David Lynch’s main request for The Fabelmans: a bag of Cheetos

David Lynch has revealed that he only had one major request on the set of The Fabelmans: a bag of Cheetos in his dressing room.

The Mulholland Drive filmmaker made a rare big-screen appearance in Steven Spielberg’s autobiographical drama last year. In an interview with Empire, Lynch waxed poetic about having the cheesy snack on set.

“Well, Cheetos, number one, I love them,” the Twin Peaks creator said. “And any chance I can, I get them. But I know that they’re not exactly health food. So when I do leave the house and I get a chance to… But I don’t get them that often, honestly.”

“If I do get them, I want a big bag,” Lynch continued. “Because once you start… you need to have a lot before you could slow down and actually stop. Otherwise, with a small bag, then you’d be prowling for days to find more.”

“It’s incredible flavor,” he concluded.

Lynch makes a brief but unforgettable appearance as The Searchers director John Ford in The Fabelmans’ final scene. In the sequence, Ford teaches a young Sammy Fabelman (Gabriel Labelle) a valuable lesson in cinematic framing: “if the horizon’s at the bottom, it’s interesting. When the horizon’s at the top, it’s interesting. When the horizon’s in the middle, it’s boring as s---.” 

Spielberg attests that the encounter with Ford actually happened to him in his youth, and Lynch agreed with the Stagecoach director’s wisdom. “John Ford probably had a bunch of things he could call on to give a short education to that young lad. But he picked the horizon bit,” he told Empire. “But it’s true. A horizon in the middle is boring as s---.”

Spielberg originally had another actor in mind for Ford, but Mark Harris, author and husband of Fabelmans co-screenwriter Tony Kushner, suggested Lynch instead. Spielberg then called Laura Dern — star of his own Jurassic Park and frequent collaborator with Lynch on projects like Blue Velvet and Inland Empire — who called Lynch on Spielberg’s behalf.

“At first I didn’t want to do it,” Lynch said of The Fabelmans. “And the reason is, when it comes to acting, I’ve purposely tried to stay away from it, giving the likes of Harrison Ford and George Clooney a chance at their careers.” But Lynch “really liked the scene,” so he agreed — perhaps on the condition of Cheetos — and the rest is history.

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