I was delighted to read several new articles about Joan Chen who played Josie Packard in the first two seasons of David Lynch and Mark Frost’s Twin Peaks. She also had scenes that appeared in The Missing Pieces, deleted and extended scenes from Lynch’s 1992 masterpiece Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me. In a Vanity Fair article by David Canfield, published on July 23, 2024, Chen recalls a story about filing a scene with Ray Wise who played Leland Palmer. The challenge – I couldn’t remember Chen and Wise filming a scene together. I broke out the Whiteman Machine and solved the mystery … sort of.
VANITY FAIR INTERVIEW WITH JOAN CHEN
David Canfield profiled Joan Chen coming off of “rave reviews for Dìdi, which won a Sundance Audience Award and is hitting select theaters on Friday, July 26, 2024 via Focus Features.” During the conversation, she recalled her time on Twin Peaks as Josie Packard.
“Twin Peaks was a thrilling exception. Chen says that Lynch taught her how to be spontaneous. When I ask for an example, she cracks up—after all, Chen’s run on the show ended with her character turning into a literal wooden doorknob. When wasn’t she on her toes?
Still, one moment stands out. Chen was filming a scene with Ray Wise, who played the spiraling father of the murdered Laura Palmer. He started improvising, walking by Chen and saying something to her she couldn’t understand. After hearing cut, he instantly apologized to her. Chen didn’t know why he seemed so distraught. ‘David told me to come by and whisper in your ear—I don’t use that word,” Wise told Chen. Confused, she asked what he said. ‘He said, ‘I whispered cunt. David wanted to see your face.’ Chen stared at him blankly. ‘I didn’t get it,’ she says now, laughing. ‘I didn’t know the word!’
The strange part is Ray Wise and Joan Chen did not film a scene together, unless it was something deleted. But I felt like I had heard a version of this story before.
So I did a quick search using the terms “Richard Beymer Joan Chen whisper c*unt” (removed the asterisk in that offensive word). It didn’t take long to find an answer.
GROUCHO REVIEWS INTERVIEW WITH JOAN CHEN ON MARCH 11, 2005
Groucho Reviews published an interview with Joan Chen on March 11, 2005 following a conversation at the Miyako Hotel in San Francisco, California, the city she had called her home for over a decade. At the time, she was starring in Alice Wu’s American independent film, Saving Face, in which Chen plays a pregnant mother with a grown lesbian daughter.
Groucho Reviews: You talked about your inclination to visual poetry. I think you found a good match in David Lynch. Do you remember what you and David talked about during the casting process?
Joan Chen: I think we chatted about something. I remember thinking, “Gee, you know, this is a different director. I think I have a chance here.” Because the part is written for an Italian girl. I mean, I think it was for his girlfriend at that time and and then they kind of just separated and stuff, so it was written for her, you know [Ed. Isabella Rossellini]. But I said, you know, “I don’t have a chance.” But when I went in and we just talked, and, I felt right there—I said, “You know, this is a visionary that’s open-minded, that’s open to anything,” that “I have a chance here.” We didn’t—at that time, I had no idea I was going to direct. I mean, I observed him, but I didn’t really get to converse with him of film language. I remember one thing he did. (Pause.) He wanted some—he’s very experimental, so he wanted to see what kind of expression I would get when somebody—when he was shooting my face, then he unexpectedly told an actor to come and whisper in my ears. Said, “I want to lick your cunt.” (Pause.) But, y’know, my English wasn’t that great, and I didn’t understand it.
G: Uh-huh. (Laughs.)
JC: I didn’t understand that sentence. I’m like (in a faint, innocent voice), “Well, what was that? That wasn’t in the script or rehearsal. I don’t—” (Laughs.) I didn’t even know what that was! (Laughs.) But, anyway, that’s his way of directing. Y’know, he sometimes just want[s] to see what kind of an expression this person will get! (Laughs.)
G: Right. Right. (Laughs.)
JC: You know? And I thought that was brilliant! Except it didn’t work on me because I didn’t get it. (Laughs.) Then I had to discuss with this actor—I said, “What happened? What is this?” “So you didn’t understand?” I said, “No, I don’t know what that is.” (Both laugh.)
G: Do you remember, what actor was that?
JC: It was, what’s his name? He was also a cinematographer that I worked with. He was a regular on Twin Peaks. He played with me—he is a bad guy. Is he—what’s that older woman’s name?
