The Twin Peaks star has recalled being forced to lose all sense of propriety playing Charlotte York’s sexually troubled husband – from being hit with impotence jokes to a memorable encounter with baby oil.
Kyle MacLachlan has revealed playing sexually frustrated husband Trey MacDougal in Sex and the City left him terrified about what the show’s writers would make him do next.
The actor, 67, joined the landmark HBO series opposite Sarah Jessica Parker, Kristin Davis, Kim Cattrall and Cynthia Nixon at the height of its success, playing Charlotte York’s handsome but sexually troubled first husband.
Scenes featuring his character saw him stripping off, being drenched in baby oil and becoming the target of impotence jokes.
Kyle told the Sunday Times about taking the role it left him “terrified”.
He added: “Every week I would think, ‘Oh God, what are they gonna have me do this time?’
“And it was HBO, so you don’t even know if you’re going to have your clothes on or not. Any sense of propriety just had to go out the window.”
His character became one of Charlotte’s defining relationships in the original series, with their seemingly perfect marriage rapidly unravelling because of Trey’s impotence and their differing views about having children.
Kyle’s performance included the memorable declaration “We have lift-off!” when Trey finally overcame his sexual difficulties – and the storyline became so closely associated with him viewers began shouting jokes about it when they encountered him in public.
Kyle said people would yell: “Good luck getting it up tonight, Trey!”
He said he would respond: “Thank you!”
But Kyle admitted his private reaction was: “Oh my gosh… .”
One scene proved particularly embarrassing.
Trey was required to play tennis wearing only boxer shorts and trainers, but Kyle discovered simply taking his clothes off was not enough for the production.
He said: “OK, so I get there, and the make-up girls start rubbing all this baby oil onto my chest. I said, ‘I think that’s enough now.’ And they said, ‘Oh no it’s not!’
“And then they pretty much baptised me with baby oil, and I thought to myself, oh boy, oh boy… but I’ve come to accept that whatever I do is going to be a little bit different.”
Kyle had initially been reluctant even to consider Sex and the City.
His wife, television producer Desiree Gruber, persuaded him to meet HBO about the programme, which he initially believed was called ‘Sex in the Something’.
The actor had spent years trying to establish himself as a conventional Hollywood leading man but now acknowledges that the more unusual characters proved a better fit.
He even auditioned for Top Gun director Tony Scott early in his career but recalled: “And it was a disaster! He could see through me right away. He could tell I was not one of those kinds of guys and this just wasn’t going to work at all.”
In Sex and the City, the conventional male lead was Mr Big, played by Chris Noth.
Asked about missing out on those kinds of straightforward romantic roles, Kyle said of Mr Big: “Yes, had it happened I probably would have thought, well, this is boring, oh God. But I couldn’t do it anyway because I don’t know how to do those roles.”
Kyle was already synonymous with another television phenomenon by the time he became Trey.
His performance as FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper in David Lynch’s Twin Peaks made him a cult television icon, with Cooper’s love of coffee, cherry pie and conversations with his unseen assistant Diane becoming central to the surreal murder mystery.
Kyle MacLachlan reveals raunchy Sex and the City scenes left him ‘terrified’
