BREAKING
AMY SHIELS LONG BEFORE AMY SHIELS RECEIVED AN INVITATION TO ENTER THE HAUNTED WOODS OF A SMALL TOWN IN THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST,
“In TM, you’re given a mantra for life and you never tell anyone. The land of Lynchian
she called the green hills, crashing coast, and looming castles of Ireland home.
“Ireland has always been a mystical place, a land of storytellers,” she elaborates,
share one behind-the-scenes detail: the joy of working with Lynch and Frost.
recalling its evocative twilight that seems to hold “anything you can imagine.”
“Lynch is the safety net. He is the godfather to everyone, and he makes you feel
Still, she never imagined being a performer until she stumbled across a showcase
so safe. When he directs you, you feel like an instrument of his art. It floods
in Dublin one night and swapped her young dreams of becoming a jockey for
through you. And Frost always gets a positive message across. They’re so
art is built around secrets like that.” Though closely guarded secrets make for long waits, Shiels is eager to
taming an even more difficult beast:
inclusive, encouraging, [and]
an acting career. “The job is a constant
supportive… People feel that
rush of rejection and adrenaline,” she
they can release their inner
says. “There’s rarely a middle ground.”
weirdness because they know
Peaks and valleys, one might say.
there’s no judgment.”
On the set of one of her first
films, the coming-of-age tale Cowboys Legge
proved vital to populating a
introduced her to David Lynch and Mark
town that’s anything but safe.
Frost’s iconic TV sensation, the soap-
Afterwards, Shiels
mystery-horror-comedy
thanked
&
Angels,
co-star
Michael
The safe space Frost and
Lynch crafted for their actors
hybrid
Twin
David
says, “I
for
lending
Peaks, and she instantly joined the cult.
me this character they let me
“I fell in love. I was laughing, crying,
embody for this short time. I
terrified—a rainbow of emotions in one
will carry this character with
show,” she says.
me forever.” She’ll be carrying
Years
later,
a
guide
would
a crowded slate of international
manifest unexpectedly to bring Shiels
projects as well, ranging from
into the series’ long-awaited third
animation voiceovers to an Irish
season—the beginning of a fittingly peripatetic journey to a show informed
BACKSTORY: An Irish actress who lives in the moment but carries her characters in her heart— and her heart on her sleeve—prominently enough to catch the eye of iconic auteurs
by dream logic and surreal cosmic
FROM: Malahide, Ireland, just outside Dublin
occurrences. A screen test for a part she didn’t receive fell into the hands of casting director and longtime Lynch
YOU MAY KNOW HER FROM: The Irish indie film scene, where she first grabbed the public’s attention in Cowboys & Angels in 2003, and more recently in the 2012 horror movie Citadel NOW: Forever entering the mythology of Twin Peaks, the third season of which hits Showtime May 21
collaborator Johanna Ray, who worked
drama alongside Stephen Dorff. Beyond acting, she’s producing a
documentary
about
race
relations in America called The Dark Dollar
and
developing
directorial projects inspired in part by her time with Lynch.
on the original run of Twin Peaks. Ray reached out to her and became her
mentor. Soon Shiels was flying across an ocean to meet Lynch in person and
character in the show, Shiels reflects on what home means to her now. “I don’t
join the veteran cast for the season, playing the only new recurring character to
see myself as coming from one place,” she says. “I’ve been so welcomed by
appear in all eighteen episodes.
America. I’ve been rejected, but also supported. I have a different emotion about
As for who exactly that character is or how she fits into the tiny mountain
what [success] means every day, but I’ve come to realize how universal our
town, you’ll have to tune in and see—everything is shrouded in secrecy, right
problems are. We all just want to go home at night.” Considering how welcomed
down to her character’s name. “I don’t even know what it’s about! I only know the
the show’s creators, collaborators, and fanbase have made her feel, Amy Shiels
scenes I was in. But it’s almost like meditation, in a way,” she ventures, drawing a
will always have a home in Twin Peaks—where the nights are long, mysterious,
personal parallel to Transcendental Meditation, which both she and Lynch practice.
and hold “anything you can imagine.”
As fellow Twin Peaks fans eagerly anticipate their introduction to her
BY ERIC STOLZE PHOTO BY YVONNE TNT 22
FLOOD