For a time, actor Lara Flynn Boyle seemed to be everywhere. From her breakout role in "Twin Peaks" to her stint on "The Practice," she had a thriving career and a familiar face.
And then ... we didn't see much of her anymore.
But in a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Boyle, 51, explains how that all came to be — and refutes the idea that her new film, "Death in Texas," is a comeback ("I never went away," she said). Yet she did step out of the spotlight, having been burned by too much tabloid coverage.
"Well, it’s not always a pony in a parade, but I chose my career," she said. "I chose the highs, and I chose the lows. This career I have chosen has been kinder to me than it hasn’t. If I can’t roll with the bumps, then I have no business riding the roller coaster."
That said, she feels she's taken more than her share of lumps. "Of course, I’m a human being and there are going to be questions that come into your head or your heart. I don’t know if this is good or bad, but I have weathered the storm with a lot of negative publicity and at the end of the day, I’ll take the negative publicity and keep on rolling. It's worth it."
"Death in Texas" is the first acting job she's taken on in five years, and a quick look at her IMDb entry reveals that her last extended job in television was from 2005 to 2006 in "Las Vegas." Audiences first got to know her in 1989, when she popped as one of the stars of "Peaks," then followed her along in films like "The Road to Wellville" and "Threesome," landing at "The Practice" in 1997, where she stayed until 2003.
But after that, the roles were fewer and far between, and she'd gotten bruised after the press laid into her for an outfit she wore at the 60th annual Golden Globes — a kind of formal ballerina tutu. Then there were comments on her (alleged) cosmetic procedures.
Being chased by photographers became a bane of her life. "They’re like mosquitoes," she said. "The minute you leave your house, it’s like mosquitoes. They’re like, 'Boyle has left the side entrance. Boyle is now going out the main gate.'"
But, she reiterated, "I chose this profession. I would be a total jerk if I complained about it. If I'm going to take the paycheck, I’m also going to take the bad publicity. It's going to happen."
Instead of worrying about it, Boyle chose to back away from watching her films (she said she's only watched about 45 percent of "anything I've ever done") and does not own a computer or cellphone. She's definitely last century in that aspect.
For her, acting is not about vanity. "I gave that up a long time ago," she said. "I want to commit to a scene and if you look in a mirror, you’re not in a scene. I was there, I committed, I earned my money. I was raw and real and did my job and then I’ve got to move on. I can’t do anything about how an editor or a director sees a scene or how they want to slice it. Those minutes were my beautiful time to communicate with my scene partner. I got my presents, I got my candy, and now I move on."
As for "Death in Texas," she's fine with the idea of it being considered a "B" movie. "People used to make fun of us actors who wanted to do B movies... I never lost interest in them, in my whole life. Now they’re classy and cool and everyone loves them. It’s guerrilla filmmaking, and we all want to make good movies and tell good stories when you don’t care about the size of the trailer or anything. It's like acting camp and to this day, I'm always like, "Sign me up for acting camp.'"
"Death in Texas" is now available on Amazon Prime.