san diego comic con 2017

When Jim Belushi Improvised on the Set of Twin Peaks, David Lynch Responded Exactly How You’d Expect

Photo: Vivien Killilea/Getty Images for SiriusXM

During Friday’s Twin Peaks panel at Comic-Con, the actors were, unsurprisingly, a little constrained regarding what they could talk about from David Lynch and Mark Frost’s remarkable, inscrutable show: They weren’t supposed to speculate on the meaning of what had come so far, nor what might be looming, down the road. (When a fan asked them to “describe the show in a nutshell,” Kyle MacLachlan said, “Throw the nut away.”)

Instead, they spent much of the hour talking about the next best subject: David Lynch himself. Many of moderator Damon Lindelof’s questions concerned Lynch, and when one attendee asked if any of the actors had contributed story or ideas to the show, MacLachlan remembered a very emblematic experience that Jim Belushi, who plays Bradley Mitchum, had with the legendary filmmaker during the shoot. “In one scene, Jim decided he was going to ad-lib a line in this heightened moment of euphoria, which he did,” MacLachlan said. “And we heard, ‘Cut!’ David has a megaphone, and he said, ‘Mr. Belushi! Do I have to report you to the principal’s office?’ And Jim went, ‘No sir! Got it!’” David Lynch: pretty much exactly how you would expect him to be.

Twin Peaks Cast Confirms David Lynch Not a Big Fan of Improv