G: Packard, uh—
JC: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think they were lovers for a short time in Twin Peaks. So I forgot his name. I think they told him to come to me and give me that. [Ed. Ms. Chen and I figured it out after the interview: it was Richard Beymer, who played Ben Horne.]
So Chen confirmed it was Richard Beymer who whispered the offensive phrase to her during a scene.
RICHARD BEYMER AND JOAN CHEN’S SCENES IN TWIN PEAKS
Beymer and Chen only had a handful of scenes together in Twin Peaks. They appear together at the Twin Peaks Town Hall scene from the pilot (as seen above) where Ben Horne whispers something to Joan Chen. I wish I could read lips as he does say something to her.
The pilot was directed by David Lynch, so this could be the scene where Beymer whispered the phrase.
They won’t appear together again until Twin Peaks episode 1.005, which was written by Mark Frost and directed by Leslie Linka Glatter.
They definitely share some close moments together, but Ben doesn’t quite whisper something in her ear.
He does, however, creepily kiss her had at the end of the scene.
Their final on-screen appearance together in found in Twin Peaks episode 2.006, written by Harley Peyton and Robert Engles and directed again by Leslie Linka Glatter.
There is a moment when Ben leans in close to Josie. Yet the episode was directed by someone other than Lynch.
That could very well be the key to solving this mystery.
I’m now beginning to think it was done for the Town Hall scene in the pilot.
The camera cuts purposely close to Chen as Beymer whispers something to her.
Lynch could have been hoping to capture her reaction at hearing such a shocking phrase. But it didn’t quite work as she didn’t understand what Beymer said.
JOSIE PACKARD IN TWIN PEAKS
The Groucho Review interview continues with questions about Chen’s character in the wonderful and strange show.
G: Uh huh. How was that character presented to you? What did they tell you about that character when you were auditioning?
JC: Basically, she’s this outsider. And it’s a close-knit community with this one outsider. You know, it is sort of the same character in, um, David’s other movie, umm, umm—. You know, that great movie. You know, the same actor!
G: Blue Velvet.
JC: Blue Velvet!
G: Right.
JC: It’s almost like the Blue Velvet. There was this one outsider. In a little town. A little town. There was this one mysterious—you don’t know where she—how did she land here? You know. It’s almost that kind of a concept. That’s how it’s presented.
G: Mm-hmm.
JC: But y’know—later on, though, I became sort of more and more evil. I think it has to do with my Chinese dragon lady thing, you know.
G: (Laughs.) The show and that character were full of secrets. How much did you know at the outset about where the character’s going? Did you have a secret history developed for her?
JC: (Laughs.) No.
G: (Laughs.)
JC: No. Every episode you kind of find out something new about the character (laughs), you know? I’m in the same—I find out episode by episode. (Laughs.)
JOAN CHEN IN THE MISSING PIECES
The interviewer also asked about her deleted scenes from Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me. We eventually get to see one of those scenes in the 2014 release of The Missing Pieces. Dell Mibler, Josie Packard and Pete Martell discuss wood sizing. But the interviewer recalls a different scene where Sheriff Truman (Michael Ontkean) sings to Josie. Sadly, if that scene was shot, it is truly a missing, missing piece.
G: Now that those films are hot, there’s like—there’s no room for another kind of film, yeah. You were also invited to participate in Lynch’s film of Twin Peaks. Do you remember the scene or scenes that you shot for that?
JC: No, I wasn’t in the film.
G: Well, but you—you did—did you not film scenes for it?
JC: I don’t remember. I don’t remember.
G: Because there’s lots of talk about the footage we haven’t seen from that film that might actually get released, and there was—somewhere it said that you had a scene with Sheriff Truman singing to you or something like that?
JC: I might get mixed up with something, but I don’t remember being in the film.
G: Mm.
JC: It’s so long ago. I don’t—I don’t—.
I long to see those missing scenes, if they actually exist. I also would love to know when exactly Richard Beymer said the phrase to Josie. These are things I may never know.
Maybe I am imagining it, but I swear I remember seeing one or two production stills of Truman singing to Josie. But this was so long ago, who knows.
Anyway, wonderful blog. I’m going to think about Beymer whispering that every time I watch that scene from now on.
Thank you! I would love to confirm if that scene was shot between Truman and Josie, especially knowing Ontkean’s personal interest in poetry. Could have been a nice bookend to Ed and Norma’s “smash-up” scene. And I totally will do the same when watching the pilot. I wish I could read lips.