‘I love that character’: Kyle MacLachlan talks about ‘Twin Peaks’ (and ‘Portlandia,’ too)

Sometimes an actor known for creating an iconic character must be coaxed into returning to that role, but not Yakima native Kyle MacLachlan.

He had no hesitation about putting on the black suit to once again become FBI agent Dale Cooper in the 2017 Showtime “Twin Peaks” revival.

MacLachlan remained friends with “Twin Peaks” co-creator David Lynch after the ABC series ended, and whenever the two met MacLachlan always tried to mention what a fun experience the show had been. Eventually, Lynch told MacLachlan that he and “Twin Peaks” co-creator Mark Frost had been talking.

“I, of course, encouraged that, and somewhere along the line he asked if I would ever be interested in returning, and I said I would return in a minute. I love that character,” MacLachlan said. He spoke by phone from Los Angeles on Friday morning (Jan. 29) before filming scenes for “Twin Peaks” that afternoon.

“David keeps his cards very close to the vest,” he said, “and it wasn’t until they had something in place that we had a meeting, and then it became much more real. They had found a way back into the story they were excited about.”

It’s been 23 years since any of the “Twin Peaks” story was last told (1992’s big-screen movie “Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me”), and MacLachlan has had a busy career in the interim, including roles on “Sex and the City,” “Desperate Housewives” and his recurring part as the mayor of Portland on IFC’s “Portlandia” (Thursdays). In this week’s episode, viewers learn some secrets from the mayor’s past and meet his Austin, Texas, counterpart, also played by MacLachlan.

“We made the character up, and they had a mustache they stuck on me and I started talking some sort of crazy, Texan twang that I’m sure is not appropriate and people from Austin are gonna cringe,” he said, laughing.

Production on new “Twin Peaks” episodes began last year, with about six weeks spent in Washington in September. The bulk of the new episodes were shot in Los Angeles.

“The funny thing is, many of the locations I never visited in the pilot,” MacLachlan said, ticking off places he made it to this time that were new to him. “Laura Palmer’s house (was new), the sheriff’s station (was not). The diner I didn’t visit on this occasion. So it was a mishmash. Some locations had changed and had to be rebuilt, so it wasn’t really like going back in that way.”

MacLachlan said fans turned out during filming at the Palmer house in Everett, but the “Twin Peaks” team tried its best to retain the show’s secrets. (So far, MacLachlan is the only announced cast member, but reports suggest actors Sheryl Lee, Ray Wise, Grace Zabriskie, Sherilyn Fenn, Richard Beymer, Mädchen Amick, Miguel Ferrer, Harry Goaz, Kimmy Robertson, Dana Ashbrook and James Marshall will be back.)

Don’t expect any spoilers from MacLachlan on how the new “Twin Peaks” will explain the last scene from the final season on ABC: Cooper, possessed by the evil spirit Bob, head-butting a mirror and crazily asking, “How’s Annie?” — the name of Cooper’s love interest, played by Heather Graham.

“It’s a tricky question to answer,” MacLachlan said, “so I’m not going to answer it. I think people will be very happy with what we’re doing.”

MacLachlan said it wasn’t tough to get back into character — “that black suit is a very powerful emblem” — and other than “feeling much older” when he saw himself in the Cooper get-up in a mirror, he said it was as if no time has passed.

A 1982 graduate of the University of Washington, MacLachlan has two brothers in Seattle and makes a few visits each year, often taking time to stop at local wine shops.

MacLachlan got into the wine business in 2005. He initially thought of doing business in Napa, Calif., but it was “prohibitively expensive.” MacLachlan’s wife suggested Washington state, which also gave the actor more opportunities to visit his father before his death in 2011.

MacLachlan founded the Pursued By Bear wine label, a name taken from a stage direction in William Shakespeare’s “The Winter’s Tale.” He teamed with Dunham Cellars of Walla Walla, which MacLachlan said has the infrastructure to bottle his limited-production cabernet sauvignon (Pursued By Bear) and syrah (called Baby Bear). Coming this summer, a rosé: Blushing Bear.

“I’m up there many times during the year for some of the events they have, the moments they need me to be there,” MacLachlan said.

Friday afternoon he was needed on the “Twin Peaks” set, but he offered no hints about the scene he was about to film.

“There’s a black suit involved,” he said, chuckling. “That’s all I can say.”