johanna Ray and she had gotten in touch and said “I really want you to meet somebody.” I was actually in the middle of filming the Baywatch pilot. I went down, late at night, and he was waiting so he could meet people. It just kept getting later and later, I thought “I’m not going to make it.” And he hung around anyway. I went in and he was just such a very kind and sweet person. He just kind of talked through his ideas. I originally had gone in and read for the Laura Palmer part. While I was in the room reading with Eric DaRe [who played Shelley’s husband Leo] … I think that just kind of sparked the idea for David, for me and Eric to play Shelly and Leo.
HW: As a teenager, did you GET Twin Peaks–or were you more excited about working on Baywatch and playing on the beach all day.
MA: Actually, at the time I had always been a big movie fan, and I was actually quite sophisticated in my tastes! They had actually asked me to return, to not just do the pilot of Baywatch but did I want to come back and be a regular. At the time I was like, the part that I played on Baywatch, I couldn’t imagine it continuing on. I really thought through things. I knew David’s work enough to know that it was going to be something. Whether it was going to be something that nobody got, just from reading the part I could tell that it was really something different and special. I just went with my gut and chose Twin Peaks.
[IMG:R]HW: Did they give you a sense of the direction of the show and what was happening plot-wise, underneath all of the mystery and ambiguity? Or did you just have to go with the Lynchian flow everyday when you showed up for work?
MA: We just went with the flow. They didn’t share very much. Everybody was so caught up in their own storylines, it really mimicked a real community. On the set you would come across other actors in the bigger situations, like a press event or a cast get together, but other than that you always worked with the actors that are in basically your world in Twin Peaks. That’s kind of all you could pay attention to and keep up with, was just your own circle of storyline.
HW: When the show hit, it hit big immediately. It was a serious pop culture sensation overnight. Were you at all prepared for the reaction that this show received?
MA: No. In fact , at the time, the network really didn’t think the show was going to work. It was just so different and weird. They actually had put us up against, I believe it was like a big Cheers show … They put us opposite it because they just thought, “We’re not going to get anywhere with this show, so we are just going to burn it off on a night that we know we’re not going to win.” So, I knew all of that and I thought, “Well, who knows? It’s going to air, we’ll watch it, and who knows how long we are going to stay on for.” I was not prepared at all for the unexpected phenomenon. People loved it–it was the perfect time for something like that to come out.
HW: How did that impact your life after the show really took off? How did you get that, when you go to the shopping mall and all of a sudden people are like “It’s Shelly! It’s Shelly!”
MA: There were really two main things that were happening. One was that I was now going to my regular restaurant and just being ushered to the first table immediately. I just thought that was so odd and weird. In my head, I was the same person last week waiting in line for 20 minutes. Now I’m being ushered to the nearest table. I guess I kind of thought it was nice to get the table right away, but I just didn’t really take it very seriously. Then the other part was that there are so many people that get so caught up in shows, and who come up to me all the time and convince me to leave my abusive relationship [laughs]. They would give me help cards, and abuse hot lines, and they really take it so seriously. That I just thought it was really odd.
HW: How did you keep from having a spin out, with the kind of media sensation that Twin Peaks was, in your own life? We see what is happening with a lot of young celebrities today…
MA: I just think it is how you are raised. How grounded you are with your upbringing. And really the whole reason of why you get into the business is a huge part of it. I was just really interested and I actually loved the craft. I loved theatre in high school and loved films. I just really wanted to explore the craft. I didn’t have any desire to be a celebrity. I think that I had no idea. But all of the other young actors out there, spinning out of control, you have to wonder how their upbringing was. How grounded were they from the beginning. That really takes them into being able to handle all of the sensational popularity and celebrity-ism.
HW: Of all the co-stars you worked with on the show, who was the person who made the biggest impression on you?
MA: I had a really special place in my heart for Peggy Lipton [who played Norma Jennings]. I guess that was appropriate because that was my relationship in the show. She was the motherly figure, I looked up to her for so much, and she actually really helped me and kind of took me under her wing personally. She helped me get through the celebrity part of it, because she’s obviously been there many, many times over. She kind of helped me–she was the big sister, and got me through it. It was a really special relationship I had with her.
HW: The show also burned out quite quickly, getting canceled in the second season. Did you feel that cooling off happening? What was your experience as it went from the thing that everyone was talking about one day to a show that really only lasted two seasons?
MA: It’s funny, what I can tell from people’s reactions to it. They are just die-hard fans. I don’t think it really would have mattered how many times the network moved us. However different our scripts got, they would have always just been a huge fan, for the sake of it. We could definitely tell that things felt very different in the second season. We could feel the storylines were different. We kind of wondered, “Are we getting off track?” Where we had gone in the first season was such a special and magical things. David Lynch really never intended it to go long term. It really needed to be wrapped up and tied up.
[IMG:L]HW: What has your relationship with David Lynch been like over the years? Do you stay in contact with him?
MA: Yeah, I do actually. I see him quite a bit, especially when I get really, really, really frustrated in the business. I call up David and get a little jolt of inspiration. He’s a genius. I think he’s the most creative artist of our time. He really is a master and it’s great. He’s just a wonderful person in general and he’s also very inspirational when you feel like you are going down the wrong track. He kind of reminds you, “Well, are you not in this for the art of it?” You have to keep remembering that.
HW: Today, you are untouched by time. How frequently today do you still get recognized as Shelly?
MA: It depends on if I am spending a lot of time in Los Angeles or in New York. Probably on a weekly basis somebody will bring it up. That is mind boggling to me because I have looked at them like :Really? You really recognize me from that long ago?” I never understood. It’s sort of shocking that anybody would recognize me as anything. I don’t really get it.
HW: Did you keep any souvenirs from the show?
MA: Yes. One thing, and it was because David Lynch gave it to me. My grandfather was a collector and had a museum, so I had this appreciation for vintage things. So, there was this gigantic, big, round, vintage Coke sign that we had in the diner. In the second season I had mentioned to David how much I thought that was such a really cool sign. When we were cancelled and we were wrapping he sent the sign to me. Basically, the thing about him is that he remembers those little things. He really pays attention to people.
HW: Did you get sick of people offering you free cherry pie every place you went?
MA: [Laughs] No, never! I never get sick of that, or a cup of Joe, either one. I will take them both [laughs].
