![LYNCHIAN .com ─ LONG LIVE DAVID LYNCH [1946-∞]](https://lynchian.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/lynchian-animation-transparent-2.gif)
My heart is broken. My Buddy Dave… The world will not be the same without him. His creative mentorship was truly powerful. He put me on the map. The world I’d been trying to break into for ten plus years, flunking auditions left and right. Finally, I sat in front of a curious man, beaming with light, speaking words from another era, making me laugh and feel at ease. How did he even “see me” when I was so well hidden, and I’d even lost sight of myself?!
It wasn’t just his art that impacted me – his wisdom, humor, and love gave me a special sense of belief in myself I’d never accessed before.
Every moment together felt charged with a presence I’ve rarely seen or known. Probably because, yes, he seemed to live in an altered world, one that I feel beyond lucky to have been a small part of. And David invited all to glimpse into that world through his exquisite storytelling, which elevated cinema and inspired generations of filmmakers across the globe.
I just cannot believe that he’s gone. I’m in pieces but forever grateful for our friendship.
I’m yelling from the bullhorn: Godspeed, Buddy Dave! Thank you for your everything.
—Buttercup xox
Naomi Watts achieved international recognition through her dual role as Betty Elms/Diane Selwyn in David Lynch’s psychological thriller “Mulholland Drive” (2001), which began as a TV pilot in 1999 before being transformed into a feature film. Lynch personally selected Watts for the role after an exhaustive casting process, and their collaboration would continue when she appeared in his surreal web series “Rabbits” (2002), where she played a humanoid rabbit living in a sitcom-like setting complete with an unsettling laugh track. Watts once revealed that she had just $5,000 in the bank and was on the brink of giving up acting when Lynch cast her in the iconic psychological thriller. He changed her life forever.
