Fictional Selves

When a young Kyle MacLachlan was plucked from the theater stage to star in Dune, his first Hollywood blockbuster movie—complete with a forty-million-dollar budget and folks in his ear telling him he’d already made it big—he assumed there would be nowhere for him to go but up. But with Dune’s disappointing box office reception, a career filled with potential took a nosedive, leaving him worse off than when he’d started. Little did MacLachlan know that forty years later, the carefully curated selection of characters he’d choose over the course of his remarkable career—in provocative films like Blue Velvet and Showgirls, as well as hit television shows like Sex and the City and Desperate Housewives—would establish him as one of the most distinctive actors of his generation.

In Fictional Selves, MacLachlan offers an utterly original account of his offbeat journey in Hollywood and the projects that have shaped who he is today. Insightful, refreshingly earnest, and droll, he chronicles his humble beginnings in idyllic Yakima, Washington; the lifelong hesitance to fame that shadowed him early on, manifesting in the alter ego he aptly calls “Other Kyle”; behind-the-scenes stories from his most famous roles, and lessons learned along the way; his unwavering and long-lasting relationship with late director and close friend David Lynch; on and off-screen romantic entanglements; his own take on being a father; and much more.

With candor and vulnerability, these stories offer an honest look into the remarkable—and often unpredictable—life of an enduring and endearing Hollywood icon.