Mr. Sheryl Lee: An Interview with Scott Ryan

He's not dead, just wrapped in plastic.

      In the fall of 2014 I sent a random guy named Scott Ryan a friend request. In this modern age with digital everything, I think most of us have a story or two and likely a friend or two where the origin story begins with, "I sent a random friend request." Sometimes making that choice ends in a regretful manner, but other times it can pay off in wonderful unexpected ways. At that time I was just starting this blog and looking to connect with other fans of Twin Peaks. Scott kindly accepted and said he would be happy to share my blog links, if I did the same in return for his podcast. I don't know if Scott remembers this, but I do. I instantly got a good feeling about him. As time went on I learned much like me, he's also a huge Fiona Apple fan. He scored a few extra bonus points in my book with that. I mean how many Twin Peaks/Fiona Apple fans is a woman going to know in her life? 

    This past July I was able to attend the 2016 Twin Peaks Festival and almost immediately upon entering the The Roadhouse on the first night I met Scott. Instantly I felt comfortable around him. I also met his lovely wife and throughout the rest of the weekend, I had a lot of fun with the Ryan's and the whole Red Room crew. They were all, to steal a line from Gordon Cole, "a great bunch!" I had a lot of fun putting this interview together with him and I think you'll see the same thing I did by the end; this man works hard for his passions. I think to have depth in levity, having a deep soul likely goes hand and hand. Plus like myself, although in a different manner than I, Scott truly loves Laura Palmer! 

The Interview

TPF: When did you first discover Twin Peaks?

SR: I actually watched it over the summer of 1990 on the ABC repeats of Season 1. It was a perfect way to watch because I only had to wait a month or so to see Season 2. So I actually got to experience the show live and go through all the stress of watching it get cancelled. To this day I still hate Bob Iger for cancelling it. In the same day he cancelled Thirtysomething, China Beach and Twin Peaks. I love to tell that to people because it needs to be repeated over and over. In some box somewhere, I still have the USA Today article.

TPF: Why do you think Twin Peaks had such an influence on you?

SR: First and foremost, I have no flipping idea. I mean, I really don’t. Not enough to explain how I am still so involved with it 26 years later. Could anything ever be explained like that? I mean, I can picture right now where I was sitting when I watched The Pilot episode. I was intrigued by Cooper, Audrey and the entire town. I think what is more amazing, is that people are still interested in it. I think part of why I love it so much is because it was so different from what was on TV back then. I was 20 years old and it was the antidote for everything that bored me as a college kid. Once you got into BOB, the owls and even the creamed corn, all those things would just haunt my nightmares and find its way into my real life.

TPF: Who is your favorite character from Twin Peaks and why?

SR: Today my favorite character is Laura Palmer. It wasn’t when the series was on. It was FWWM that changed everything for me. Sheryl Lee’s performance is breathtaking and literally life changing for me. I wasn’t exactly the happiest college student that ever lived. So seeing a movie with a lead that wasn’t having the best time, was just perfect for me. I also love that her death is seen as a happy ending. That resonated with me so much and still does. I find Laura’s strength and determination so admirable. I love strong women and always have. (Is this when I mention my love for Fiona Apple?) I don’t have many fictional heroes but Laura is one of them.

TPF: What is your favorite storyline from Twin Peaks and why?

SR: Favorite would be all of FWWM. I mean if you remove all the weird stuff and just look at it as a screenplay, Robert Engels and David Lynch wrote a movie where everyone knows the ending and in yet, you are shocked by it. That is an amazing accomplishment. Also in my own writing, I always love to end my movies with the beginning. I always call it circle writing. When you get to the end of FWWM you just want to watch the series again.

I also really like the Wyndom Earle storyline. Part of it is that if you read the Cooper Diary and then watch that storyline, it really does work well. I also totally love Episode 25 when Lynch goes to the diner and hears Shelly and Cooper tells the joke to Annie. I call that the “Happy Scene” and it is truly one of my favorite parts of all of Twin Peaks.

