Would you have only wanted to approach a movie with this, you know, scene-by-scene with David?  Is he the only director that you would really trust yourself to do that with?

Laura: Well, I’d rather only work with David period. 

David [to Laura]: You work with me now, but watch what happens next time.  “Oh, I’d only wanna work with Robert.”

Laura [to David]: [Gestures to journalists] Well they know!  We’ve met many times before when you weren’t here. 

David [to Laura]: Yeah, exactly.  It’s all baloney.

Laura: Poor David Lynch doesn’t realize that Laura has done this so many times before.

But I think for myself, I watched David do this with many other actors on this movie, but I don’t know that I could’ve done it with many other directors because, you know, we’ve been asked if there’s a shorthand and in fact we have a remarkable one.  I’m sure he has that with other actors he works with, but for me I have the ability from knowing him since I was 17—separate from who he is as a director to me—to intuit what he needs, and he can intuit what I’m gonna express before it happens.  So it’s not what the movie’s about or the character I’m playing, but even as an operator, a cinematographer, I felt like David moved his body and the camera to place just when I was thinking of moving that way.  You know there is that thing that happens that is-

David: Laura actually directed this picture.

Laura: I did, [gestures to David] and he was wonderful. [Laughs]

In that scene-by-scene approach to filming, did either of you ever consider releasing it as a set of short films?

David: No.

Laura: A set of long films, but-

David: You know, after a while the scene-by-scene revealed more.  And then I wrote a lot of stuff, and we went and shot more traditionally.  You know, we could shoot for several weeks and have stuff to shoot and organize like a regular shooting schedule.  But it was just in the beginning that it was scene-by-scene, and those could’ve ended up just being that.  A scene, separate, you know, by itself for the Internet or whatever.  But I didn’t know what it was gonna be so I’d shoot a scene and then I’d get an idea for another scene and shoot that scene.  And lo and behold, after a bunch of ‘em, a thing came out. 

Your working process on this was a little different-

David: A little different.

-so with the freedom of digital video, do you see yourself making movies more in line with this, or this kind of process?

David: Not this process but with digital video.  And I think maybe I would, you know, it would be nice to have a script written upfront.  But it just didn’t happen that time.  This time. 

Laura [to David]: But as you said, I mean there were chunks of the film that surfaced that you wrote towards the end.  I mean, we shot like a month-

David: It all starts coming more and more and more.

Laura: -and we shot four or five weeks solid at one point, like, I mean almost like a traditional movie because you had so much work to do.

So it was all linear?

David: Totally linear.  It’s a straight-ahead, linear thing. [Laughs] No, it wasn’t all linear, but it was all scenes that were there.

Laura: And not in order.

David: Some of it could’ve been, you know, back in time, some could’ve been here and then a chunk right now.  Like that.

Laura, it seemed like one of the opening scenes when your character is speaking to the old woman, when you’re shooting a scene like that, is it as creepy as it is to do it as it is to see on film or is it not as bad before they put in the music and the close-ups?  Or is Grace [Zabriskie] just creepy period?

Laura: Well I have to say she’s the nicest, loveliest lady, but having met her on Wild at Heart I’m just damn terrified every time I see her. [Laughs] I can’t get over who she been made out to be by David when I see her.  But you know, it’s the beauty of working with David, is that you are—again, speaking of being in the moment—you are there in the moment and you may have a sense that something is funny, but when you’re in it you’re just trying to make it as authentic as it is.  And then when you reflect back or when you see it as an audience, something that even seemed straight when we were shooting it, to me, is just hysterical.  Like I pretty much think he’s, you know, the best comedy director going. [Laughs] But you know, other people may not see it that way.  It just depends on how you take it. 

David: Laura is seeing a psychiatrist.

Laura: Grace is huh-larious.  Grace is hilarious!  But when I was doing it she was terrifying, so I don’t know why it worked out that way.  Maybe because I wasn’t sitting across from her.

[Publicist comes up and says “Last question.”]

David: Whoa, that was quick!  How can we possibly get into this?

This is something you may not even be able to answer, but is Twin Peaks ever gonna be released entirely on DVD?

David: For sure it is.

We’re still waiting for season 2. 

David: Yeah, it’s coming out I think next spring.  I think so.

For the record, I’m still waiting for Lost Highway. 

David: It’s all color-corrected, timed, hi-def masters ready.  It’s, I think Universal owns it now and Lost Highway did not make a lot of money at the box office.  So they probably have it way low on some list for DVD.  I don’t know when they’ll get to it.  I haven’t heard a thing.    You’ll have to write to Universal.  Thank you. 

Unaccompanied Minors - Tyler James Williams and Quinn Shephard - Wilmer Valderrama -       Lauren Shuler Donner