Laura Harring on the Mulholland Drive Follow-Up: 'Please Don't Get Me in Trouble!'

Laura Harring can't help it: Mystery just follows her wherever she goes. It's what made her perfect for the alluring amnesiac in David Lynch's masterpiece Mulholland Drive, and the ideal candidate to play Chuck Bass's engimatic mother this season on Gossip Girl. Even in her real life, Harring can get people speculating with little more than a tossed-off comment, as she did when she hinted recently that there might be more Mulholland left in her future.

As Harring prepared for her Screen Actors Guild Conversation Forum tonight in Los Angeles, Movieline spoke to the actress to see what she meant about a return to the world of David Lynch, and how her own ties to royalty helped prepare her for her plunge into Gossip Girl.

Not long ago, you did an interview with PopcornBiz and you made some very mysterious comments about some sort of follow-up to Mulholland Drive. Do you have any idea how many blogs have picked that up and analyzed that since?

[Laughs] You know what? I didn't mean to do that. The truth is that David is always creating, and I'm in constant touch with him and his wife Emily. We just have such a good time. I didn't mean to say what David is doing or not doing, but we definitely have talked about collaborating in the future. We've talked about it several times. I've heard a piece of music that I believe could be...[long pause] in one of his films. Please don't get me in trouble, Kyle! [Laughs]

I think I sort of understand. Inland Empire, at least, didn't initially present itself as a feature film. He started creating little things and then the film came out of that, right?

I know that he did Inland Empire over two years, and I know that he sometimes gets an inspiration and writes something else and goes to shoot it. I'm not sure exactly how he did [Empire], if it was scripted or improvised; I just participated in one day, where he brought in my character from Mulholland Drive for it at the end of the movie, just like a little cameo. I just know that whatever he creates is pretty genius, and whether he's making a new film or a sequel to Mulholland Drive, I don't know. I know that there's another film that's going to manifest soon. That's my impression anyway.

Of course, the route that Mulholland Drive took from rejected pilot to feature film worked out for the best. Still, do you ever think about what would have happened if it had gone to series?

David loves mystery, and he's really an expert in building it up. My impression was that the TV series was kind of like Twin Peaks with "Who killed Laura Palmer" and that the big question would be, "Who is this character who has amnesia?" I think that by the end of the season, everyone would have been on their toes to discover who she is, because there were all these strange happenings around her and a lot of mystery and intrigue. There were a lot of abstract characters looking for her. You know, I've never really wondered about that. I just felt that the destiny of Mulholland Drive was to be a feature film, and I felt that from the beginning. It was strange when they said that the show wasn't going to be picked up. I just had a feeling that it would, and I kept telling Naomi [Watts] that I didn't think it was dead, even though they said it was. I don't know how I got that feeling.

And then, of course, some French producers came who were big fans of David, and they gave him a bit more money and we filmed 18 more pages and shot everything. Everyone says it's a masterpiece. I tell you, out of all the movies I've done, that's the one that people keep referring to as their favorite film. People who love filmmaking just love this movie. I'm very honored to be part of a classic.

Do you ever read about the various theories and interpretations of the movie, or do you think that just isn't the way David works?

I think he intended it to be a big mystery, and I think he had his own interpretation, but he didn't want to share it. He wanted everyone to have their own journey, and I really feel like he accomplished that, based on the comments I get and the people I work with. It's so often that I have people telling me their interpretation, and the most interesting interpretations are from psychologists. I can't tell you these varied interpretations that I've heard! They're all brilliant. It's one of those rare movies where you have your own journey, and it makes you think. I don't like movies where it's so pat. We're smart, we know! You don't have to over-explain.

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