The legendary filmmaker David Lynch has been evacuated from his Los Angeles residence today, one of more than 100,000 people to face evacuations during L.A.'s raging fires of the new year. The evacuation area expanded to the 101 and Hollywood Blvd. to Laurel Canyon Blvd., meaning that Lynch needed to leave. It's a cruel irony that he needed to take Mullholland Dr. to escape the fires, considering it's the title of his masterpiece (let's not even get into Fire Walk with Me). His producer since 2006, Sabrina Sutherland, confirmed that he is safe, according to Welcome to Twin Peaks on Twitter (currently known as X).
Even if it wasn't a mandatory evacuation zone, it was wise to leave regardless -- the filmmaker behind Blue Velvet, Wild at Heart, Eraserhead, Inland Empire, and yes, Mulholland Drive, has suffered from emphysema, a form of COPD, since his diagnosis in 2020. It took him two years to quit cigarettes, with nicotine being infamous as one of the hardest drugs to quit (even compared to heroin). As he told People in November 2024, "A big important part of my life was smoking," says Lynch, 78. "I loved the smell of tobacco, the taste of tobacco. I loved lighting cigarettes. It was part of being a painter and a filmmaker for me."
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"In the back of every smoker's mind is the fact that it's unhealthy, so you're literally playing with fire," Lynch told Eileen Finan of People. "It can bite you. I took a chance, and I got bit." Lynch says he tried to quit many times, "but when it got tough, I'd have that first cigarette, and it was a one-way trip to heaven. Then you're back smoking again [...] I saw the writing on the wall and it said, 'You're going to die in a week if you don't stop,'" Lynch recalled, adding:
"It's tough living with emphysema. I can hardly walk across a room. It's like you're walking around with a plastic bag around your head."
David Lynch's Wonderful Community of Fans
David Lynch's fans have created a comforting and very supportive community, all of whom were immediately concerned about the auteur's health and safety. As you can see in the Reddit thread above, people were quickly relieved by Sabrina Sutherland. "First thing on my mind when I woke up and saw the news. Be safe, fingers crossed it'll be as fine as can be," writes one Redditor, with the original poster (HistoriadoraFantasma) commenting, "I hope he got out yesterday. The man's got emphysema, right? The air quality is so dangerous for him... for millions of people in that town!"
Emphysema is a lung disease resulting from permanent damage to the lungs' air sacs (or alveoli); this shrinks the surface area of the lungs, meaning that it's harder to get oxygen into the bloodstream. It's a type of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (or COPD), which makes some extremely susceptible to any respiratory illness (as was the case with COVID-19). Since it's already difficult to breathe with emphysema, the combination of the fine particulate matter in smoke and the stress or activity from fleeing or evacuating can be very dangerous. Lynch smoked for more than 60 years, and while he recognizes its danger, he told People that he wouldn't take it all back and do it differently.
"I don't regret it. It was important to me. I wish what every addict wishes for: that what we love is good for us." Before the fires, though, he was adamant about staying off cigs and proseltyzed for it: "I really wanted to get this across: Think about it. You can quit these things that are going to end up killing you," Lynch said. "I owe it to them -- and to myself -- to say that." We wish David Lynch and everybody in Los Angeles safety and peace.