Before Twin Peaks, actress Lara Flynn Boyle had yet to have her big break. She had a regular stream of supporting roles and guest spots on TV, and even shot scenes in both Ferris Bueller’s Day Off and Dead Poet’s Society, though these scenes were cut from the final films. In 1988, Boyle had her feature film debut as Donna Gardner in Poltergeist III.
Boyle’s career-changing role came in 1989 when she was cast as Donna Hayward in director David Lynch’s mysterious television drama Twin Peaks. This was the show that made Boyle’s career, as she puts it, and it still stands out as one of her best roles. She would parlay Twin Peaks’ success into a career in TV and film, including Wayne’s World and The Practice, the latter in which she would star for the first seven of the show’s eight seasons.
Since then, Boyle has had spotty TV and film appearances, but nothing that matches her early career momentum and ’90s output. What happened, and what is Lara Flynn Boyle up to now?
Drama on Twin Peaks Season Two
Twin Peaks season two is famously the most frustrating entry in the series. This can largely be boiled down to the studio’s poor decision to force the Laura Palmer mystery aspect of the show to a close. From the beginning, Lynch planned on leaving the case unsolved and instead using it to continue to bring new characters and viewers to the world of Twin Peaks. ABC disagreed, Lynch left after the first two episodes, and the mystery is unceremoniously solved less than halfway through the second season’s 22 episode run.
Even though there’s solid evidence of why season two failed, that hasn’t stopped fans from circulating rumors about the series to this day. One of the more prominent ones: Lara Flynn Boyle used her relationship with star Kyle MacLachlan to alter parts of Cooper’s storyline.
Sherilyn Fenn, who played Audrey Horne in the original series, claimed in a 2017 interview that she should have been Coop’s love interest in season two, but Boyle apparently refused to let that happen. Boyle and MacLachlan were dating at the time, and Fenn speculates that the actress was somehow responsible for keeping Audrey and Coop apart, one of the biggest misgivings for fans.
Lara Flynn Boyle’s Post Twin Peaks Career
After Twin Peaks ended, Boyle had a steady career in Hollywood with roles in films such as Wayne’s World, Baby’s Day Out, and The Road to Wellville. The films she appeared in were mostly good to middling, with few standouts. It wouldn’t be until 1997 that Boyle had another huge success on her hands, along with two indie masterpieces (Happiness and Afterglow).
Originally, Boyle auditioned for the title role in David E. Kelley’s Ally McBeal, but that role went to Calista Flockhart. Kelley, however, was quite impressed and later cast Boyle as Assistant District Attorney Helen Gamble in his other legal drama, The Practice. For seven seasons, Helen Gamble relentlessly pursued justice even if it meant skirting the law. She even crossed over twice to Ally McBeal.
Her story, however, was cut short. Due to extreme budget cuts, Boyle and several of her castmates were fired from the show. Helen Gamble disappeared completely, vanishing in the void between seasons seven and eight.
Boyle’s career started to slow at this point, as few of her projects managed to capture the audience that Twin Peaks and The Practice had. Around when her time on the legal drama was ending, the actress appeared as the shapeshifting villain in Men in Black II. From here, Boyle’s career slowed down significantly.
Where Did Lara Flynn Boyle Go and Why No Twin Peaks Return?
When asked where she’s been over the last few years, Lara Flynn Boyle is clear that she never went anywhere; instead, she’s taking roles she wants to. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter in 2020 to promote her newest film Death in Texas, Boyle stated that she’s always wanted to be in B movies (“B for best” she opines).
The Hollywood landscape is different from what it used to be, and while agents and executives used to view B movies as anathema to an actor’s career, that’s no longer the case. “It’s guerilla filmmaking,” states Boyle, “and we all want to make good movies and tell good stories when you don’t care about the size of the trailer or anything.”
Boyle’s later projects reflect her independent spirit and demonstrate that she’s not the type to take herself too seriously. For instance, one of these roles is as the pot-growing Witch Agnes in the horror comedy Hansel and Gretel Get Baked. Silly parts didn’t keep Boyle from still pursuing more serious roles, too, like the aging prostitute in Life is Hot in Cracktown or the protagonist’s ailing mother in Death in Texas. While she didn’t return to Twin Peaks, she kept busy with other things, not looking back.
What Is Lara Flynn Boyle Doing Now?
Acting can be a difficult career, but Lara Flynn Boyle has weathered the storm with grace: “This career I have chosen has been kinder to me than it hasn’t.” Despite unfounded negative attention surrounding Boyle’s weight and appearance over the years the actress is happy enough acting that the paparazzi is worth it.
One thing that helps? Staying offline. Boyle is incredibly aware of the media attention surrounding her but interacts with it minimally if at all. As opposed to many of her famous coworkers, Boyle doesn’t use a computer or smartphone: “Could not tell you how to Google,” she told The Hollywood Reporter. So, no Facebook, no Twitter, no nothing to whet salacious fans’ appetites for rumors and drama.
What happened to Lara Flynn Boyle? Nothing, really. She may not be in the spotlight, but she’s simply doing the thing she loves most: acting.