TPF: I liked your essay with Joshua Minton on Fire Walk With Me in the book Twin Peaks: Fan Phenomena very much. In that essay you say, “If you like Twin Peaks, but not Fire Walk With Me you’re not a true Twin Peaks fan, you’re a fan of television with a taste for weirdness.” As a huge fan of FWWM, I happen to agree. Do you think the new episodes of Twin Peaks will fall more in line with that way of thinking and be tailored more towards the atmosphere of FWWM? And if so, do you think that will turn off the casual television viewer?

SR: Thanks so much for that. You know I always hoped that idea would catch on more. We called them the Donut and coffee set vs the Laura/BOB set. I am not much into the donuts and coffee part of Twin Peaks. I think season 3 is gonna be as dark as FWWM and probably more so. I believe a ton of people will be disappointed. It is hard to put it into enough context how much people hated FWWM in 1992. Very few Twin Peaks fans liked it. I always did. Lynch is dark and he never does what you want him to. That is why I like him. I want an artist to take me by surprise. Link To Book: Fan Phenomena: Twin Peaks

TPF: If you could ask Sheryl Lee one question, what would it be?

SR: That is easy, will you marry me!?! Duh. I may also ask her if she kept that wig and if she still has that black turtleneck sweater. I’ve gone too far, haven’t I? You know I have so much to ask her, I don’t even know where to start. I mostly want to understand what it is like to create art that is so good and not appreciated. I do not believe that any actress could have given more to the part of Laura Palmer. Sheryl has gone on to have a really respectable career but Melissa McCarthy is the biggest female movie star in the country. Sandra Bullock has an Oscar. I would love to get Lee’s take on that. I am sure she would say she doesn't care, but it has to matter a little bit. I know in my life I have created some really good art that not many have seen and hasn’t made me a dime and never will. It is the truest expression of art, but it is hard. I really would love to have that discussion with her. But I am not sure I would be able to explain to her what I mean, and I am even less sure that I made my case here. Let’s just go with, Will you marry me? If she married me, I might be able to explain it to her after 20 years. (By the way my wife has given me permission to add her to our family, so this is all fine.)

TPF: If you ever do get to ask Sheryl Lee that question I’m sure she won’t think its creepy or anything. So what do you hope to see the most in Season 3 of Twin Peaks?

SR: Plot wise, I seriously don’t care at all. New murder, new character, whatever. I’ll love it because I love Lynch’s directing. I do have two small hopes. I want the first image to be someone looking in the mirror because I like that the series begins and ends with someone looking in the mirror. (Josie first, Cooper last) I also would love the last image to be Cooper sitting in the Red Room chair, happy and Laura, standing over him with her hand on his shoulder. This would mirror the same “last” image that we had all these years with FWWM. Those would be my two wishes.

TPF: I had the pleasure of renting your movie on Amazon, A Voyage to Twin Peaks. Then I was nice enough to purchase a DVD copy at the Twin Peaks festival, you’re welcome btw, but I did so because I really enjoyed it. Can you tell me about the making of the film and what inspired you to want to document your experience going to the 2015 Twin Peaks Festival?

SR: I have been making movies since I was in high school. I have never been much on just taking home movies. I like to film stuff and capture the moment and make something out of it. When I was going to the festival for the first time in 2015, I figured I might as well film the experience and see what comes of it. I didn’t know I would end up making the documentary and that it would play at 3 different festivals throughout 2016. I basically just filmed everything that happened throughout the weekend. Then on the last day we were out at Laura’s log at the Kiana Lodge, and it hit me so clearly that I was filming the wrong stuff. It wasn’t the locations or the celebrities, it was the people that attend. So in the last 20 minutes of the entire festival, I ran around asking people about the fest. Because it was ending, everyone was really emotional. Thank God, I did that. Because that became my emotional ending. Then I happened to be outside and rolling when Rob Lindley, the festival organizer, said goodbye to everyone and broke down. As I was filming him, I knew that was the end of my movie. The festival is really about the people, the experiences and the love of the attendees. Immediately I wished I could have gone back and interviewed more people about it, but the weekend was over.

