INTERVIEW: Twin Peaks’ Sabrina S. Sutherland talks upcoming Conversation With The Stars tour, working with David Lynch
Thirty-five years after its premiere on ABC, the wonderful and strange Twin Peaks is still revered as one of the greatest television shows of all time. Co-creators Mark Frost and David Lynch changed the modern storytelling landscape forever, acquainting viewers from across the U.S. — and soon after worldwide — with an eccentric Northwestern town, and Special Agent Dale Cooper’s investigation into the tragic death of Laura Palmer.
Twin Peaks was lamentably canceled after two seasons (1990-1991), but not without a subsequent addition to the storyline: a two-hour prequel film directed by David Lynch, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me (1992), detailing Laura Palmer’s grueling final days.
Twenty-five years later, Mark Frost and David Lynch, along with the majority of the original cast, came together to give life to Twin Peaks: The Return, airing on Showtime during the spring and summer of 2017. The 18-part limited-event series dropped us back into the dreamy world of Twin Peaks, but this time granted Lynch complete creative control, and thus a more striking interpretation of the themes present since the show’s inception: the resilience of the human spirit, the origins of evil, and an embracing of the absurd.
Artist and film director David Lynch died early this year on January 16, just four days shy of his 79th birthday. Since then, there has been a huge, almost constant outpouring of love from his family, friends, and fans — heartfelt messages and homages honoring his artistic and spiritual impact. Tribute events have popped up all over the world, bringing fans together to both mourn and celebrate Lynch, his influence, and the boundless worlds he brought to life.
Perhaps the largest Twin Peaks event of the year, the North American tour “Twin Peaks: Conversation With The Stars” will reunite select cast and crew members of the hit television series to share behind-the-scenes stories, meet with fans, and pay tribute to David Lynch with a dedicated video. Appearances include Ray Wise (Leland Palmer), Kimmy Robertson (Lucy Moran), Harry Goaz (Andy Brennan), and Sabrina S. Sutherland (Executive Producer and longtime friend of David Lynch). Sheryl Lee (Laura Palmer) will join as well, but only for a handful of tour dates on the West Coast.
On behalf of New England Sounds, I recently had the great pleasure of speaking with Sabrina S. Sutherland about the upcoming tour, her friendship and working relationship with David Lynch, and the massive impact this transcendental story has had on her and the world. Sutherland collaborated closely with Lynch throughout much of his career. She worked as a production coordinator on the second season of Twin Peaks, production supervisor on Lost Highway (1997), associate producer for Lynch’s final theatrical feature Inland Empire (2006), and more consistently between 2016 and 2024. Sutherland most notably executive-produced (and even cameoed) in Twin Peaks: The Return. And while Lynch didn’t have many major productions on his plate in the last few years of his life, he did create daily weather reports (among other short-form videos) on his YouTube channel “David Lynch Theater” for over two years, which Sutherland helped manage.
In short, if you love Twin Peaks and all things David Lynch, just know that you have Sutherland to largely thank for ensuring the vision was honestly and successfully translated to the screen.
(This interview has been edited for length and clarity.)
Adriana Arguijo Gutierrez: Firstly, I’d like to thank you for all your creative contributions and for taking the time to talk with me!
Sabrina S. Sutherland: Oh, seriously, it’s my pleasure. Anything I can do to help with the world of Twin Peaks, I’m there.
AAG: I had the chance to attend the Harvard Film Archive’s 35mm screening of Eraserhead and Wild at Heart and to see you present it a few months ago, so I’m excited to talk about David Lynch’s legacy and the Twin Peaks tour.
SS: I’m glad you got to see that! I thought that was very special.
AAG: We’re excited to have you back in Boston soon! I believe the last time you went on tour was in 2018 in Australia and New Zealand. It’s clear a lot has changed since then with the pandemic, the fact that it’s been 8 years since The Return premiered in 2017, and of course, with David’s passing in January.
How does this tour feel different for you, and what are you looking forward to the most?
