Lara's Theme

For the US Magazine Lara Flynn Boyle opened her mind and observer James Greenberg wrote a nice article about it. Published in march 1993. Please find enclosed two scanned pages of the result. I apologize for the average quality but I only have a b/w copy of the article at my disposal.

"This is my cup of tea"

As far as I'm concerned Men in Black 2 (2002) was the most successful movie Lara Flynn Boyle starred in. It made millions of dollars though reviews for this scifi-adventure weren't ... hmm ... that excellent. The best part of such a huge mega blockbuster production is the fact that its actors have to do a lot of promotional stuff like photo shootings or interviews. Lara even travelled around the world with the leading stars Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith. And when she stopped by in New York she gave the australian located Dark Horizons website a nice interview in which she replied honestly to not-so-stupid questions. Some extracts? She doesn't read her articles in tabloid magazines but "I look at the pictures."

Others: "I cannot keep a secret so I never know what's going to happen." "I did low budget movies before they were called independent movies." "Then I'd go home, take off the 25 pounds of make up and hair and then I'd love to go and sit at a big dinner, knowing that I had a late call the next day. That's a perfect day." If you want to read the whole interview please follow this path.

Happy Woman

While surfing through the world wide web I found an unknown interview with Lara Flynn Boyle she gave to the so-called Happy Woman Magazine. But beware: This publication is a pure parody or in its own words: "A literary composition imitating the characteristic style of some other work or writer, but treating a serious subject in a nonsensical manner in an attempt at humor or ridicule." Conclusion: The interviews and the interviewers are not real. But it's fun to read. Here we go.

Libby
Hello lovely to see you--you're much shorter than I thought you'd be.

Lara
I always say 'size doesn't matter'.

Libby
OK you're snickering like a schoolboy so I guess that was one of those whatchamacallit's 'double entendre' things that I never get. What I mean is in the land of the giants you're a squirt--do you have a problem with that?

Lara
Lord, no I don't have a problem with my body. I don't diet, I haven't had a boob job--I'm not going to be the subject of a movie of the week ten years from now.

Libby
Oh, I know dear, but don't let it depress you. They don't make a MOW out of nobodies unless they get a really good disease. But don't give up, maybe an addiction, maybe a few more roles... I have to confess I've never heard of you but my nephew Frank (my new research assistant) is a big fan. He didn't even have to research very hard because most articles about you were next to his work bench. Now, Is it true you lost out on the Ally McBeal role to Calista Flockhart?

Lara
Yeah, but that doesn't bother me because I got a role on "The Practice".

Libby
That is so brave of you! Do you think you lost the role because you are too fat?

Lara
What?

Libby
Oops hit a nerve, I'll just move on. There was an article about you in Vanity Fair and you were quoted as saying "I'm the kind of woman who, when she walks into a party, all the other women leave the room."

Lara
Yeah.

Libby
Oh, you poor thing. I'm sure that's not true!!!

Lara
Yup, since I was seventeen.

Libby
You could probably do something about that, maybe learn to sing or buy presents--believe me I wasn't always a sparkling raconteur. It took some work.

Lara
You misunderstood--when I say they leave the room I mean they are threatened by me.

Libby
Why, what have you been doing to them?

Lara
What I mean is, the way I look seems to threaten other women.

Libby
Well you do wear a lot of eye make-up and that's kind of scary. Maybe if you tone it down, practice a nice smile. Do you think that's why Harrison's wife left him? She got spooked by the leer and the gloss?

Lara
I had nothing to do with the break-up of that marriage.

Libby
Oh, hon I believe you, after all he's a big movie star he could have a 'name' girlfriend. You've were also linked romantically with David Spade--that I could see, he's a squirt too and funny!!!! Oh God I loved him in... what's that movie, the one where he was funny.
Lara
Black Sheep? Tommy Boy?

Libby
No, that's not it, the one where he was a waterboy It'll come to me--

Lara
It doesn't matter anyway, we were never boyfriend and girlfriend.

Libby
Oh, that's a shame hon, if he'd been interested you could have snuggled up to him for a couple of years then you could have moved up to the big names.

Lara
I don't need a "name' boyfriend, I'm doing just fine by myself thank you very much.

Libby
And there was some talk about you dating Jack Nicklaus...

Lara
Jack Nicholson. The Chief..

Libby
But don't worry hon I didn't believe a word of it, they print all kinds of rubbish on a slow celebrity news day.

Lara
I wouldn't say it was rubbish. The whole world is in love with Jack why can't I be?

Libby
You're nice kid in a kind of rough way. I just want you to know you don't have to make up pretend boyfriends just to impress me.

Lara
Are you for real?

Libby
I'm just saying maybe you should rethink that David thing, get a nice frock, practice smiling and how-do-you-do's and who knows maybe they will make a film about you, I mean anything's possible. You're too old to be an ingenue but with a little luck and my fingers crossed who knows? You might get a nice "mom" role if you washed of the goop. Best of luck darling.

Lara
**** you.

