‘Platoon’, ‘Top Gun’ and McDreamy roles Kyle MacLachlan didn’t land

Kyle MacLachlan is now and forever FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper from David Lynch’s “Twin Peaks,” the immortal TV role that the actor has finally come to terms as "the first line in my obituary."

However, in his quirky and wonderfully self-effacing memoir, “Fictional Selves” (Crown, Sept. 29), MacLachlan, 67, spends as much time on the high-profile, predominantly iconic movie roles that slipped away – and there are some biggies.

These near-misses took on extra weight after young MacLachlan's would-be breakout in David Lynch’s 1984 “Dune” instead became a bruising box-office and critical disappointment. MacLachlan writes candidly about the opportunities that followed, and sometimes slipped through his fingers – including “Platoon,” “Top Gun” and “Sex, Lies, and Videotape.”

MacLachlan came tantalizingly close to joining another ’80s phenomenon, “Top Gun," speaking with director Tony Scott for the role of Maverick’s best friend and radar intercept officer, Nick "Goose" Bradshaw. MacLachlan, at 25, could tell immediately that he wasn’t right for the cocky part.

"He is looking for a certain kind of energy for the pilots in the film: that Budweiser, military-hotshot, swinging-d— swagger. Unfortunately, this is not me – I can’t fake it – and we both know it," MacLachlan writes.

Original source: https://www.usatoday.com/entertainment/