I think it really does capture the feeling of what going to a festival is all about. It also is very funny. I wanted the movie to be fun and not “Lynchian”. The festival is actually a lot of fun, and I wanted that to come out. I was very lucky to have Josh Eisenstadt and Brad Dukes to give me some tours for the movie and that gives it a personal feel. I think if you have never gone to the festival, and now getting tickets is super hard, you can check this out for $2 and see what it is all about. Link to Film: A Voyage to Twin Peaks

TPF: What made you want to write a song for A Voyage to Twin Peaks?

SR: I have been a sort of songwriter for about fifteen years. I am not great at it but when I got home, I sat down at the piano and wrote the song that ends the documentary. It is called “Fantastic” which may be the worst name for a song ever. I was trying to do a play on the word Fan. The lyrics and the tune just poured out of me. I recorded the song and it was done in a day. The reaction to the song has been really interesting for me. A few people have told me it is really cheesy and then others say that it made them cry. I think the truth is somewhere in between. I think what moves people is all these people coming together to celebrate some shared love. It is a rare thing. I don’t think my song is cheesy or manipulative, I think it is just honest. I just expressed how I felt and that honesty is what people are reacting to. It is weird because I have written songs for other movies I directed and people have never mentioned them... ever. So it has been fun that people are at least commenting on it.

One of the main reasons I wanted to write the music for the movie was so that I could actually release the movie. I do have it up at Amazon for rent or purchase. It is available in England, Germany and Japan. I am trying to get it in more countries. I used to make movies and use copyrighted music, actually I always have used in some way or shape some Angelo Badalamenti music in my movies, but if you do that, you can never release them. In 2012, I wrote and directed a film called Meet Abby and I decided I would write the score myself. Link to Film: Meet Abby That way the entire movie would be mine. It is streaming on Amazon Prime. So when it came time to make A Voyage To Twin Peaks, I wanted to write the score again. I also didn’t use any photos that weren’t from my collection of Twin Peaks stuff. So for better or worse, I own all of it.

TPF: What prompted you to start the Red Room podcast?

SR: I give all the credit for that to my co-host, Joshua Minton. I didn’t know what the hell a podcast was in 2011 when we started this thing. He wanted to do one and came up with the name of Red Room Podcast because he knew naming it after Twin Peaks would convince me to do it. He set it up and set me off into the podcasting world. After a few episodes I was hooked and was out there hustling to get us good guests and listeners. Now I do the Red Room, the Thirtysomething Podcast, Scott Luck Stories and I am starting a Buffy History one with my friend, David Bushman. I have guested on the Twin Peaks Podcast doing commentaries on the episodes with Matt Humphrey and I am a friend of the show with Ben and Bryan on Twin Peaks Unwrapped. So I have really overdone it in the podcast world. In fact, I might just have started a new one with you while we’ve been talking. Link to Podcast: The Red Room Podcast or on Facebook: Red Room or on Twitter @redroompodcast

TPF: Yes it was a real treat for me to join the Red Room for a show, thanks again, especially to discuss Stranger Things! So how did you manage to get Sherilyn Fenn on your show?

SR: I met a wizard that said if I sacrificed my least favorite child, she would come on the show. So I sacrificed all of them, just to be safe. Honestly, I don’t know why she did it. I mean I really don’t. I think it was all luck and timing. She doesn’t know that I have interviewed a load of people. She doesn’t even follow The Red Room Podcast on twitter. I can’t explain it. I seriously have no idea. I will say, it was a great interview. I was really pleased with it. I worked a ton on the questions and preparing. The nice thing is that people who have listened to it have said it seemed like I didn’t have any questions prepared, but I actually had a ton of notes up. I just try to make the guest feel like it's a laid back conversation and hope the guest is comfortable. I have been lucky enough to interview Glenn Gordon Caron, who created Moonlighting, who is one of my writing heros. Dana Delany from China Beach, the entire cast of Thirtysomething for an upcoming book. I love doing it because David Letterman has always been a huge influence for me. Being a talk show host is my dream job.

