David Lynch's days of directing on set are probably over, thanks to Covid
David Lynch reveals he has emphysema from smoking, which makes contracting coronavirus particularly dangerous
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Four years in, and coronavirus is still taking things from us—and folks, this one hurts. According to David Lynch, he can’t really direct in-person anymore because the danger to his health is too great. “I’ve gotten emphysema from smoking for so long and so I’m homebound whether I like it or not,” the filmmaker told Sight & Sound magazine (via The Independent). He disclosed that he can “only walk a short distance before I’m out of oxygen” and that “because of Covid, it would be very bad for me to get sick, even with a cold.”
“Smoking was something that I absolutely loved, but in the end, it bit me. It was part of the art life for me: the tobacco and the smell of it, and lighting things and smoking and going back and sitting back and having a smoke and looking at your work, or thinking about things; nothing like it in this world is so beautiful. Meanwhile, it’s killing me. So I had to quit,” he said (via Consequence). This is, obviously, not great news when it comes to one of our greatest living auteurs working in a highly collaborative medium. Lynch admitted to the outlet that he probably wouldn’t be able to direct again, at least in the traditional way: “I like to be amongst the things and get ideas there. But I would try to do it remotely, if it comes to it.”
Lynch fans will no doubt be deeply concerned about this development, and the news did spark an outpouring on social media, causing the director to take to Twitter and issue a statement clarifying that he will “never retire.”
Ladies and Gentlemen,