Catching the Big Fish (4 page)

It’s a holistic experience; it’s total brain functioning. And that increasingly becomes a permanent state the more you experience the Unified Field, the more that consciousness grows. It doesn’t happen overnight, but it happens more and more each day. Vedic science has always said that this field is there and that you can experience it. And now modern science, with each step forward, is affirming that.

ANYWHERE, ANYTIME

 

 

 

You can meditate anywhere. You can meditate in an airport, at work, anywhere you happen to be.

Usually, I meditate in the morning before breakfast, and in the evening before dinner. But when I’m shooting, I meditate before I go, and again at lunch. And if I haven’t meditated long enough, I’ll meditate when I finish.

I’ve been in places where there are no other meditators around, but it’s very surprising: people kind of like it. I’ll ask for a quiet room, and they say, “Oh, yes, yes, I’ll find you a very nice, quiet place, and protect you.” And I go in and meditate away.

We waste so much time on other things, anyway. Once you add this and have a routine, it fits in very naturally.

IDENTITY

 

 

 

The thing about meditation is: You become more and more
you
.

FINAL CUT

 

 

 

I love the French.They’re the biggest film buffs and protectors of cinema in the world. They really look out for the filmmaker and the rights of the filmmaker, and they believe in final cut. I’ve been very lucky that I’ve been in with some French companies that have backed me.

 

But it wasn’t always that way. When I made
Dune
, I didn’t have final cut. It was a huge, huge sadness, because I felt I had sold out, and on top of that, the film was a failure at the box office. If you do what you believe in and have a failure, that’s one thing: you can still live with yourself. But if you don’t, it’s like dying twice. It’s very, very painful.

It’s totally absurd for filmmakers not to be able to make films the way they want to make them. But in this business it’s very common.

I came from painting. And a painter has none of those worries. A painter paints a painting. No one comes in and says, “You’ve got to change that blue.” It’s a joke to think that a film is going to mean anything if somebody else fiddles with it. If they give you the right to make the film, they owe you the right to make it the way you think it should be.The filmmaker should decide on every single element, every single word, every single sound, every single thing going down that highway through time. Otherwise, it won’t hold together. The film may suck, but at least you made it suck on your own.

 

So for me,
Dune
was a huge failure. I knew I was getting into trouble when I agreed not to have final cut. I was hoping it would work out, but it didn’t. The end result is not what I wanted, and that’s a sadness.

 

Here’s the thing, though. When you meditate and bliss starts coming up inside, it is not as painful. You can ride through things like this and live through it. But it has killed a lot of people. It has made them not want to make a film again.

THERAPY

 

 

 

I went to a psychiatrist once. I was doing something that had become a pattern in my life, and I thought,
Well, I should go talk to a psychiatrist.
When I got into the room, I asked him, “Do you think that this process could, in any way, damage my creativity?” And he said, “Well, David, I have to be honest: it could.” And I shook his hand and left.

DREAMS

 

 

 

I love dream logic; I just like the way dreams go. But I have hardly ever gotten ideas from dreams. I get more ideas from music, or from just walking around.

On
Blue Velvet
, though, I was really struggling with the script. I wrote four different drafts. And I had some problems with it near the end. Then one day, I was in an office and I was supposed to go in and meet somebody in the next office. A secretary was there, and I asked her if I could have a piece of paper, because I suddenly remembered that the night before I’d had this dream. And there it was.There were three little elements that solved those problems.That’s the only time that’s happened.

ANGELO BADALAMENTI

 

 

 

I met Angelo Badalamenti on
Blue Velvet
and since then he has composed music for all my films. He’s like my brother.

The way we work is: I like to sit next to him on the piano bench. I talk and Angelo plays. He plays my words. But sometimes he doesn’t understand my words, so he plays very badly. Then I say, “No, no, no, no, Angelo.” And I change my words a little bit, and he plays differently. And then I say, “No, no, no, no, Angelo,” and I change my words. And somehow through this process he will catch something, and I’ll say, “That’s it!” And then he starts going with his magic, down that correct path. It’s so much fun. If Angelo lived next door to me, I’d like to do this every day. But he lives in New Jersey, and I live in Los Angeles.

SOUND

 

 

 

Sometimes you hear a piece of music, and it marries to a scene in the script. When I’m shooting, I will often play that piece of music in the headphones while listening to the dialogue. Hearing the music is just a verification that things are going the right way—for instance, the right pace or lighting. It’s just another tool to ensure that you’re following that original idea and being true to it. So it’s a good thing if you’ve got some music up front to play to see if the scene works.

Sound is so important to the feel of a film. To get the right presence for a room, the right feel from the outside, or the right-sounding dialogue is like playing a musical instrument. You have to do a lot of experimenting to get that just right. It usually happens after the film is cut. But I’m always trying to gather what I call “firewood.” So I have piles of things I can go to and see if they’ll work. You just have to pop one sound in, and you realize right away,
Oh, that is not working.

CASTING

 

 

 

It doesn’t matter how wonderful an actor is; when you’re casting, you have to pick the person who marries to that part, who can do that part.

I don’t ever give actors cold readings. I feel that’s a torment for them, and I don’t learn anything. Plus, then I would want to start rehearsing with them. It would take a long, long time to do that with every actor. So I like to just talk with them and look at them while they talk. I start running them through the script in my head as they’re talking. Some of them go partway and then stop.Then one of them will go all the way through, and I’ll know.

On
Blue Velvet
, I worked with a casting director, Johanna Ray. And we had all brought up Dennis Hopper. But everybody said, “No, no; you can’t work with Dennis. He’s really in bad shape, and you’ll have nothing but trouble.” So we continued looking for people. But one day, Dennis’s agent called and said that Dennis was clean and sober and had already done another picture, and I could talk to that director to verify it. Then Dennis called and said, “I
have
to play Frank, because I
am
Frank.” That thrilled me, and scared me.

