David Lynch says he may not direct again after emphysema diagnosis

David Lynch revealed he has been diagnosed with emphysema, leaving him homebound and unable to direct new projects.

David Lynch revealed in a new interview published by a British magazine this week that he has been diagnosed with emphysema, leaving him homebound and unable to direct new projects over fears of getting Covid-19.

Lynch, co-creator of the cult classic Twin Peaks television series, told the Sight and Sound magazine that his condition leaves him only able to walk short distances before he runs out of breath, making directing nearly impossible.

“I’ve gotten emphysema from smoking for so long and so I’m homebound whether I like it or not. It would be very bad for me to get sick, even with a cold,” he told The Guardian.

Emphysema is an incurable disease caused by exposure to cigarette smoke and air pollution.

It’s a type of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (otherwise known as “COPD”) that makes it hard to walk and breathe and worsens over time.

Common treatments include quitting smoking, bronchodilators and corticosteroids to open airways, oxygen therapy and antibiotics to treat infections. In some cases, surgery or lung transplant may be advised, but not all patients are candidates for these procedures.

“Smoking was something that I absolutely loved, but in the end, it bit me,” Lynch said in the interview.

“It was part of the art life for me: the tobacco and the smell of it and lighting things and smoking and going back and sitting back and having a smoke and looking at your work, or thinking about things; nothing like it in this world is so beautiful. Meanwhile, it’s killing me. So I had to quit.”

The diagnosis stalls what’s been a highly successful career for Lynch.

Twin Peaks was a massively influential television series that helped mould the modern-day science fiction mystery show genre. Three of his films, 1980′s The Elephant Man, 1986′s Blue Velvet and 2001′s Mulholland Drive earned him best director nominations at the Academy Awards. He’s also responsible for the 1984 version of Dune (which he later deemed a failure). Lynch, like other notable filmmakers, had a cast of regulars he’d enlist for his projects, including Laura Dern, Kyle MacLachlan and the late Jack Nance.

Lynch’s last feature film was 2006′s Inland Empire, which starred Dern. He more recently worked on Twin Peaks: The Return, a reboot of the original show that aired on Showtime in 2017 and starred MacLachlan.

After the pandemic hit in 2020, Lynch experimented with painting and making new music, leading to his recent collaborative album with the artist Chrystabell, who played agent Tamara Preston in the 2017 Twin Peaks reboot.

Lynch told Sight and Sound there’s a road map for him to direct again in the future, assuming he can do so remotely.

“I would do it remotely if it comes to it,” Lynch said. “I wouldn’t like that so much.”

He hopes his 2010 screenplay Antelope Don’t Run No More will make its way to the box office, but it’s unclear if it will. “We don’t know what the future will bring,” he said.