Twin Peaks Interviews

On the german website of The Universe of David Lynch I found an old article of Stephen Saban written for Details magazine in 1990 who has had the chance to meet the famous director while shooting his tv serie Twin Peaks and, what a lucky man, Lara herself.

"Why did you cast Lara Flynn Boyle as Donna?" I said. "Did you know her or did you see her in something?"

David Lynch: "Johanna Ray did the casting and she tells me if people are good, you know, or not. So I met Lara and, see, she´s my idea of the girl next door, the same way that Laura Dern was in Blue Velvet. She's smart and sexual but has, um, high moral fiber."

What more could you ask for in a girl? "You know, we all need a little fiber in our diets," I said.

"Right, we could all stand a little more of that."

Lara Flynn Boyle, nineteen, beautiful and vivaciously poised, led us to her trailer, a gleaming Fifties Airstream bullet that actually belongs to her boyfriend Kyle MacLachlan. "He'll lease it out to them and actually make money off of it," she said. "You know, it's a good idea." She apologized for its not being properly decorated, that she'd bought material with cowboys and Indians printed on it to make curtains. We settled in and she lit up a Marlboro.

I asked her how she got the part and she said, basically, "They needed a girl who would cry a lot. I was like, 'Great.'"

"Is this a part you really wanted because it was David Lynch?"

"No," she said, leaning back on the comfy trailer sofa. "I didn't know who he was."

Okay, I was shocked, I'll admit it. "You didn't know who he was?"

"No. Well, I'm from Chicago and I'm not, you know," she started to explain. "Blue Velvet, all those movies, are very big and that, but I was raised very much more mainstream, like families from Iowa, you know. So I didn't know who he was. After I'd gone in [for the part] my agent called and said, 'Well, what is he like? Is he weird?' And I was, like, 'He's okay.' And she was, like, 'Were you nervous?' And I was, like, 'No.'"

"You still haven't seen his films, like Blue Velvet at least?" The one starring your boyfriend?

"No."

Oh well. "How do you think Twin Peaks is gonna be accepted into people's homes?"

"We talk about this a lot," she said. "They wanna watch ALF, you know, and The Cosby Show. Everybody out there - the cast and people I meet - keep saying it's gonna go great, that it's gonna get picked up. I think it's gonna go great out there with the twenty people who watch David Lynch in the business, that really respect him. He has tons of followers but I think that many of his followers are the ones who don't watch TV. That's why I think the one saving grace is that it's also some form of soap opera."

"I hate to say it," I said anyway, "but I think it'll be a critical success that no one watches."

"Yeah, like Blue Velvet. What - number one movie of the Eigthies? I went to a performing arts high school and nobody ever talked about it. So I think in terms of that it'll be, like, 'Oh, great TV, very innovative.'" She took a drag of her cigarette. "Plus I think that TV audiences like to have cues when they should laugh and when they should cry. I'm very much like those audiences. When I went to see the pilot - and I'm in it - things that these people were laughing at I didn't think were funny. When I say to James, 'James, those are sirens,' the audience was roaring. I must be stupid because I never thought that was funny, you know."

"You're working for a genius," I said.

"Yeah," she said. "I'm starting to realize that as good an actor as you are, it also takes a really good director. If a director doesn't have any relationship with me where he can, like, give and take, then I'm going to stink no matter what scene I'm in. There's something magical. With [David], for the first time, I really forgot completely that I was being watched. That's never happened to me before. I don't know what exactly he does, and I think he does it so you don't know what exactly he does for the actors. Shooting a whole scene for, like, five hours. I mean, that's me too, but it takes a good director to do it."

"Do you know who the murderer is?" I asked Lara. "Come on."

"I have no idea," she said innocently. "I really don't."

I believed her. But she's an actress. "But today's the last day of the last episode."

"Let's just say that every single actor - and there are fourteen other regulars - is a suspect. But a lot of us have a pretty good idea who it is. But, um, it ends differently than you think."

There was a voice at her trailer door: "Lara, two minutes!"

"Do you have to go?"

"No, I have two minutes," she said.


"Did you meet Kyle on Twin Peaks?"

"Yes, and we started dating."

"But you didn't have any love scenes together. You're supposed to fall in love with James Marshall who plays James."

"Yeah, right," she said. "It's very funny because sometimes I'll have, like, this huge kissing scene with James and, like, Kyle'll be sitting in the trailer like this, you know?" she said, impersonating a man in turmoil.

"He doesn't understand that you're just acting?"

"Oh, we do," she said. "I understand that, he understands that, but, still, I don't like somebody else touching my boyfriend and he doesn't like somebody...."

Just then, of all people, James Marshall appeared at the door of her and Kyle's trailer. "We're ready to go now," he said.

And our two minutes were up."

Land of the Blind - Interview

While promoting her movie Land of the Blind last year at Tribeca's Film Festival in New York Lara Flynn Boyle gave the Moving Pictures Magazine an extensive interview about her role as the First Lady. Unfortunately, the movie theater she's sitting in isn't technically equipped with the best spotlight but it's definitely her :) Although there is only a chance to stream the video I found a website which provides a download link. Please scroll down this page until Sunday, June 04, 2006, 4:01 PM and copy & paste it. Done!