Laura Dern Reveals What David Lynch Really Thought About Winning an Oscar

David Lynch finally won his first Oscar earlier this year at the Governors Awards, where the “Blue Velvet” and “Twin Peaks” icon received an honorary Academy Award (Lynch has technically never received a competitive Oscar, which is blasphemy). Lynch’s acceptance speech went viral because of its briefness. “To the Academy and everyone who helped me along the way, thanks,” the director said. Then Lynch addressed the statue: “You have a very nice face. Good night.” And that was that. Fortunately, Lynch muse Laura Dern has finally shed some light on the director’s reaction.

Dern attended the Governors Awards this year to give Lynch his honorary Oscar alongside her “Blue Velvet” co-stars Kyle MacLachlan and Isabella Rossellini. “The whole room goes insane,” Dern tells Vulture about Lynch’s win. “The quintessential moment I’ve had with David in all of these years was, he was holding his Oscar, and we walked back for a smoke. He needed a smoke. And as we went outside, he was holding it and I said, ‘How do you feel?’ and he goes, ‘Wow, this is so pretty. But you know, we’re just lucky.’ Which people say, you know. And I was accepting it in the way I’ve heard other people say it. He goes, ‘I mean, they’re not our ideas. We’re just lucky if we catch them.'”

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“And I’m just like, ‘Yeah, well, that’s David Lynch,'” Dern added. “They’re not our ideas. Things move through us. We didn’t make them up. I just think that’s really beautiful.”

Lynch received his honorary Oscar after earning four competitive Academy Award nominations throughout his career: Best Adapted Screenplay for “The Elephant Man,” Best Director for “The Elephant Man,” Best Director for “Blue Velvet,” and Best Director for “Mulholland Drive.” Lynch’s last directorial effort was the Showtime limited series “Twin Peaks: The Return,” which has been cited by numerous critics as one of the best TV shows of the decade. The filmmaker has yet to reveal a follow-up project in either film or television.

“It just gets better and better,” Dern told Vulture of her long-running collaboration with Lynch, which in addition to “Blue Velvet” and “Twin Peaks: The Return” also includes “Wild at Heart” and “Inland Empire.” “He’s incredible. He’s everything you want him to be.”