David Lynch says he can ‘barely walk across a room’ in worrying health update

Director David Lynch said he now required oxygen support and could only walk short distances after being diagnosed with emphysema.

Talk to Sight and sound magazine in August, the 78-year-old director of Twin Peaks And Eraser headrevealed he had suffered from smoking throughout his life and said if he directs again it will have to be remotely as he can’t ‘go out’ for fear of catching Covid. However, he defiantly declared that he would “never retire”.

In a new interview with People magazine, Lynch said he now requires supplemental oxygen for most activities, adding, “I can barely walk across a room.” It’s like walking around with a plastic bag around your head.

Lynch started smoking when he was just eight years old and, although he admits his condition was “a big price to pay”, he has no regrets.

“It was important to me,” Lynch says. “I wish what every addict wishes, that what we love is good for us. I never thought it was glamorous. It was part of life. Some characters (in his films and TV shows) are said to be smokers, just like in real life.

Lynch, however, used the update on his health to send a warning to other smokers, hoping his current situation might encourage others to quit.

“I really wanted to get this across: Think about it,” he said. “You can stop these things that will eventually kill you. I owe it to them – and to myself – to say so.

Emphysema, also known as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), is primarily caused by smoking, air pollution, and exposure to dust and chemicals at work. The World Health Organization predicts that this disease will become the third leading cause of death worldwide by 2030.

In August, Lynch released a new album of music in collaboration with Texas singer and recording engineer Chrystabell, titled Cellophane souvenirs.

The duo has already created two albums together and also collaborated on Twin Peaks: The Return, in which the actor and singer played the role of Agent Tammy Preston.

Lynch’s last screen project was the same Twin Peaks series, which arrived in 2017. It was so well received that the series’ network, Showtime, said it would be happy to do another season.

One project that Lynch had difficulty getting off the ground was an animation called Snootmondeon which he began working twenty years ago with Caroline Thompson (The Nightmare Before Christmas, Edward Scissorhands).