Kyle MacLachlan means something different to everyone who loves him. For Gen Xers who first encountered the actor via surrealist collabs with director David Lynch — Dune, Blue Velvet, Twin Peaks — he was the idiosyncratic, raven-haired dreamboat.
“I’m 22, 23, and I get this weird message on my machine,” MacLachlan exclusively shares in Us Weekly’s latest cover story of nabbing his first big role in 1984’s Dune. “Not a clue what I was doing, but loved the experience.”
Reuniting with Dune director Lynch catapulted MacLachlan to cult-noir status and introduced him to costar Laura Dern, whom he dated for four years after filming. Then, in 1989, Agent Dale Cooper redefined what it meant to be a heartthrob when he set out to find who killed Laura Palmer. “Such a wonderful character,” he says.
Fans who met him post-Y2K might more closely align MacLachlan with comedy, thanks to standout performances in shows like How I Met Your Mother and Portlandia. For others, he will always be Charlotte York’s great-on-paper first husband, Trey MacDougal, in Sex and the City. “It was so groundbreaking at the time,” he says of the sex-positive comedy that launched a thousand brunches. “Working with Kristin Davis was amazing.”
In more than 40 years as a working actor, MacLachlan, 66, has played two different characters on Law and Order: Special Victims Unit, a sinister doctor in Zoë Kravitz’s underrated masterpiece, Blink Twice, Overseer Hank on the postapocalyptic Prime Video hit Fallout (season 2 is out December 17), and too many other roles to fit in one story.
But right here, right now — in the zeitgeist and our collective consciousness — he’s playing his most memorable, beloved role so far: the Internet’s dad.
Over the past few years, the Washington native’s earnest, lighthearted social content has drawn in a new generation of admirers. He has 1.2 million followers on Instagram, who tune in for viral choreo (sometimes with former costars, like his Sex and the City wife Kristin Davis), hear hot takes on wine (including his own, Pursued by Bear) and swoon over sweet photos of his wife of 23 years, Desiree Gruber. Even his spon-con is delightfully quirky. (Looking at you, Arby’s potato cakes.) While other stars aging out of leading man material might be threatened by the youngsters, MacLachlan has embraced and connected with them.
“It’s so nice to hear that I’m a comforting figure,” he shares. “My approach has always been joyful… to have fun on the internet; to be as understanding and nonjudgmental as possible.” That comes naturally: “I’ve always been a silly person, even though, when I started, the things I was doing were more serious, I’m at heart, just a kid, really.”
That kinship with younger fans resulted in the September-launched podcast “What Are We Even Doing?”, which features conversations with famous millennials and Gen Zers, including, so far, people like Kaia Gerber, Dylan O’Brien and Caleb Hearon. “We have to understand what’s happening as opposed to disregarding. I want to embrace this partly because my son is 17,” he says, but also because he wants to pay it forward: When MacLachlan was coming up, he looked to figures like James Dean and Marlon Brando. Now it’s his turn to play mentor. “I said, ‘What if I find some people that are doing things I find interesting, and we can talk about it?’” he tells Us about the pod. “I can bring my side of the perception, my experiences to the table, they bring theirs.” One dream guest he has yet to nab? Charli XCX. “I’m hoping she’ll come on the podcast,” he says. “She’s been on a journey for a while … She has gone through it.”
When you’re lucky enough to get one-on-one time with Big Daddy, you don’t waste it, so we too asked MacLachlan for his tips to living a delightful, openhearted life. Shot exclusively for Us Weekly at Regent Santa Monica Beach resort in the Santa Monica Suite, here’s what he told Us.
Always Lead With Kindness
“I try to put people at ease if they’re feeling a little uncomfortable or nervous,” MacLachlan says about meeting fans. “I say, ‘I’m just a kid from Yakima, and this is what I do, and I really love it, and I’m so glad you love it too.’ I try to make them feel as comfortable as possible, and that I’m genuinely glad to see them and happy to have a conversation with them. That’s important to me.”
That sort of compassion goes for all his human interactions. “I try to connect as much as I can with a person and not to judge, because I don’t know what their day was, what an hour was before, a day before, what they’ve grown up [with]. I don’t know anything really about them, when I meet someone. So I come in and I say, I’m putting my best effort forward, and they’re trying to do their best.”
Find Your People
MacLachlan vibes best with others who share his playful spirit, like late longtime collaborator Lynch, who “had a sense of joy about him,” and ex Dern, who “likes to play — really fun, creative play. I’m so grateful that I make my living doing that. For the most part, people that are in the industry that I like have that creative playfulness.”
He name-checks his Lowdown costar Ethan Hawke and director Sterlin Harjo as other kindred spirits. “These are the people that help make me better and help make me enjoy the day and have fun together. That creative spark, that creative energy, is really important to me.”
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Believe the Children Are Our Future
It’d be easy for older generations to look down at youngsters and shake their heads disapprovingly. MacLachlan would rather incline his thoughtfully to the side to listen and learn, whether about new slang — “I just learned ‘glazed’,” he tells Us — or work and friendship ethics. His podcast guests — people like I Love LA actor-writer-director-producer Rachel Sennott, and podcaster-actor-comedian Grace Kuhlenschmidt — are all “extremely hard working,” he says. “This whole term, the multihyphenate, they do many different things… These are all really creative people. They’re writing, they’re directing, they’re writing music.”
