EXCLUSIVE: David Lynch had a great knack for discovering leading-lady talent, actresses who would ascend to bigger heights. One of those is Lara Flynn Boyle, who played the role of Donna Hayward in Lynch’s early 1990s ABC series Twin Peaks.
“There goes the true Willy Wonka of filmmaking,” the actress said in a statement to Deadline on Thursday following Lynch’s death at age 78. “I feel like I got the golden ticket getting a chance to work with him. He will be greatly missed.”
The arrival of Boyle was declared in an October 1990 Rolling Stone cover she shared with fellow Twin Peaks actress Sherilynn Fenn and Mädchen Amick that heralded “The Women of Twin Peaks.”
Boyle’s Donna was the fierce, straight arrow in a Northwest town of wackos in Twin Peaks; the innocent young high school student had spent time with her best friend Laura Palmer in the final days before Laura’s murder. Donna’s friendship with Laura prompted her to be brought in for questioning by Sheriff Harry S. Truman (Michael Ontkean) and FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan).
Boyle didn’t reprise the role of Donna in Lynch’s Twin Peaks follow-up, the 1992 prequel feature Fire Walk With Me about Palmer’s early days before her murder, or the mega 2017 Showtime continuation series.
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Boyle’s star skyrocked after Twin Peaks, as she went on to star in 132 episodes of ABC’s David E. Kelley legal series The Practice, which notched her an Emmy Supporting Actress Drama series nomination. Soon after Twin Peaks, she starred in such movies as Men in Black 2, Alan Rudolph’s Afterglow, Red Rock West and the Andrew Fleming rom-com Threesome.
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