Kyle MacLachlan has spent more than 40 years becoming an actor whose characters can feel as recognizable as the man himself. From David Lynch’s Dune and Blue Velvet to Twin Peaks, Sex and the City, Desperate Housewives, and Portlandia, his career has moved between the strange and odd. Fictional Selves explores the space between MacLachlan and his characters.
Written by
Julian Vega
in
From the Shelf
Book Review
Performing arts
Fictional Selves: Kyle MacLachlan and the Many Lives of an Actor
A Book of Doppelgängers
At the center of Fictional Selves is “Other Kyle,” MacLachlan’s imaginary counterpart and critic. The concept explores celebrity, identity, and becoming more recognizable than your actual self. Rather than listing career highlights, the memoir uses his various selves to ask what remains underneath.
That makes the book intriguing for readers who know him as Agent Dale Cooper. MacLachlan has said Cooper may be the role he is most likely to be remembered for, while also pointing out that it represents only part of his story. Fictional Selves promises to look beyond the coffee, cherry pie, and black suit.
Making Peace with Showgirls
No MacLachlan memoir would be complete without Showgirls. The infamous film and its pool scene are part of his pop-culture mythology, but the material here seems less interested in protecting that mythology than having a good laugh at it. His self-deprecation could be one of the memoir’s most appealing qualities.
The book also reaches into MacLachlan’s collaborations with David Lynch, Laura Dern, Dennis Hopper, Anthony Hopkins, and others. Along the way come stories about ambition, love, and fatherhood, offering fans new dimensions to familiar roles.
More Than One Life
Fictional Selves is due to arrive on September 29, 2026, so this is a book to anticipate rather than one we can judge on the page just yet. What we know points toward a memoir built around curiosity, humor, and a willingness to examine glamorous and embarrassing chapters.
MacLachlan has said he hopes readers might recognize something of themselves in his story. That feels fitting for a book about doppelgängers and alternate selves. The title asks: how many different lives can one person live inside a single life? We’ll find out when the book arrives.