More than that, they’re building community — with help from, not in spite of, social media. “They use social in such a creative way and in such a spotlight-shining way, if they want to highlight something they’re doing or one of their friends. They cross-pollinate. They’re aware of each other, they’re inspired by each other.” The business was much more solitary when he was starting out, says MacLachlan. For all the talk about young people being anesthetized and isolated by their phones, MacLachlan believes his younger peers are “all interconnected, which is really cool. There’s a lot of encouragement and ‘We should do this together.’”
Learn to Coexist With Anxiety
He’s still figuring this one out! “I should think about trying to keep myself centered more, because I tend to get sort of caught up in things, and I’m a terrible worrier,” MacLachlan says. “Three or four in the morning, I wake up, and I’m worrying about anything, about everything. Then I go back to sleep, and I wake up in the morning, like, ‘I’m ready to go. I’m ready to greet the day.’ So somehow it’s worked its way through, and I don’t really understand it, but when the day starts, I feel very energized and positive.” Having a peaceful moment over a cup of coffee helps, he says: “I like an early morning because it’s quiet.”
Don’t Look Back in Anger
The actor’s first major film role was as Paul Atreides in Lynch’s 1984 adaptation of Dune, the cult 1965 Frank Herbert book. The movie was a commercial and critical flop. Then in 2021, a young whippersnapper named Timothée Chalamet brought Paul back to life in Denis Villeneuve’s version, which won six Oscars and spawned multiple sequels. (Part three is due in 2026.) No one would fault MacLachlan for being bitter, but he’s not. “I love the story, so of course I was very excited to see the new version… I had such a feeling of nostalgia when I watched the new film, remembering the scenes and where we were, so it was kind of weird. I would go in and out of focus with Tim and the cast, and remembering back to me and the cast that I had. It was a very liquid experience that I really loved, actually.” Of Chalamet, he says, “He’s amazing.”
Ask Lots of Questions
MacLachlan credits his own dad with instilling in him a sense of curiosity. “He would often ask [me and my two younger brothers], ‘How do you feel about that? What do you think?’ And so he would elicit a response from us as we were growing up.” That carried over into the way the actor shows up for his teenage son, Callum, “but I also bring in my experiences,” which, he says, initially made Callum uncomfortable. MacLachlan’s reasoning was, “I think that is really helpful for someone young to hear that they’re not going through this alone [and] someone else has gone through it, has a perspective, nonjudgmental. Just to say, ‘I did this. I screwed up here. I did this. This felt good to me,’ and to offer some advice and sort of say, ‘You might think about this’ or, ‘Does that resonate with you?’” The best way to be a good parent, says MacLachlan, is to encourage your kids to be whoever they are. “It’s really about trying to nurture that they’re going to be who they’re going to be, and I’m just there to make sure I can offer any kind of help along the way.”
Don’t Sleep on the Journey
Destinations are great, but sometimes the trip is even better. When MacLachlan and his team first decided to do a podcast, they “narrowed it down to this idea of talking to a younger generation and bringing some of my input in and discovering… how they use social and their creative process,” he says. The group’s own creative process of brainstorming led to the question, “What are we even doing?” — which inspired the podcast name and ethos. “The creative process is all over the place; there’s really no way to define what you’re doing, you just know you’re creating something. You’re on this journey. It’s coming from a deep place.”
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Look for Unexpected Opportunities
MacLachlan grew up in Eastern Washington, which has loads of wineries. “I kind of wanted an excuse to go back home and spend time with my dad,” he says, “and I know he enjoyed wine.” So in 2005, the actor partnered with a winemaker from Dunham Cellars in Walla Walla, Washington, and Pursued by Bear was born. (The brand’s name is taken from a stage direction in The Winter’s Tale: “I cut my teeth on Shakespeare,” he says.) “I have nine wines now, and they’re all good. We’re very small production, and I’m very serious about it. The quality of the wine is really important to me. I’ve just been enjoying the journey.”
Get Comfy Being Uncomfy
“I have a really hard time with chaos, but I’m trying to get more comfortable with it,” he says, and this is yet another area where young folks inspire him. “I liken it to when you’re working on set and you come in to do a scene… If you work with an actor of a certain generation, it’ll be the scene as you learned it; there’s expected things, and the director’s here. If you work with someone of a younger generation, the script is just a starting point. From there, you begin to go all different places, and you can change the tone.” He points again to his Lowdown costar Hawke, 55, as inspiration. He’s “not that much younger than me, but it’s the same kind of thing. He’s embraced that kind of somewhat chaotic process. That is something I’m trying to figure out a little bit more and get more comfortable with.”
Make Good Choices … Within Reason
“My wife is very conscious of [water intake], so she helps me out,” he tells Us. “She says, ‘Drink more water.’ OK, I drink more water… I’m peeing all the time.” As for what else keeps him young, the ever-generous star credits other people: a “great makeup person and really good parents.” Otherwise he balances common sense with living his best life. “I love wine; supposed to be good for you — antioxidants, right? I’m diet-conscious-ish; I know when I’m having something good, when I’m not having something good, but I’m not regimented. Sometimes I wash my face at night, sometimes I don’t. I do take care of my teeth; that’s important. I like a bone broth in the morning. It’s just warm and nice and easy; it gets you 15 grams of protein. Just a nice way to start the day. So that works for me. There you go.”
For more on MacLachlan, watch the exclusive video above — and pick up the latest issue of Us Weekly, on newsstands now.
