To say that the Twin Peaks revival is secretive is something of an understatement. One the way to its premiere on Showtime, pretty much no one knew what to expect from the series, which had made all of its promotional materials as vague and infrequent as possible. Not even the actors in the show really knew what they were in for, and that extends to the auditioning process as well. Brett Gelman has a minor role as a casino manager and he had little to no idea what to expect when he went in for his audition.
Brett Gelman, perhaps best known for his role in various Adult Swim comedy series and the Amazon show Fleabag, appears as Burns, the supervisor of a casino that gets cleaned out by a dazed Dale Cooper ("Hellooo-oo-ooo!") early on in the revival. Gelman recalls how he found himself on the set of the popular cult series, with no idea what was actually going on. He only even knew he got the part because the casting director, Johanna Ray, was his neighbor. Remembering his audition, it was just a "chill talk" with Ray. Gelman wasn't given any lines to read and director David Lynch wasn't present. Gelman wasn't even sure what part he was up for and was informed a few days later that he'd be playing Supervisor Burns, with no explanation about what that actually meant.
In the days leading up to the shoot, Brett Gelman was sent a physical copy of the script that only included his scenes. Attached was a note telling him not to tell anyone else that he was cast in the show or who his character was. After his scenes were over, he had to hand the script back to a producer so that it could be destroyed, which is pretty baller.
You'd think this would create a strange or serious atmosphere on set, but as Gelman told Indiewire, there was no "creepy vibe" and it was all "kindhearted and open." David Lynch gave him the freedom to play around with the role and gave him direction about what his character wanted in the scene. Gelman's character Burns has appeared in two episodes so far, and Gelman probably has no idea if he shows up in anymore.
It just goes to show that if you need to keep your highly anticipated series secret, all you have to do is literally never tell anyone anything, which is about as Twin Peaks as it gets. Twin Peaks airs new episodes Sunday nights at 9 p.m EST on Showtime. To plan out the rest of your TV viewing this summer, make sure to check out our summer TV premiere guide.
