David Lynch recently revealed that he is suffering emphysema, which has left him confined to his house, no longer able to direct projects in person. Now, in an interview with People, the 78-year filmmaker has shared that he relies on supplemental oxygen for anything more strenuous than a walk across the room.
“I can hardly walk across a room. It’s like you’re walking around with a plastic bag around your head,” he explained.
Lynch said that following a life-long smoking habit, he was diagnosed with emphysema in 2020. Even so, he did not give up smoking for another two years. “I saw the writing on the wall, and it said, ‘You’re going to die in a week if you don’t stop,’ Lynch noted. “I could hardly move without gasping for air. Quitting was my only choice.”
As emphysema also makes him more vulnerable to other respiratory illnesses, Lynch is also permanently homebound.
Despite the situation he now finds himself in, Lynch does not regret being a smoker. “I don’t regret it. It was important to me,” he told People. However, he also wants fellow smokers to use his current infliction as a cautionary tale.
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“I really wanted to get this across: Think about it. You can quit these things that are going to end up killing you. I owe it to them — and to myself — to say that.”
Lynch previously clarified that he has no intention to retire from filmmaking and that he hopes to be able to direct remotely. His last major on-screen project was Twin Peaks: The Return in 2017. Earlier this year, he team up with Chrystabell for a collaborative album called Cellophane Memories, which was accompanied by several music videos directed by Lynch.
