David Lynch Had One Dangerously Cheesy Request For His Cameo In The Fabelmans
Ah, David Lynch. There's no one quite like him. While casual viewers of his work often like to speculate that he's lived some dark tragic life, the more serious Lynch fans understand that his life outside of his art is fairly wholesome and charming. He makes such effectively dark movies because he's a good artist, not because there are any one-to-one parallels with some hidden trauma from his childhood.
These days, Lynch's chipper persona off-screen is a major part of why we love him. The guy's spent years giving lovely weather reports on his YouTube channel, excitedly remarking, "If you can believe it, it's a Friday once again!" every time another Friday comes around. His "What is David Working On Today?" web series, where he builds a bunch of seemingly mundane items and talks with great enthusiasm about them, is also filled with inspirational musings about our purpose in life and the value of creativity for creativity's sake.
And when it comes to his acting career, Lynch has always been generous in his approach. "When it comes to acting," he told Empire Magazine in a recent interview, "I've purposely tried to stay away from it, giving the likes of Harrison Ford and George Clooney a chance at their careers." We choose to interpret this statement 100% literally and urge Ford and Clooney to send him a thank you note as soon as possible.
Of course, the reason Empire Magazine asked him about his acting in the first place was because of his role in director Steven Spielberg's semi-autobiographical "The Fabelmans" as filmmaker John Ford. Lynch explained how he was initially hesitant to take the role — perhaps it should've gone to a struggling, more unestablished actor like Robert De Niro — but a tasty bag of Cheetos changed his mind.
It ain't easy being cheesy
Lynch's one request, when taking the role of cranky-yet-wise John Ford, was for there to always be a bag of Cheetos waiting for him in his dressing room:
"Well, Cheetos, number one, I love them. And any chance I can, I get them. But I know that they're not exactly health food. So when I do leave the house and I get a chance to... But I don't get them that often, honestly... If I do get them, I want a big bag. Because once you start... you need to have a lot before you could slow down and actually stop. Otherwise, with a small bag, then you'd be prowling for days to find more... It's incredible flavor."
Of course, Lynch is probably overstating the importance of the Cheetos in his decision-making here, as he also clarifies that he was impressed with the script. He told Empire Magazine that he "really liked the scene" and that John Ford's speech to Sammy about horizons, about how a director should never place the horizon of an image in the middle of it, is spot on: "A horizon in the middle is boring as s**t."
For David Lynch fans, the Cheetos anecdote serves as yet another entry in the list of foods and drinks Lynch has a strange, positive attachment to. We already know Lynch loves coffee and cherry pie, to the point where he made them the ultimate symbols of kindness and safety throughout all three seasons of "Twin Peaks." Are Cheetos on the same level? It's still not clear. But thanks to "The Fabelmans," we now know that the snack is close to Lynch's heart.