Actress Mädchen Amick is probably best known for playing waitress Shelly Johnson on the original run of “Twin Peaks,” which was over 25 years ago. Despite that gap, some things haven’t changed. Not only is her uniform the same as the one wore when the show first aired April 8, 1990, but the character is still a waitress.
When asked by TheWrap’s Stuart Brazell if she was annoyed by this lack of career change, Amick smiled.
“I kind of loved it, to be honest,” she said.
Despite any fans who were hoping Johnson would’ve made a transition in the past couple decades, it worked out for Amick. The actress said she got emotional when she went in for a fitting of the uniform that was the exact same one she wore when filming 27 years ago.
“I started crying,” she recalled. “I went in and did a fitting and it was the same uniform that I wore — it still had my initials on it — and I was just overcome with emotion and it was just really touching.”
Reprising her role meant she got to work once again with co-star Dana Ashbrook, who played her love interest Bobby Briggs, and David Lynch, who she has fond memories of from her past experience.
For example, she told Brazell about filming a scene with Ashbrook with the two of them flirting in a car. Instead of most directors, who would film from afar, Lynch wanted to be in the middle of the action.
“David Lynch is not somebody who will go in another car and watch the monitor with headphones,” Amick said. “He wants to be there, he wants to direct you personally. So, he was just laying down there [on the floor of the car] while we were up here just doing the scene.”
This included giving the actors tips on how heavily to make out (on a scale from one to 10, he wanted it at an 11).
Unfortunately for fans desperate for any tiny detail about the revival, which is being heavily guarded, Amick didn’t divulge much. She did, however caution people who haven’t experienced the show to think about binge-watching the original. She clarified that viewers can come into it with no prior knowledge, but they’d be missing a lot of the experience.
“I think you really need to watch the original just to know where it came from,” she explained. “I think if you just come into it right now not seeing anything you’ll enjoy it, it’s going to be great, but just to see all the little quirkiness and the nuances that are layered in to have a reference back to the original I think is important.”
“Twin Peaks” premieres on Showtime on Sunday, May 21.