Isabella Rossellini paid tribute to the late David Lynch, who died Thursday at the age of 78.
The legendary actress, who played her breakthrough role in Lynch’s 1986 film “Blue Velvet” and later enjoyed a roughly five-year relationship with the director, shared a photo of the two of them Friday morning with the simple caption: “I loved him so much. Thank you for all your kind messages.
In addition to “Blue Velvet,” Rossellini also appeared in Lynch’s 1990 film “Wild at Heart,” which won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival (where the two are pictured above).
Rossellini and Lynch met while casting for “Blue Velvet.” According to legend, Lynch told Rossellini, “Hey, you know, you could be Ingrid Bergman’s daughter,” without knowing that she actually was. She was eventually cast as Dorothy Vallens, a lounge singer whose son and husband were kidnapped by a criminal in exchange for sexual favors. The film earned Lynch an Academy Award nomination for Best Director.
Both men made their relationship public after their respective divorces; Lynch from his second wife Mary Fisk and Rossellini from her second husband Jonathan Wiedemann. They played lovers in Tina Rathborne’s 1988 drama “Zelly and Me” and attended the 1990 Cannes Film Festival together to promote “Wild at Heart,” in which Rossellini played Perdita Durango, an old acquaintance of Sailor (Nicolas Cage). They separated the following year.
Other Lynch muses also shared their memories of the director, including Kyle MacLachlan, Rossellini’s “Blue Velvet” co-star and “Twin Peaks” lead.
“I owe my entire career, and truly my life, to his vision,” MacLachlan wrote in an Instagram post Thursday. “What I saw in him was an enigmatic and intuitive man with a creative ocean welling up within him. He was in touch with something we wish we could achieve.
“Mulholland Drive” star Naomi Watts also posted a moving tribute on Instagram, crediting Lynch with putting her on the map.
“His creative mentorship was truly powerful,” Watts wrote. “The world I had been trying to break into for over ten years, failing auditions left and right. Finally, I sat down in front of a curious man, radiating light, speaking to me words from another era, making me laugh and putting me at ease. How could he “see” me when I was so well hidden and even lost sight of me?!”
