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Kyle MacLachlan Settles Into Summer

July 25, 2011

Kyle McLachlan (SEATED) with Eric Dunham of Dunham Cellars in Washington

Tall, dark and handsome certainly described Kyle MacLachlan when he peaked our interest in 1989’s Twin Peaks. It was the “dark” part that intrigued us and has followed MacLachlan for more than two decades in other hit shows like Sex and the City, Desperate Housewives and, most recently, IFC's Portlandia.


The show, which is about to film its second season, is about an area close to home for MacLachlan, who grew up in Yakima, Washington, and is a big supporter of the wine there. “They grow a great cabernet and I think it’s one of the best spots in the world for merlot,” said MacLachlan. And that’s not just talk. The actor has partnered with Eric Dunham of Washington’s Dunham Cellars to produce Pursued by Bear Cabernet Sauvignon (named by Steve Martin, after a line in a Shakespearean play) and the soon-to-be-released Baby Bear Syrah under the Dunham-MacLachlan label. While the vineyards (and shooting of Portlandia) remain in the Pacific Northwest, the MacLachlan family spends most of its time here in New York.

As MacLachlan and his wife Desiree Gruber’s son Callum begins nursery school this fall in Manhattan, the couple will be spending even more time in NYC. “An east coast education is where we are going to focus him,” acknowledges MacLachlan. The extra time spent in the city may also be motivation for MacLachlan to re-visit the stage if the right part comes along, though he admits that theatre is a lot of work. “I think about it every time I see someone I know doing theatre,” he says. “I [recently] saw Chris Noth doing That Championship Season... One thought is, How great it is to do theatre and what an incredible rush it is. And the second is, Man it’s a lot of work!”

MacLachlan’s previous fall plans were to be working full-time in California on The Doctor, a drama with Christine Lahti and Scott Foley, but CBS decided not to pick it up. Of that he admits his disappointment. “You spend 12 days working intensely with people and you form bonds, and there’s hopes and expectations,” he says. Though we’d have been fast fans of a MacLachlan/Lahti-driven medical drama, California’s loss is New York’s gain.

“The city suits me, but we go to the Hamptons a few times a summer,” he explains. “We’ll pop into a party or something, but we don’t go out a whole lot. I’ve got a special run that I like to do. There’s a beach we like to go to with Callum. We just chill.” At the moment, MacLachlan is excited for a sports-filled New York summer. “The U.S. Open is spectacular—or a Yankees or Mets game.”
 

—MARCIA FROST