SS: I really love connecting with people who like Twin Peaks because I also am a fan. I want to, like I said, keep that kind of legacy alive and celebrate it. Having David present is a huge difference. When we did Australia and New Zealand, he was able to Zoom in and do kind of a Q&A thing, and he had said he was gonna do that on this tour as well. So it’s doubly disappointing in that respect because he really enjoyed that. Also, just not having my friend there is very, very sad. But still, he was very excited about this tour, and we are looking forward to it happening.
AAG: I think it’s really heartwarming to see the impact his work has had on people, especially Twin Peaks. I mean, it’s been 35 years since the Pilot aired, and I’m still coming across people analyzing and discussing the show, sharing on social media that they’re finally watching it for the first time, and just seeing a new generation discover his work. Can you recall any memorable moments you’ve had with fans, or people sharing their experiences with Twin Peaks?
SS: I’ve had so many good experiences with fans. They’re just so excited about the show. And again, I’m a fan as well, so I like to talk about different things. A lot of the [air quotes] fans I met as fans, but now I’m friends with many of them. Like actual friend-friends. It brings a community together. So I suppose I couldn’t pick one particular thing or a few things, but just overall, the experiences being with fans just feel right. It feels like being with family somehow.
AAG: That’s lovely. It’s always special to be a part of a fandom in that way.
Speaking of David’s effect on people, I often think about his weather reports and other projects uploaded to his YouTube channel, which I know you helped him manage and produce. One of my favorite quotes I’ve been thinking back to lately is from August 28, 2020. He says, “Today, I was thinking, what a great time to be alive if you love the theater of the absurd.” I think a large part of what made David’s work so impactful was his ability to balance optimism and pain, and encourage viewers to develop their own interpretations about his work. His films acknowledge that there is suffering in the world, but there’s always a way to embrace love, humor, and care, in both the stories he told and in life in general.
We all know it’s difficult and uncomfortable to keep up with everything going on in the world, let alone keep ourselves and our loved ones safe. But I was curious to know: what do you personally make of David’s perspective on this, and what does it mean to embrace the absurd today?
SS: David was so full of love for human beings. He was somebody who loved people. Of course, he had bigger views with his transcendental meditation and his belief that we could create world peace through meditation, but that was really his goal. I think that’s just such a beautiful thing. It’s funny, whenever we had any kind of situation where somebody was saying something horrible, or even something unrelated to us out in the world, David would say, “I just need to get in a room with that person and I’ll be able to share the love and have them see the light,” or whatever it is. But he would be able to transform people. I would have loved to see him drop in on all the world leaders and talk to them. I think it would be a much better place right now.
AAG: I really admire that perspective he had about looking within and making changes within yourself to be kinder to other people. It’s so inspiring to hear that his personal philosophies have impacted so many people, including me. I can only imagine how eye-opening it must’ve been to witness him work on set, collaborate with people, and be in that “flow state” I know he loved being in.
What was it like to be a production coordinator on Season 2 of Twin Peaks, and all those years later be on The Return as an executive producer working alongside David?
SS: Oh, it was like night and day, in many respects. I was a little low on the totem pole on the first go-around, and David wasn’t there very often. He was there for his few episodes and that was pretty much it. We didn’t really see him. It was more Harley Peyton and [Robert] Engels who were there running the day-to-day, and Mark [Frost] would be there more often. So it was just a different experience with the way television was. Coming off of that first season and it kind of exploding, it was such a different feeling of the show, and a different reaction from people working on the show.
Jumping ahead to The Return, I have a lot more authority, and I’m kind of at the top as opposed to being down below, overseeing and having that day-to-day relationship with David, because David was there every single day. We worked together for many years on “The Return”. I think it was four or five years that we worked day in and day out on it. It was such a different relationship and a different experience.
Obviously — well, I don’t know if it’s obvious — I prefer the most recent version [of Twin Peaks.] Not because of my position, but because of the ability to maintain that work relationship and friendship with David, which is such a gift. Anyone who worked with David felt like he broke the mold. So if you worked with him and then went on to work on another show, it was like “Oh, this isn’t the same.” And people who came into the industry never having worked before and getting to work with David, going to something else made them realize how special that gift was to be in his world for a while.
