Film-maker David Lynch says is not retiring after he said that is now too ill to direct films in person and could only work on projects remotely. , Lynch said: “I’ve gotten emphysema from smoking for so long, and so I’m homebound whether I like it or not. I can’t go out.
And I can only walk a short distance before I’m out of oxygen.” He added: “Because of Covid, it would be very bad for me to get sick, even with a cold. So I would probably be directing from my home .
.. I wouldn’t like that so much.
I like to be amongst the thing and get ideas there. But I would try to do [a film] remotely, if it comes to it.” After his comments provoked a strong response from fans, the 78-year-old issued a follow-up statement on X to clarify he would not stop working.
“I have now quit smoking for over two years,” he wrote. “Recently I had many tests and the good news is that I am in excellent shape except for emphysema. I am filled with happiness, and I will never retire.
I want you all to know that I really appreciate your concern. Love, David.” Ladies and Gentlemen, Yes, I have emphysema from my many years of smoking.
I have to say that I enjoyed smoking very much, and I do love tobacco - the smell of it, lighting cigarettes on fire, smoking them - but there is a price to pay for this enjoyment, and the price for me is...
— David Lynch (@DAVID_LYNCH) Lynch’s most recent full-length production was the 18-episode TV series , which premiered on Showtime in 2017, and his last feature film was , released in 2006. include a feature film script Antelope Don’t Run No More, apparently completed in 2010, and a rumoured 13-part Netflix series called Wisteria/Unrecorded Night, supposedly in development in 2020. In the Sight and Sound interview, Lynch said he had a complicated relationship with the cause of his health problems.
“Smoking was something that I absolutely loved, but in the end, it bit me. It was part of the art life for me: the tobacco and the smell of it, and lighting things and smoking and going back and sitting back and having a smoke and looking at your work, or thinking about things; nothing like it in this world is so beautiful. Meanwhile, it’s killing me.
So I had to quit.”.
