Democrat and Chronicle / Times-Union, Rochester, N.Y., Thursday, October 29, 1992

JACK GARNER

First 'Peaks,' then Fenn in 'Mice and Men'

Toronto - The conversation with actress Sherilyn Fenn would eventually be about her performance in Of Mice and Men, but we first had to get one question out of the way first. And it had to do with her memorable portrayal of Audrey Horne, the sexy teen-age seductress in David Lynch´s bizarre cult-TV series, Twin Peaks.

"Can you really tie a knot in a cherry stem with your tongue?"

"Well, I couldn´t do it at the time we shot that scene," Fenn says, "but I can do it now."

Ironically, Of Mice and Men director Gary Sinise cast Fenn to make the film´s lone female character more innocent and sympathetic than originally intended by John Steinbeck. "I hadn´t seen Twin Peaks, but I´d heard she was quite seductive on that show, and that´s what I expected when she came in to audition. Instead, she was sweet and innocent, fragile and beautiful.

"When I described my ideas for the part, Sherilyn started to cry, and I knew she had the right stuff," Sinise says.

In Of Mice and Men, Fenn plays a lonely wife on a farm who tries to find companionship with the lumbering, retarded Lenny (John Malkovich). Inadvertedly, she trigger´s the film´s tragic finale. In Steinbeck´s book, the female character is a two-dimensional device; but Sinise was determined to make her more human and more sympathetic.

"I loved that Gary wanted me to make her sympathetic, because then she and Lenny become equals in the scene," Fenn says.

Fenn contributed another change that didn´t make it onto the screen, but did color her performance. In Steinbeck´s book, she´s identified only as Curley´s wife. "I didn´t like that 'Curley´s wife' stuff," Fenn says, "so when I played her, I called her 'Daisy.'"

Getting back to Twin Peaks, Fenn says she´s never thought twice about not doing the movie version, Fire Walk with Me. "I didn´t think there were reasons based on integrity for doing it," she says.

"I worked hard on that show, but I didn´t feel making a movie made any sense," Fenn says. "I personally don´t care about Laura´s life before she died. Her death (in the pilot) was just an excuse for the viewer to meet all those crazy people."

Fenn believes the end for the TV version of Twin Peaks occurred early in the second season, when the romance was cooled between Audrey and Special Agent Dale Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan). "Kyle didn´t want it to continue. He thought Audrey was too young for Dale; and then they brought in an even younger girl!"

"I think Kyle blew it, because Dale and Audrey were so great together," Fenn says.

"When I complained, David Lynch asked me if I was falling in love with Kyle. I says, 'No! Of course not! But Audrey´s in love with Dale Cooper!'"