Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, July 28, 1990 TAG: 9007310046
SECTION: SPECTATOR PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MICHAEL HILL THE BALTIMORE EVENING SUN
DATELINE: LOS ANGELES LENGTH: Long
"I don't think she would ever leave her log alone," the woman said. "She's afraid something would happen to it. It's a valuable log."
If some lady is talking about a log, then this must be the "Twin Peaks" press conference. It was Catherine Coulson, who plays the lumber-toting character known only as the Log Lady on the breakthrough ABC series that will return this fall on Saturday nights at 10.
Coulson, who has worked for the series' co-creator, avant-garde director David Lynch, in behind-the-scenes positions for years, returned to her first love, acting, to play this part.
"David has had this character in mind for several years," she said. "We've talked a lot about the Log Lady's story and the log's history. For example, she did teach ballroom dancing, but she gave that up to get married, not knowing that her husband would die in a forest fire. Her husband gave her the log before he died.
"The Log Lady has important clues," she said of the mystery that has driven the series since its first scene, the murder of town's young beauty Laura Palmer. "But she knows when to speak and when to be silent."
That was the watchword for the many "Twin Peaks" actors that ABC gathered together for a somewhat chaotic breakfast meeting with TV critics. Though all seemed eager to talk about the show, all were also sworn to secrecy about the specifics of plot as the mystery moves toward resolution in the fall.
After a rerun of the eight episodes seen last spring (to begin Aug. 5), "Twin Peaks" will return with a two-hour episode - directed by Lynch - on Sept. 30. But the night before, in its new Saturday time slot, will be an hour that will sum up what happened last year while introducing a couple of new characters.
Co-creator and executive producer Mark Frost did solve one bit of the mystery, confirming something that seemed obvious to most of "Twin Peaks"' serious viewers, that because of his personal armor, FBI agent Dale Cooper will survive the bullets that were sent into his chest in the series' last scene.
"We were poking a little fun at the `Who Shot J.R?' syndrome," Frost said of that apparent cliffhanger of a finale. "Of course he's wearing a bulletproof vest. He was an FBI agent who had just been on an undercover assignment.
"We weren't trying to present that as a mystery; it was just where the story stopped at the moment. That was the end of the chapter."
The many actors in the room decorated to look like the lodge in the fictitious northwestern town of Twin Peaks showed the unusual makeup of the series cast - a mixture of striking newcomers with a number of actors who once had successful careers but, for the most part, had been away from the public's eye for some time, usually by their own choice.
"Part of the experience of a small town is that when you meet people, you feel like you already knew them from somewhere," Frost said. "When you bring back actors that you once knew, it keys into that a little bit."
One of those actors is Russ Tamblyn, who plays the offbeat psychiatrist Dr. Lawrence Jacoby. After a screen career that began with "The Boy with Green Hair" and went to "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers," a supporting Oscar nomination in "Peyton Place" and a number of other prominent film roles, Tamblyn turned to producing art and poetry in 1964, with limited appearances on the stage and in TV guest shots before "Twin Peaks."
"I like him more than most people do," Tamblyn said of his character, generally not a favorite since he seems to have had an affair with his patient, the young Laura Palmer.
"I don't think he's strange so much as eccentric. But then I heard they took a survey and he was the No. 1 suspect in the murder. It bothers me. I can't figure it out. Maybe I'm a bad actor, not playing him eccentric, but too far out."
That was about the only squawk you were going to get out of the actors about the intense interest of the public in "Twin Peaks," as well as higher than expected ratings.
"It makes me more comfortable to know that people responded positively," Kyle MacLachlan, who plays FBI agent Cooper, said. "It makes you know that what you are doing is pretty close to the money and that makes me feel good."
"I don't think it's affecting the way we work," Michael Ontkean, who plays Sheriff Harry Truman, said. "But it's like a hockey game. You score a goal and 15,000 people cheer, the next time your line goes out, you might have a good shift."
One of the most striking new faces in "Twin Peaks" belongs to Sherilyn Fenn, whose portrayal of high school heart-stopper Audrey Horne has people pulling out comparisons to classic glamorous screen stars.
"I think that she's a really strong character," Fenn said. "I respect her for that. She's a darling 18-year-old girl who's trying to explore her power as a woman. She wants to squeeze every ounce that she can out of life.
"When he cast me, David Lynch told me that Audrey has a great heart but that she's going to scrape the bottom of the barrel before she figures out what's going on."
If Fenn plays the bad girl of the cast, then Dana Ashbrook has the bad boy roll in Bobby Briggs.
"Just like Bobby, there's a part of me that hates hypocrisy," Ashbrook said of his relationship with the character. "But his whole being is dedicated to opposing hypocrisy. I don't fight it;, I just want to relax and for people to be happy."
No one, of course, was saying who killed Laura Palmer, but that might have been because no one actually knows the solution to the central mystery.
Frost said that the company has shot some alternate scenes to throw anyone snooping around off the scent.
"We've tried very hard to keep secrecy a big part of the internal mechanism of the company," Frost said.
Tamblyn told a story about one time when Lynch's son was visiting the set.
"His name is Austin and he's about 11 years old," Tamblyn said. "He was talking to his father and then he came over to me and said, `Will you tell me who killed Laura Palmer? My Daddy won't.' I told him that if he won't tell you, he certainly won't tell me."
Meanwhile, another mystery has arisen surrounding "Twin Peaks" - just what is the origin of the skill that got Audrey her job at the One Eyed Jacks gambling club - the ability to tie the stem of a cherry into a knot in her mouth?
"That actually came from one of my writers, Harley Peyton," Frost said. "He claims to have had a girlfriend who could actually do that."
But Fenn said it was her idea to have her character do that because she is able to do it herself!
"Sure. It was the type of thing that girls in my high school used to practice until they could do it," she said, resisting all entreaties to provide a demonstration.
Whether Fenn can actually tie that knot is a question that probably won't be answered until after we've found out who killed Laura Palmer. But, for the record, she went to Grosse Point South high school near Detroit.
by CNB