In a little office. He was behind a table.
I came in and we started talking about...
everyday things. We talked about the first cars that we owned.
Mine was a 1960 Alfa Romeo. A convertible.
That was the first car that I owned. He said, "Well, that's something."
I think his was a Volkswagen Beetle.
So we talked about that. Then we talked about a mutual friend, Kenneth McMillan,
who has since passed away.
He was in "Dune".
He played the evil lord Falconnen, or whatever... I can't remember the name.
He was in the movie "Dune" that David directed.
David liked him very much, and Kenneth was a good friend,
so we talked about him for a few minutes.
And that was about it. We just talked for 10 or 12 minutes.
It was after that meeting that he decided that he wanted me in the project somehow.
I don't know if he settled on Leland immediately.
I was hoping that he would pick me to play the Sheriff, Michael Ontkean's role.
But that's another story.
Anyway...
I got a call a few days later to say David wants you to play Leland Palmer.
I said, "Leland Palmer?" I had to go back to the script and look at it.
On the first page I see Leland is in this meeting.
He answers the phone.
He finds out his daughter has been killed and he cries.
He goes to the mortuary to identify his daughter's body... and he cries.
He's in his daughter's room with the police... and he cries!
I said, "Wait a minute. This is a guy who just cries."
I don't know if I'm ready for this.
But, indeed, that was the character that David wanted me to play.
I remember when we went to the ABC Television Network
to get approval by all of the executives.
It's something you have to do when you do a television series for a major network.
I went with Richard Beymer. He and I were sort of together.
I thought maybe he'll turn us into a brother act.
We sort of look alike, maybe we'll be brothers on the show?
It turned out he wanted Richard to be Benjamin Horne,
and me to play Leland Palmer, his lawyer.
So, in a sense, we were like brothers.
He was my only client on the show.
And we were as close as you could get
to that rattlesnake Ben Horne.
We were very close.
We went through
the approval process together.
Richard Beymer and myself.
And I was excited to play Leland Palmer.
Especially in the pilot,
I saw it as a real challenge to...
to play a grieving father in a different way.
You don't see that every day.