One Twin Peaks Star Was Prepared To Work On David Lynch’s Reboot For Free

“Twin Peaks: The Return” takes place 25 years after the events of the original series, reuniting fans with some blasts from the past. One of those characters is Deputy Hawk, played by Michael Horse, who initially offered to work for no pay just to return to the beloved horror series.

“David [Lynch, co-creator] called me up, and he goes, ‘Hey buddy, we’re getting the gang back together.’ And I said, ‘Just give me a cameo. I’ll do it for free,” Horse told SFX Magazine.

Initially, Horse felt some hesitation about “Twin Peaks: The Return.” He said, “I thought part of [the show’s] mystique was that it died before its time and had that kind of James Dean thing going for it.” Ironically, Horse didn’t feel reassured about Showtime’s revival project until he encountered something deeply unsettling.

“The first day of filming, Kyle [MacLachlan — playing Agent Cooper’s evil doppelganger, “Mr. C”] comes out of the forest with the black makeup on and he goes, ‘Hey, Michael, how are you?'” remembered Horse. “And I’m looking at him, like, okay, ‘Twin Peaks’ is back.”

In “Twin Peaks: The Return,” Hawk — continuing his law-enforcement duties at the Twin Peaks Sheriff’s Department, this time working alongside Sheriff Frank Truman (Robert Forster) instead of Frank’s brother Harry (Michael Ontkean) – turns out to be one of the revival’s most important characters. Michael Horse was thrilled to have a substantial role.

“I’ve done everything from ‘Walker, Texas Ranger’ to ‘Malcolm in the Middle,’ but something like ‘Twin Peaks’ doesn’t come around often,” he told The Hollywood Reporter. “And it was a really, really good Native character. It held some mirrors up to some stereotypes about Native people and did away with some of them, so I’m really proud of it.”