AAG: That’s beautiful. To get that context of working on set with other people, and realizing how special it was to share time with him.
SS: Absolutely. I mean, that’s why I made that conscious decision to work with David exclusively at one point. I would be doing film work, which is what my forte was; I wanted to be a film person. But I ended up doing other projects with him just because of his vision and creativity that was so mind-blowing. You don’t wanna lose that.
AAG: How special to have a creative connection like that and have it go on for so many years!
You recently chatted with folks at A Rabbit’s Foot about David’s unreleased project Unrecorded Night. You called it “the best thing he ever did.” And with his possessions being put up for auction, per his request, just a few weeks ago in Los Angeles, it’s been interesting to see people discuss the more unique items sold, like an unfinished screenplay of Ronnie Rocket, for example.
What are your thoughts, if you can share any, on Unrecorded Night or his unreleased works in general? Do you hope they’ll be published as novels someday for fans to learn from and appreciate?
SS: I do hope that eventually it will be seen by other people. We worked on [Unrecorded Night] for two years, just going through and writing it. Then we went to Netflix and started pre-production. After we got shut down in 2020, David was rewriting, and I worked with him, and he changed it a lot and redid things over the past five years. So it became even better. It’s just such an interesting and unique script. But saying it’s the best, it’s kind of the culmination of his life and his work. Everything is in this piece, and we were really excited by it. I’m disappointed that it’s not going to happen with him, certainly. And I don’t know if it could ever really be made in the way he would make it. If it’s made, that would be interesting for sure, but nothing would be like David. But you never know. It could be a book. I would love to see it out in the world, but right now I’m just cherishing the ability to know what it is and being grateful that I was there to work with him on it, read it, and understand what he was trying to say with it.
AAG: I think we’re incredibly lucky to have any project of David’s alive and in its entirety. Of course, it’s normal to want more. That’s just the nature of grief. We’ll always feel like we would like more time with the people who are no longer with us.
SS: In terms of other scripts, too, there are several. During this project and the two years of writing, I went through and pulled out everything that David had written, and we sorted all of these things that he had never published before. He has so much. He was a very prolific writer. There were song lyrics too. Not that that’s in the script, but just seeing all of those things that I found, all of these scripts that hadn’t been published before, like Ronnie Rocket and Snootworld, we asked him, “Hey, we should do something with these. Why are these here? These are great.” I’d really hoped Snootworld was gonna get made. That was that animated film, but that unfortunately didn’t happen. But you can tell, I really like the work David does! So I hope some of these things can be out in the world at some point, for sure.
AAG: I hope so, too! It would be really cool to see some of these projects come to life in some way. Either way, I’m sure his work will be celebrated for a very long time.
With that in mind, what do you hope fans will take from the “Twin Peaks: Conversation With The Stars” tour?
SS: I hope it’s a community celebration, to keep that world alive. David’s no longer here, Mark [Frost] is here, and other people worked on it and created it as a collaboration. You have actors, you have crew people, and other writers who wrote for the original seasons. So you have these people who are either here or not here, but their essence is here. People can still celebrate that, and I’m hoping that’s what this tour will be. I don’t think there has been anything in the U.S. where people have come and discussed the show and been able to meet with other people who are fans as well. That’s what I’m hoping this will be.
AAG: It’s also been cool to see smaller tribute events pop up around the country. There was one here in Boston recently. It was a beautiful tribute to David Lynch at the Somerville Theatre. I just love witnessing a fandom come together to share their appreciation for a person and their art, and it becomes this greater thing.
SS: Yeah, that goes without saying that, not only Twin Peaks, but to be able to celebrate David and have a tribute to him makes me so happy. People have been so touched by David. So many people have reached out and said how much he’s meant to their lives, which is so wonderful. He wasn’t aware that he was so impactful, and that he was so in the consciousness of people. He obviously is. It’s so rare to be a part of something that touched people, and it still does. I’m very lucky.
See Sabrina S. Sutherland and select cast members at the Twin Peaks: Conversation With The Stars U.S. tour this August and October, including Boston’s Wilbur Theatre on Sunday, August 24, 2025 at 7:30 pm. Tickets are available – HERE.
