Before And After David Lynch: In Conversation With Producer Sabrina Sutherland
- Roxy-Moon Dahal Hodson
- 7 hours ago
- 5 min read
Sabrina Sutherland, David Lynch’s distinguished producer of thirty years, joined the crew of Twin Peaks (1990) as an experienced production coordinator, but also a huge fan of the show. In the ‘LADIES OF LYNCH’ podcast, Sutherland explained how she reached out to the team who produced Twin Peaks to get involved with the second season. Once she started working for Lynch, she realised how many people like her also wanted a slice of the pie - Sabrina Sutherland illuminated on a Zoom call from her home - “When I started, every day people would send their resumes to me saying that they wanted to work on Twin Peaks - most of them couldn't be hired. So for me to get that was so lucky.” From there on out, Sutherland worked as a production supervisor on Lost Highway (1997), an associate producer on Inland Empire (2006), and was promoted to executive producer on Twin Peaks: The Return (2017).
Sutherland previously worked as a production coordinator before landing the role on Twin Peaks and on other sets. She claims, “not necessarily do you feel part of the process,” yet Lynch allowed those around him to feel “you were a part of this collaboration.” What was different about her experience on Twin Peaks was not particularly her role, but a genuine love for what was being created, “that was where I wanted to be. That’s the only time in my life that I called because I liked the show so much and I wanted to work on it. I was so happy to be there. It was definitely something that I treasured every day.”
“A before David and an after David” is how Sabrina Sutherland described the change in her professional and personal life when she started working with Lynch; those who surrounded him seemed to feel the same gravitational pull. “Everybody wanted to be there. Everybody wanted to work for him. You could throw out an idea, and he might use it.” Describing Lynch as “friendly” and “funny”, she also said he was “serious as well - he knew what he wanted. With David, everything was just there, and it was a joy - just a joy.”
As the second season was being filmed, David Lynch’s presence on set began to fade due to his focus on other projects, which many critics credit as being the reason for a decline in viewership. When the show ended with the reveal of Laura Palmer’s killer, the next project Sutherland collaborated on with Lynch was Lost Highway (1997) as a production supervisor. After the film was finalised, she was not involved in the post-production, allowing for a big surprise when she had the chance to watch it. "I saw what was shot, then waited, and then all of a sudden, there's a cast and crew screening. To see the finished product together is so ‘wow.’”
Although this was invigorating for Sutherland, getting to see a finished project as a result of her heightened level of responsibility had a bigger impact on her; when working as an executive producer on Twin Peaks: The Return (2017), “I was there throughout and saw every single thing being done. By the time I saw it finalised, I think it had a deeper meaning for me. It meant more because I could see every single element that I was involved with put together.”
Heralded as one of the best pieces of television and ‘transcendent’ by critics, Twin Peaks: The Return was not characterised as most reboots are - an attempt at a nostalgia cash grab - it was revived on co-creators Mark Frost and David Lynch’s terms, with cast and crew returning from the original series. Premiering at a time when the show could not only develop but could also say something new, Sabrina Sutherland’s involvement was essential to revisiting the show in a full-circle moment since she began working with Lynch in 1991. “It meant more because I could see every single element that I was involved with put together. [When I was] watching [and producing] it, all those pieces didn't add up to be the whole. The whole [final product] was bigger than all those pieces. It was even more exciting for me afterwards.” Once The Return was first complete, Sutherland and Lynch watched two episodes per night together, describing it as a “pretty incredible” experience: “I'm really proud of the work I did. There’s no second-guessing. On other shows, there might have been ‘I might have done this better’, but I think that I really did my best.”
However, Sutherland claims that getting to the final product entails grit, dedication, and the willingness to have the difficult conversations. Sabrina Sutherland’s role was to - as Simran Hans highlights in ‘LADIES OF LYNCH’ - “tether” Lynch to the ground, including obligations of telling him what he could not do. Sutherland tells me this was the dynamic that Lynch needed above all, “He trusted me enough to give him reality - that’s what he really wanted. He didn’t want somebody kissing his butt to please him. He wanted somebody who was realistic - that’s what I provided.” Although this conflict management was essential, Sutherland summed up their connection as feeling “big enough to be like brother and sister. We could argue and then be friends. It got to that place that we had a very, very close relationship, and it didn't matter - it wasn't going to affect that.”
There were distinctive qualities about how Sutherland worked that allowed Lynch to trust her completely in helping him produce his projects - “I was truthful, I was a hard worker, I didn’t hesitate to tell him what needed to be done, and I wasn’t afraid to do whatever I needed to do. So he could ask me to do anything, and I would do it. Perhaps it was that - I mean, he wasn't asking me to go hurt somebody,” - she laughs at entertaining that sort of thought about Lynch - “even on set when we're shooting little videos and stuff, I'm willing to get my hands dirty.”
Together with the work Sabrina Sutherland produced with David Lynch - providing an indelible impact on culture and her career - there are still pieces of his wisdom that will forever remain in her life, despite the loss: “ I have a hard time if somebody does something to me, I feel like I'm hurt in some way by a person. I tended to hold on to that. David talked to me once and just said, ‘Don't hold on to that. Just let it go. It's their thing. It's not you - it's not a reflection of you, it's a reflection of them.’ I still struggle with that sometimes. But I try to let it go a lot quicker than I used to.”
Edited by Oisín McGilloway
