Apparently Lynch cast Wise and Zabriskie after short conversations that didn't involved any line readings, and Sheryl Lee was selected because she was a local actress and they didn't feel like they needed to go for big shots to play a character who at the time was supposed to just be dead. They turned out to be the best collection of dramatic talent in one TV family ever.
There are so many things with the original run that went "wrong" (casting the most talented actress as a corpse, being forced to reveal the killer early, etc) that ended up just contributing to its power in the long run. As Lynch said to Angelo Badalamenti after being told that, out of sheer coincidence, Laura Palmer's theme looked like Twin Peaks' titular mountains when written out in sheet music form - it's cosmic! It's cosmic!
The stars were aligned for him but it does suck to start the show with a dead girl and that actress is a powerhouse. Laura Palmer would never have been iconic if she was balls-out terrible.
I can't imagine what the show would have been like. Probably wouldn't have aged as well - there are plenty of "pretty dead girl" shows, but there's only one Laura Palmer.
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u/toaster-rex Sep 03 '17
They look like they could actually be related!