The Fallout’s Kyle MacLachlan Looks Back at ‘Twin Peaks’ and ‘SvATC’ — And Shares Tips on Being a ‘Good Parent’ (Exclusive)
Kyle MacLachlan means something different to everyone who loves him. For Gen Xers who first encountered the actor via surrealist collabs with director David Lynch — Dune, Blue Velvet, Twin Peaks — he was the idiosyncratic, raven-haired dreamboat.
“I’m 22, 23, and I get this weird message on my machine,” MacLachlan exclusively shares in Us Weekly’s latest cover story of nabbing his first big role in 1984’s Dune. “Not a clue what I was doing, but loved the experience.”
Reuniting with Dune director Lynch catapulted MacLachlan to cult-noir status and introduced him to costar Laura Dern, whom he dated for four years after filming. Then, in 1989, Agent Dale Cooper redefined what it meant to be a heartthrob when he set out to find who killed Laura Palmer. “Such a wonderful character,” he says.
Fans who met him post-Y2K might more closely align MacLachlan with comedy, thanks to standout performances in shows like How I Met Your Mother and Portlandia. For others, he will always be Charlotte York’s great-on-paper first husband, Trey MacDougal, in Sex and the City. “It was so groundbreaking at the time,” he says of the sex-positive comedy that launched a thousand brunches. “Working with Kristin Davis was amazing.”
In more than 40 years as a working actor, MacLachlan, 66, has played two different characters on Law and Order: Special Victims Unit, a sinister doctor in Zoë Kravitz’s underrated masterpiece, Blink Twice, Overseer Hank on the postapocalyptic Prime Video hit Fallout (season 2 is out December 17), and too many other roles to fit in one story.
But right here, right now — in the zeitgeist and our collective consciousness — he’s playing his most memorable, beloved role so far: the Internet’s dad.
Over the past few years, the Washington native’s earnest, lighthearted social content has drawn in a new generation of admirers. He has 1.2 million followers on Instagram, who tune in for viral choreo (sometimes with former costars, like his Sex and the City wife Kristin Davis), hear hot takes on wine (including his own, Pursued by Bear) and swoon over sweet photos of his wife of 23 years, Desiree Gruber. Even his spon-con is delightfully quirky. (Looking at you, Arby’s potato cakes.) While other stars aging out of leading man material might be threatened by the youngsters, MacLachlan has embraced and connected with them.
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