Alternate Best Actor 1986: Kyle MacLachlan in Blue Velvet

Kyle MacLachlan did not receive an Oscar nomination for portraying Jeffrey Beaumont in Blue Velvet. 

Kyle MacLachlan is one of David Lynch's most common collaborators and his only actor to have led multiple projects for him. Notable that Lynch saw more than a little in him given the first film together was Dune which was seen a mistake by Lynch himself, and that is one performance of MacLachlan's you don't see too many ardent supporters of. Contrasting that to his work in Twin Peaks, their most essential collaboration, where MacLachlan first thrived in bringing to life Dale Cooper as an iconic eccentric detective, which he somehow made even greater in the Return where he not only gave a glorious reprise of Cooper, but also managed to outdo Chance the Gardner, in a depiction of a highly specified charming mental detachment and matched even the likes of Anton Chigurh in his depiction of Doppelcooper. So that leaves Blue Velvet as the in-between performance, as the "average" young man Jeffrey who returns home after his dad fell ill and finds more than just an interesting adventure when he goes to investigate a severed ear. A performance that honestly if it was in most films, I probably wouldn't have a great deal of affection for but performances are all contextual, and in the context of Lynch MacLachlan serves a very specific purpose here. The first third of his performance or so is that of almost a performance you'd find in a 50's sitcom, given his bright smile and almost the tendency to say everything with a silent "geez whiz" attached to it. In some ways he has more in common with Burt Ward as Robin the boy wonder than he would as any hardboiled noir detective or even average wrong man style performance that you'd usually find in a mystery thriller such as this, and that's entirely the point. 

MacLachlan is the embodiment of an overt Americana of the golden boy, and in turn is strange in his existence when you compare it to hardship or darkness such as the aforementioned severed ear. In the early scenes of the film, the one place where McLachlan seems to fit entirely is when we see him running his dad's hardware store and he interacts with the other employers there. There the bright smile and sincerity of that seems authentic weirdly, because it is where that overt earnestness is indeed at home and makes sense. When Jeffrey begins deciding to investigate, with the help of the lead detective's daughter Sandy (Laura Dern), is with that same odd optimism that of that 50's sitcom fellow, which leads him to decide to investigate and sneak into the apartment of a lounge singer Dorothy Valens (Isabella Rossellini). As the investigator MacLachlan is more than a sore thumb where he goes in as a fake exterminator and couldn't seem less convincing or later just ends up hiding himself in the closet only to be discovered by Dorothy who weirdly threatens him while also becoming sexual towards in him a sadomasochistic fashion. Where MacLachlan is stilted in these reactions, however it works as he also feels the reactions of a man who really has no idea what he's doing or what's going on. Something that serves its purpose in these moments, but does more than that when the psychotic Frank Booth (Dennis Hopper) comes into the film.

The long ride that Frank takes Jeffrey on, when Jeffrey is accidentally leaving Dorothy's apartment, is one of the highlights of the film, and part of the chemical formula of the scene is the awkwardness of MacLachlan's performance. This isn't taking a normal guy from the 80's on this ride, it is the embodiment of a certain Americana that is brought on it, and the specific reactions of MacLachlan speaks to that. This being him barely saying any of his lines for much of the scene as he is crowded by Frank's heavy drinking and whoring pals just being in and around him at every moment. MacLachlan is frequently the punchline in these scenes as even the way he stands among them, with his downward hunched shoulders and seems completely out of place every second of it. When he is punch a few times, Jeffrey takes each one just going with because what we see is a man completely out of his world in every possible way, where Jeffrey the neighbor, drinks the wrong beer and is just a quietly horrified spectator, fearing for his life while also just being completely out of his element. Out of his element though by just seeming so weird in this world, that is weird yet all as one in their way but MacLachlan's manner as Jeffrey breaks the mold with all the appropriate awkwardness. Only when Frank starts to sexually assault Dorothy does Jeffrey finally take action, and MacLachlan's expression state changes from that of petrified fear to a bit of anger, which the break is what makes the impact in the moment as he finally takes action by punching Frank. Something that naturally leads Frank to in turn beat Jeffrey and leave him in the outskirts of town. The morning after, we see the "gee" completely removed as he fully breaks down, and the young man of Americana faces the reality of the darkness beneath it. 

Although this would seem the time in most films where the character himself would become cynical but that's not Blue Velvet. Rather what MacLachlan does is just ease back a bit on that initial overt optimism, the man who just bemoaned the existence of men like Frank Booth as purposefully as naive as possible, to someone with at least any wisdom. Something we don't see in big moments but rather just the letting go of naivety as he tries to balance his love for Sandy while also dealing with his affair with Dorothy. Something that isn't this big break by MacLachlan rather a very quiet but earnest apology, however a different earnestness than the "kid" of before towards someone with a better understanding of the world. Something that culminates as he visits Dorothy's apartment one more time only to find the death and destruction as wrought by Frank Booth, and probably MacLachlan's most naturalistic work comes in the scene. He is fully genuine in this moment in the realization of what all his actions have resulted in and I've always found his "Gonna let you find them on their own", very moving as we see this maturation of Jeffrey. Of course Jeffrey is forced to face Frank Booth, as Frank returns to the apartment just as Jeffrey was about to leave, leading to the final concentration, where MacLachlan's fearful reactions and movements help to amplify the tension of the sequence. In the moment MacLachlan finally fully becomes the wrong man type protagonist and we see Jeffrey just barely become the hero, albeit just barely. And while this isn't the mastery of the form you'd see from MacLachlan in Twin Peaks, in the end he delivers a strange performance on the whole, but for me one that works within the specific tone and atmosphere created by Lynch.