When David was at the AFI, I said...
I never worked with him directly
but I kind of helped to introduce him to some people
who helped him finance Eraserhead and various things like that.
And we were always, you know, friendly,
so I'd known him for quite a while when he'd cast my wife
as Lara Flynn Boyle's mother in the show.
So when they had a premiere of the show and they showed it,
I went and saw it and I really liked the pilot a lot.
I thought it was really fantastic. And afterwards he came up to me
and asked me if I'd be interested in directing.
And I had never done any television before that and...
But I had never thought about it.
But with David being the one in charge of the show,
I thought it would really be great.
So I was really excited about the possibility of directing those shows.
Well, the way the show was written originally was
that Ben and Jerry would be talking about their past,
but there really was not a flashback.
But, you know, when I was reading it and thinking about the show,
I was thinking it would be great to have a flashback.
And it would really fit into the style of the show
the way it had been evolving over the first year and a half.
So I went to David with the idea, and I said:
"David, what about a flashback here, you know,
and we have these two kids, Ben and Jerry as little kids.
And then we have Louise Dombrowski dancing."
And he goes, "Oh, that's a great idea."
It was really creative in the early days of doing the show
because David really encouraged all the directors to come with ideas.
He really would respond to really good ideas.
So, you know, once we got an agreement to do that,
Lori Eschler, who was the music supervisor, you know,
found some music, and we started listening to it.
And I was looking for something
that could be an old-fashioned sort of rock 'n' roll piece
from when Ben and Jerry were little,
so we ended up using that in playback when we did the scene.
And we couldn't afford really to cast it, and it was pretty much an extra,
so, you know, Emily Fincher, who worked in the office,
you know, agreed to do it.
And she was great. And, of course, she's the sister of David Fincher.
And so, you know, it ended up being this sort of...
I mean, I'm really proud of that particular part of the show.
Because it's really...
To me, first of all, I think it's loyal to David's visions and everything
and yet it adds another dimension to that show
that otherwise wouldn't have existed.
You know, in addition to watching Twin Peaks,
I mean, you look at Blue Velvet and Eraserhead
and all of David's movies,
you can kind of come to an understanding
of who these characters are and where they come from.
But they're always based in a reality.
There's nothing... There's nothing false about them.
I mean, they could've been,
in a sense, documentaries about people.
And everybody acted like Twin Peaks was so weird,
but it really isn't that weird. I mean, it's really...
And I don't think you could... If you're directing it,
I don't think you could treat it as being weird.
I mean, you had to accept
that these characters exist in humanity
and are out there. And they are out there.
And, you know, you read news reports and those people are there.
The more somebody tries to treat it as being fantastical
and that they were dropped on Earth from Mars or somewhere...
You know, they're crazy because it's just not true.
I mean, these characters exist
and it's what makes them really fascinating
because nobody usually deals with that.
I mean, most characters in most TV shows
and in most films are pretty one-dimensional.
They're either evil or good.
You know, or they're good but become evil.
But, you know, the thing that's great about these characters
is that within the context of everybody
who you end up really liking in the show
is the possibility that there's an underpinning,
you know, of a dark world that exists within them.
I mean, just the way, you know, you can have, you know, nightmares.
And just the way you can, you know, imagine
that under certain circumstances, you can do something horrible.
And that's what was wonderful about the show,
was the reality that David was able to create.