When your work gets a hammering, how do you protect yourself?
David Lynch: The biggest protection is to feel that you did something that you like. That protects you a lot. It’s when you don’t like what you’ve done, and other people don’t like it, then it’s a double whammy. It’s very bad. And then there’s often something in the air that keeps people from actually seeing the work for what it is. There’s something else that’s maybe not real that they’re reacting to more than the work. If some time goes by, they see the same thing again but now it’s more worthwhile.
That happens sometimes. I feel bad that Fire Walk with Me did no business and that a lot of people hated the film. I really like the film. But it had a lot of baggage with it. It’s as free and as experimental as it could be within the dictates it had to follow.
Did that experience make you rethink anything about your moviemaking?
Lynch: I just hope that I get a chance to keep making pictures in the atmosphere of freedom to make mistakes, and to find those magical things. Then I don’t care what else happens. I would like the people who invest in the pictures to make some money, and to be happy they went along.