David Lynch can’t walk without oxygen due to health battle: ‘It’s like you’re walking around with a plastic bag around your head’
Filmmaker David Lynch has spoken out living with late-stage emphysema, explaining he now needs oxygen just to go for a walk.
The man behind Twin Peaks, Blue Velvet and Mulholland Drive was diagnosed with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in 2020 after smoking from the age of eight.
“A big important part of my life was smoking,” Lynch told People. “I loved the smell of tobacco, the taste of tobacco. I loved lighting cigarettes. It was part of being a painter and a filmmaker for me.”
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He added: “What you sow is what you reap.”
Lynch, 78, chronicled his battle to quit smoking, explaining he tried “many, many times, but when it got tough, I’d have that first cigarette, and it was a one-way trip to heaven. Then you’re back smoking again.”
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He said it’s in “the back of every smoker’s mind is the fact that it’s healthy, so you’re literally playing with fire. It can bite you.”
“I took a chance, and I got bit,” he said.
Lynch denied glamourising smoking in his work, saying it was “a part of life.”
“Some characters would be smokers, just like in real life,” he said.
Lynch finally stopped smoking two years ago when he receiving his diagnosis.
“I saw the writing on the wall and it said, ‘You’re going to die in a week if you don’t stop,'” he told the publication.
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“I could hardly move without gasping for air. Quitting was my only choice.”
He is now hopeful of his body “healing itself” although currently, he “can hardly walk across a room.”
“I can hardly walk across a room. It’s like you’re walking around with a plastic bag around your head,” he said.
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Lynch now spends majority of his time at home to avoid illness, but is determined to continue his work, telling Sight and Sound magazine he’d “remotely” if he had to.
He gave fans an update on his health on X in August.
“Ladies and Gentleman,” he wrote. “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 emphysema.”
“I have now quit smoking for over two years,” he continued. “Recently I had many tests and the good news is 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 appreciate your concern,” he ended the post. “Love, David.”
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Lynch was labelled the “most important film-maker of the current” era by The Guardian in 2007 for his work creating surrealist film and TV shows.
He has received numerous awards including an Honourary Academy Award in 2019.
Lynch’s first child is from his marriage to Peggy Reavey in 1968. That marriage ended in 1974. Son Austin is from his second marriage to Mary Fisk. The couple divorced in 1987.
Lynch welcomed his third child, son Riley, in 1992 with partner Mary Sweeney. The couple then married from 2006 before divorcing in 2006.
His fourth child, Lula Boginia, was born in 2012 during his marriage to Emily Stofle. The couple divorced in 2023.
Lynch is also a grandfather.
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