
David Lynch's heroines
A brief journey through his female characters, fromTwin Peaks to Blue Velvet

January 17th, 2025
There are no middle grounds. David Lynch is either loved or hated. His cinema obsessively moves between dream and reality, imagination and the unconscious, making the viewer doubt what they see, never fully knowing what is before their eyes. His films are inhabited by ambiguous and grotesque figures, dwarfs and women in brown cardigans clutching a log, dead girls wrapped in cellophane, caffeine-addicted police officers, nocturnal roads, and small-town America that hides sordid and atrocious truths behind its reassuring facade. In this universe, women hold a central but always dual role, balanced between angel and devil, between innocent souls in peril and dark, tormented, and mysterious ladies. Lynch has often been accused of sexism and misogyny for his frequent depictions of violence against women. Yet, actresses from Laura Dern to Naomi Watts have eagerly competed to work on one of his projects. Why? Because his characters are compelling and complex. They are often victims of toxic masculinity, abused and tortured, broken as they collapse or lose themselves, but they are also multifaceted. They have dark pasts and seek redemption; they are pure and alluring, desperate and wild, yet resilient. Lynch portrays them at their lowest moments, but with an empathetic gaze, as though they represent the best of humanity — flawed, but somehow heroic in surviving evil.
Lynch passed away on January 16, 2025, at the age of 78. nss G-Club remembers him through his most iconic female characters.
David Lynch's female characters: Dorothy Vallens in Blue Velvet (1986)
One of the most memorable characters ever to appear on screen. Dorothy Vallens is a reinterpretation of the femme fatale archetype: a seductive nightclub chanteuse with a perfectly styled bouffant, heavy blue eyeshadow, red lipstick, and black dresses like a dark mermaid. At the same time, she is the damsel in distress, dominated by a perverse and brutal gangster, played by Dennis Hopper, who has kidnapped her husband and son. Dorothy is portrayed by the stunning Isabella Rossellini, who was Lynch's partner at the time of filming Blue Velvet, magnetic in her ability to reveal the tormented soul of her character, torn between abuse and desire.
Lula Fortune in Wild at Heart (1990)

Two lovers on a road trip to California, traveling dusty roads and chasing dreams of finding a place to be happy together: Sailor, played by Nicolas Cage in a snakeskin jacket, and Lula, portrayed by Laura Dern, with tight dresses, voluminous hair, and an obsession with The Wizard of Oz. Their love is deafening, screaming and kicking against a dirty and cruel reality, where family friends are rapists, loved ones are unjustly imprisoned, and your mother is a wicked woman who hires gangsters to separate you from your soulmate.
Laura Palmer in Twin Peaks (1990-2017)
“She’s dead, wrapped in plastic.” These haunting words marked the beginning of Twin Peaks, one of the most chilling and iconic TV series of the past 40 years. Laura Palmer, played by Sheryl Lee, is the absolute protagonist, a constant presence even in her absence. Her death is as much a mystery as her life, divided between the façade of a beautiful, sunny high school queen and the victim of incest, cocaine addiction, and self-destruction. Laura Palmer, teetering between light and darkness, symbolizes corrupted innocence. Her death is the torn veil that reveals the hypocrisy and horror lurking behind the glossy small-town bourgeoisie. The angel wrapped in plastic, with blonde hair and blue lips, also returns in the film Fire Walk With Me and the TV series Twin Peaks: The Return.
Audrey Horne in Twin Peaks (1990-2017)
“I’m Audrey Horne, and I get what I want,” says Audrey Horne to store manager Emory Battis as she tries to strangle him. This single image is enough to describe one of the most complex and intriguing characters in Twin Peaks, both in terms of personality and style. Played by Sherilyn Fenn, Audrey is the wealthy small-town student, the baddie who wears tight tops and knee-length skirts, the girl who falls in love with Agent Cooper and helps him investigate Laura Palmer’s murder. As she said, “I saw my friend cut down like a flower just beginning to bloom. Life can be so short.”
Renee Madison/Alice Wakefield in Lost Highway (1997)
“It was one of the bravest things I could have done. It was a very powerful film for me. I met my shadow.” That’s how Patricia Arquette describes Lost Highway, the hallucinatory nocturnal noir in which she plays Renee, the mysterious raven-haired wife of saxophonist Fred, and Alice, the sensual blonde lover of gangster Mr. Eddy. Once again, Lynch explores the theme of the double, portraying a woman who is ambiguous and mysterious, potentially real or merely a dream, a fantasy aesthetically reminiscent of Hollywood’s Golden Age and its femmes fatales.
Betty Elms/Diane Selwyn in Mulholland Drive (2001)
After over a decade of auditions and minor roles, Naomi Watts was on the verge of quitting acting. Then Lynch cast her in Mulholland Drive. The film is a complex noir that plays with reality and fiction, populated by strange characters, odd situations, and surreal humor. Watts portrays Diane, who, much like the actress herself, struggles to succeed in Hollywood. In another life, perhaps a dream, she is also the naive young Betty, an aspiring actress arriving in Hollywood with her prim outfits and high hopes. At some point, she encounters Rita, a mysterious amnesiac woman. Together, they embark on a surreal journey of self-discovery that takes them into the sordid depths of Hollywood. After the film, Watts’s career soared, culminating in an Oscar nomination for 21 Grams.
Nikki Grace/Susan Blue in Inland Empire – The Empire of the Mind (2006)
Once again, Lynch brings a dual woman to the screen, played by Laura Dern. He casts her as Nikki Grace, an actress who confuses her life with the character she’s portraying, Susan. She is a woman in distress, unraveling, deforming, and consuming herself in front of the camera, worn down by an emotional, grotesque, and frightening journey into her mind, where it’s hard to distinguish the unconscious from reality. Dern gives body and soul to one of Lynch’s most heartbreaking, claustrophobic, and striking female characters.