 

Sometimes, I’ll have somebody in mind from the beginning.There’s a character in
Mulholland Drive
that worked that way. It was about seven-thirty in the evening, and I was dictating to my assistant—this beautiful woman. And I started talking in a funny way. I started talking like the cowboy in
Mulholland Drive
. He just came walking out. I realized, after I’d gone on for a while, that my friend Monty Montgomery would be perfect for that. And he’s not even an actor. Though he is an actor, really; he’s a very great actor. But he married to that part.

There are some actors I return to—Kyle MacLachlan, for instance. I like Kyle, and maybe he’s kind of an alter ego. But the rule of thumb, obviously, is to get the right person for that role. And that’s what you go for. So the thing is, even though Kyle is my friend, if he’s not right for the part, unfortunately he doesn’t get that part.

What’s also really interesting is that when you work with somebody, you pick that person for a particular role. But then, during lunch or something, you see another side of that person. And you remember that. So if there’s another role that comes up, and somebody says, “Well, Kyle couldn’t do that,” you may remember this side of him and say, “Yes, he could.”

REHEARSAL

 

 

 

When you rehearse, it doesn’t matter where you start. You get your actors together and you just pick a scene that defines the characters in your mind. You have the rehearsal, and wherever it is, it is.The thing may be all over the place.

Then you talk. Often the talking doesn’t appear to make much sense. But it does to me and to whomever I’m talking with. You can feel it making sense. So the next time you rehearse, things may be a little closer. And closer still the next time.

There’s a lot of talking, especially at first. You can say many things, sometimes strange and stupid words. But you develop these little codes with certain actors or actresses. For me, for example, “more wind” means “more mystery.” It’s a weird thing. Yet little by little, just by moving your hand or saying some word, a person says, “Ah, ah, okay.” And actors, at a certain point in early rehearsals, catch on. Then they’re rolling. And all their talent can go down the right track.

The same holds with everyone you work with.When people say “rehearsal,” they’re usually talking only about actors. But there’s a rehearsal that goes on with all the people of the crew, in every department. The idea is to get everybody to come together and go down the same track—the track indicated by the ideas.

So a prop man, for instance, may bring a bunch of props, and they’re totally wrong, but you say a few things, and he says, “Oh, okay,” and he comes back, and now he’s much closer. And then you say a few more words, and then he goes back, and now he’s bringing the perfect things. It’s a matter of talking and action and reaction.

 

It works the same way with all departments, because every element of the film is crucial if the whole is going to hold together. It’s always the same kind of process. You start rehearsing, and it doesn’t matter how far away things are. Just start. And you may say,“Oh, my goodness—we’re very far away.” (You say that internally, of course!) Then you start talking and rehearsing. And it begins getting closer and closer and closer. It’s an abstract sort of thing, but everybody is getting there.The lightbulb goes off at one point in each person. And they say,“I think I’ve got it.”Then you have another rehearsal. And you don’t want to kill the thing, so you leave it alone until you begin shooting.

You’re always thinking of that original idea—the mood, the character. And through talking, rehearsing, talking, rehearsing, pretty soon it comes. And once everyone catches that drift, they’re rolling down the line with you, and they’re flowing with the things that were in the original idea.That’s how it works.

FEAR

 

 

 

I hear stories about directors who scream at actors, or they trick them somehow to get a performance. And there are some people who try to run the whole business on fear. But I think this is such a joke—it’s pathetic and stupid at the same time.

When people are in fear, they don’t want to go to work. So many people today have that feeling.Then the fear starts turning into hate, and they begin to hate going to work. Then the hate can turn into anger and people can become angry at their boss and their work.

 

If I ran my set with fear, I would get 1 percent, not 100 percent, of what I get. And there would be no fun in going down the road together. And it
should
be fun. In work and in life, we’re all supposed to get along. We’re supposed to have so much fun, like puppy dogs with our tails wagging. It’s supposed to be great living; it’s supposed to be fantastic.

Instead of instilling fear, if a company offered a way for everyone in the business to dive within—to start expanding energy and intelligence—people would work overtime for free. They would be far more creative. And the company would just leap forward.This is the way it can be. It’s not the way it is, but it could be that way so easily.

ALL TOGETHER NOW

 

 

 

When you work, you want a happy crew going down the road together. You need the ability to focus on things as a group. You need to concentrate on one thing at a time and not have a million different things distracting you.This capacity grows when people start meditating and diving within.

 

There’s an expression: “Where the attention is, that becomes lively.” So when you focus on a thing, it’s almost as if you start it moving and vibrating. You say, “This is what we’re going to do today, this is where we are, and this is what we want to accomplish.” Then the work gets better and the group gets happier.

TWIN PEAKS

 

 

 

Ideas come along in the strangest way when you just pay attention. And sometimes things happen on the set that make you start dreaming.

When we were shooting the pilot for
Twin Peaks
, we had a set dresser named Frank Silva. Frank was never destined to be in
Twin Peaks
, never in a million years. But we were shooting in Laura Palmer’s home and Frank was moving some furniture around in her room. I was in the hall, underneath a fan. And a woman said, “Frank, don’t move that dresser in front of the door like that. Don’t lock yourself in the room.”

 

And this picture came to me of Frank in the room. I went running in and I asked Frank, “Are you an actor?” And he said, “Well, yes, I happen to be,” because everyone in L.A. is an actor. And maybe everyone in the world. So I said, “Frank, you’re going to be in this scene.”