When Laura Dern and David Lynch were looking for the perfect lipstick for Inland Empire… at Monoprix

In the minds of movie buffs, the names David Lynch and Laura Dern are inseparable. As Naomi Watts and Kyle MacLachlan, the American actress owes her career to the filmmaker, who died on January 16 at the age of 78. Revealed in 1986 in Blue VelvetLaura Dern has become one of her favorite performers, through three other collaborations: Sailor et Lula in 1990, Inland Empire in 2006 and finally, more recently, the third season of Twin Peaksin 2017. When the death of David Lynch was announced, she initially remained silent. She waited four days to speak out, on what would have been the director’s 79th birthday, with a photo shared on Instagram and a short caption: “Happy birthday, tidbit.” I love you forever and I will miss you every day for the rest of my life. » In the process, a long, very personal text, written in the first person, was published in the Los Angeles Times. She pays a vibrant tribute to the man who turned her life upside down as an actress and a woman and explains the origin of the nickname “tidbit” which means “little treat”, as they both considered themselves.

Among the anecdotes told, we learn of David Lynch’s passion for… lipstick. In particular, the choice of the ideal shade to make up his heroines. “I remember looking at you with your yellow notepad in a Paris hotel lobby while we were drinking cappuccinos and you were writing this four-page monologue for my character in Inland Empire, says Laura Dern. Then we ran to Monoprix to find the perfect shade of lipstick. No one has taught me more about lipstick shades than you. You even mixed colors to create a yellow lipstick for Twin Peaks. (You were shocked that this had never existed before.) You cared so much about taking 15 minutes to get a character’s lip color right. You were able to repaint a hallway so that it was perfect [à l’image] for a short while. And when I say repaint, I mean yourself, with a paintbrush. […] »

In Inland Empireshe plays an actress who lands a role in a cursed production: over the course of rehearsals, the film crew learns that the film is a remake. The creation of the original film would have been interrupted after the assassination of the two main performers. For almost three hours, David Lynch constructs the last feature film of his career like a hallucination, between fantasy and nightmare. When the film was released in 2006, he described it thus to journalists from Variety : “It’s about a woman in distress, it’s a mystery and that’s all I have to say about it.” Fascinating experimental cinema with absolute freedom.

Decisive meeting

This memory among others says everything about a perfectionist filmmaker, sure of his vision, keen to work in total complicity with his actors. The director came out of his usual silence to tell us about his muse, during a portrait published in February 2023: “She is a hard worker. She is constantly traveling, touring and giving interviews. People respect the actress, but also love the person. » From their first meeting, their exchange reflected an obvious connection. They talked about life, high school, Los Angeles, Wizard of Ozturkey sandwiches and meditation, so dear to the filmmaker’s heart. It didn’t take much to convince him to make Laura Dern the interpreter of Sandy Williams in Blue Velvet : “I never make the actors read the script. I observe their faces, I listen to their voices and I am interested in their eyes, he confided to us. I form my opinion by talking to them. »