Mulholland Drive's Rebekah Del Rio on figuring out David Lynch through a trip to his hometown
The singer talked about working with Lynch and visiting his Montana hometown
Rebekah Del Rio is responsible for one of the most haunting scenes in David Lynch’s career: Singing “Llorando,” a Spanish-language version of Roy Orbison’s “Crying,” as a rapt Betty/Diane (Naomi Watts) and Rita/Camilla (Laura Elena Harring) watch her perform in Mulholland Drive’s Club Silencio. Despite reuniting with Lynch many years later to appear as one of Twin Peaks: The Return’s Bang Bang Bar musicians, it turns out that Del Rio—like lots of us—didn’t feel like she really understood the director’s work until she had the opportunity to visit his Montana hometown.
During an interview with IndieWire, Del Rio explains that she first met Lynch after he’d recorded her singing her Spanish cover of “Crying”—written as a tribute to the late Selena—following an introduction from their mutual agent. The recording apparently “inspired [Lynch] to build the Silencio scene, which ultimately launched the by-then-debunked ABC pilot” that would go on to become the film version of Mulholland Drive.
Decades later, during the No Hay Banda Tour celebrating the movie’s 20th anniversary, Del Rio ended up visiting Missoula, Montana, where Lynch grew up. Saying that she “wanted to see where this man was from, what makes this genius tick,” Del Rio explored a city that she felt explained Lynch’s art. “It’s very clean-cut, conservative, and mountain-esque,” Del Rio says, “yet there’s another side to this place that is riddled with drugs, dilapidated buildings, and terrible despair … all within a radius of a few miles.”
She also recalls driving around Missoula, getting lost, and “ending up in a creepy warehouse, [and] encountering a man that reminded me of the monster near the trash can behind Winkies ….” Later on, having dinner “at a bougie restaurant,” Del Rio says she thought she “was just within the limits of the strangest story in the safest and scariest place on earth.”
“Now I think I know why David makes his art the way he does,” she finishes. “And I’m so very glad he chose me to make some of that art with him.”
Read the entire IndieWire article for more on Del Rio, including her memories of filming the Mulholland Drive performance.
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