TPF: What’s next for the Red Room podcast? Can you offer any scoops on upcoming guests, topics of discussion, etc.?

SR: We actually never plan things out. We kind of just go where the culture goes. I mean we recently did a round table discussion about Stranger Things that you guested on, thank you for very much. Two weeks ago, I didn’t even know about the show. That is sort of how Josh and I do it. We just wait for something to spark us and we cover it. People always think we are only a Twin Peaks podcast. We really aren’t. We have done over 115 episodes. We have covered records (we did one on Fiona’s Idler Wheel), we have done broadway shows (I am a huge Sondheim fan), we have done movies (we did a Tarantino podcast) we really just are inspired by art. My dream guest would be Sheryl Lee. I would love to have David E Kelley on. I am also, as I said, a huge Letterman fan. I really want to have Barbara Gaines on who was his producer for 30 years. I have tweeted her so much, she really should block me. She likes every request but never responds. Link to Podcast: Stranger Things

TPF: What inspired you to write Scott Luck Stories?

SR: I am not someone who treats himself, ever. Within that thought the Scott Luck Stories was born. I have been a storyteller since I was a kid. I started Scott Luck Stories about four years ago, where I just told stories from my life. They are about 7-10 minutes long. I talk about working at Arby’s as a teenager. I talk about being a stay at home dad of twins. I tell stories of reporting to bad bosses in corporate America. In 2013, I compiled the stories into an Ebook and released it on Amazon and iTunes Books. I can’t overstate how unsuccessful Scott Luck Stories is, which might be the ultimate Scott Luck. I just don’t think people are interested in short stories anymore. I basically just do them to let my crazy out a bit. I did one on the Twin Peaks festival from last year. It was kind of fun to joke around about the festival because I usually try to be very serious on the Red Room. Link to Book: Scott Luck Stories or on Facebook: Scott Luck Stories

TPF: You also do a podcast for the television show Thirtysomething. What is it about that show that appeals so much to you and do you ever sleep?

SR: I hate sleep. I can’t wait to get up in the morning and start the day. I have so much to do and I love what I do. The Thirtysomething podcast has just been an amazing dream. I ended up becoming friends with a few of the writers from the show, I interviewed the entire cast and writing staff. I got a book contract and a real life book will come out in 2017. It is called Thirtysomething at thirty. It is an oral history of the show. I even have two Twin Peaks people in it, Charlotte Stewart and Lenny Von Dohlen. They were both on Thirtysomething as well. I think Thirtysomething is the best journey you can take on television. You really believe in the characters and it is a show that really owns my heart. Working on the book has been an amazing experience and I am hoping to spend most of 2017 promoting it. Link to the ThirtySomething Podcast: ThirtySomething or on --> Facebook  

TPF: Thus far, what are you most proud of in terms of your podcasting and writing?

You know, I am not much for being proud. I am so much more interested in the NEXT project, than I am in thinking about what I have done in the past. It was so strange with A Voyage To Twin Peaks, I finished it in October 2015 and then never watched it again until it played at the Great Southern in Virginia in June 2016. It sometimes feels like someone else made it cause as soon as I finished I started work on my Thirtysomething book. Now that is done and I am starting work on a Buffy book with David Bushman. Josh Minton and I are going to write a Red Room Podcast book called, “How To Watch Television.” I just don’t spend anytime looking at the past. There is a Sondheim song called “Finishing The Hat”. It is sort of my mantra. The artist is working on “finishing a hat, starting on a hat, finishing a hat. Look, I made a hat, where there never was a hat.” You take a moment to look at it, then you start something new.

TPF: In three words, who is Scott Ryan…really?

SR: Mr. Sheryl Lee