Kyle MacLachlan Admits He Felt ‘Sheer Horror’ Watching His Infamous “Showgirls” Pool Scene with Elizabeth Berkley

Kyle MacLachlan Admits He Felt ‘Sheer Horror’ Watching His Infamous “Showgirls” Pool Scene with Elizabeth Berkley https://ift.tt/rIy4RLg

The actor shares more about his “painful” first viewing of the 1995 film in his new memoir ‘Fictional Selves,’ out now

Kyle MacLachlan in ‘Showgirls’
Credit: MGM

NEED TO KNOW

• Kyle MacLachlan named his pool scene in Showgirls as a scene that differed greatly from his expectations while filming
• He said he felt “sheer horror” watching it for the first time during an Ethan Hawke-moderated event promoting his memoir Fictional Selves
• MacLachlan shares more about the “painful” experience of viewing Showgirls for the first time in the book, out now

Kyle MacLachlan has dabbled plenty in horror — but to him, few scenes have been more horrifying to watch than his infamous Showgirls pool scene.

From his many collaborations with the late David Lynch to his character’s bedroom issues in Sex and The City, the actor, 67, recently took a trip down memory lane in his new memoir, Fictional Selves, out now. While promoting the book in New York City on Monday, Sept. 28, MacLachlan shared that of every scene he’s ever done, the one that stands out as having the starkest difference from set to screen was his pool scene in Showgirls.

The Twin Peaks star shed light on the infamous sequence while fielding audience questions during his Ethan Hawke-moderated book talk at Symphony Space’s Peter Jay Sharp Theatre. A fan asked MacLachlan if he had ever watched a scene back that “was totally different than what you experienced when you were doing it,” and the actor was quick with his answer.

“Yeah, the scene in the pool in Showgirls,” MacLachlan responded immediately, referring to a dramatic, intimate scene between his and Elizabeth Berkley‘s characters in the 1995 film. (In the scene, as he phrases it in Fictional Selves, “Elizabeth flops around as if in distress, and I hold on for dear life.”)

Credit: Michael Loccisano/Getty

At Monday’s book talk, the Blue Velvet star naming the infamous scene in the now cult classic flick drew laughter and cheers from the crowd — as well as some gentle ribbing from his longtime friend and repeat costar, Hawke.

The 55-year-old actor — MacLachlan’s castmate in Rich in Love (1992), Hamlet (2000), Tesla (2020) and, most recently, The Lowdown — admitted he would revel in seeing MacLachlan squirm over his turn as sleazy Las Vegas club boss Zack Carey in the cult classic.

“I’ve sat at those first screenings where it’s just you and your agent and you watch a movie,” Hawke told the book talk crowd. “Sometimes it’s a nice experience, sometimes it’s not. But the idea of watching you watch Showgirls for the first time— ”

Hawke then broke into laughter as MacLachlan finished his thought: “Sheer horror. Oh my God.”

Credit: Murray Close/Sygma/Sygma via Getty

He recently told PEOPLE that, while filming the now-infamous scene, “I’m thinking, This is edgy.” Watching it back was a different story: “I was like, ‘Oh boy. We’ve got to stop the bleeding.’ ”

In Fictional Selves, MacLachlan recounts his first viewing of the film in detail, describing the experience — pool scene included — as “genuinely painful, as though my eyes have been taped open like Malcolm McDowell’s in A Clockwork Orange.”

Hindsight is 20/20, but as Hawke and MacLachlan both agreed onstage, becoming a good actor requires taking some risks.

“I could imagine people saying to you, ‘Why didn’t you turn Showgirls down?’ A lot of the best films you do are things everybody tells you to turn down,” Hawke told his Hamlet costar. “You have to follow audacious spirit. Until you jump off that cliff, you don’t know what’s going to happen.” 

Kyle MacLachlan and Ethan Hawke in 2000
Credit: J. Vespa/WireImage

MacLachlan agreed with Hawke’s assessment, tying in a quote he uses in Fictional Selves, attributed to another costar and Lynch muse, Isabella Rossellini.

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“I can describe working with David as: one, two, three — ­leap into the void,” reads the quote from Rossellini, 74, which is found in the portion of MacLachlan’s memoir devoted to his experience making Blue Velvet.

“Perfect,” he said after sharing the quote once more on Monday. “It sums it up perfectly.”

Fictional Selves is now available, wherever books are sold.

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