Naomi Watts Had To Go To David Lynch's House To Read Her 'Twin Peaks' Scripts

With the “Twin Peaks ” countdown nearing its final hours, we still know almost nothing about what the revival of the eccentric ‘90s classic will entail. Neither does Naomi Watts , and she’s in the damn thing.

One of the many “Twin Peaks” rookies who will appear in the 18-episode limited series premiering Sunday on Showtime, Watts wasn’t sent a single script. She had to venture to co-creator David Lynch’s Los Angeles home to read her scenes. Even that was cagey: “If there were five or six lines said before I started speaking, they were crossed out blacked out completely,” Watts said Thursday during an interview for next month’s “The Book of Henry .” 

Since she was cast more than a year ago , Watts has had a “difficult” time safeguarding whatever secrets she does know. This was “next-level” confidentiality, but Watts was happy to “protect” Lynch’s “level of privacy.” It’s not her first Lynchian rodeo, after all Watts’ breakout moment was the director’s neo-noir psychodrama “Mulholland Drive.” 

The size of Watts’ role is unclear, especially considering how many other A-listers are joining the new season (Laura Dern, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Jim Belushi, Michael Cera, Amanda Seyfried, Tim Roth, Ashley Judd, Ernie Hudson). Because Showtime did not release screeners for journalists and critics, all we know is that “Twin Peaks: The Return” picks up 25 years after the original series’ culmination , with Special Agent Dale Cooper (Kyle McLachlan) and other fixtures returning to deepen (and perhaps clarify?) the lingering mysteries surrounding Laura Palmer’s murder.  

Shooting in small-town Washington and parts of Southern California “strange places,” in Watts’ words helped avoid paparazzi shots that sometimes leak spoilers from film and television sets. “And it’s part of the fun,” Watts said. “The not knowing makes it fun. And you trust David because he is who he is. He’s unique. You give yourself over. He’s done it so brilliantly time and time again, and you just enjoy his little magical world that he’s creating.”