Meet the Actor Behind 'Twin Peaks' Creepy Woodsman
"Twin Peaks: The Return" fans can never heard the words "got a light?" again without shuddering after last week's ultra-bizarre episode that introduced the extremely creepy Woodsman.
The man behind the head-crunching villain is actor Robert Broski, who's only been acting for about 10 years and has mostly specialized in playing Abraham Lincoln until now. As he tells THR, "I just happen to have been blessed with being old and ugly and looking just like [Lincoln]."
When complimented about giving people nightmares, Broski laughed, saying, "Isn't that a great feeling? Come on! I think any gentleman would like to have that feeling, that he can strike terror into that many people."
As for the reactions he's getting since his eerie, raspy-voiced role on "Twin Peaks," he tells THR, "I kind of get the impression that people don't want to meet up with me after dark anymore." He says no one has asked him for a light yet in real life, but he has been seeing -- and enjoying -- the memes, including an image of him as Lincoln with the caption: " Lincoln: Got a light?"
Broski explains to THR how he joined the David Lynch universe: He saw the call sheet that asked for a Woodsman and was intrigued. "It definitely caught my eye, and I'm a character-y looking guy, so I thought I would give this thing a go. For some reason, they liked my looks, and how I got the actual featured Woodsman, I guess, is probably because I looked like I had traveled a long distance on my feet and I was just a skinny and weary-looking guy. So they must have said, 'Hey, let's have this guy scare the crap out of everybody!'"
He admits it was "shocking" the first time he saw himself in the Woodsman grimy get-up.
As for his family's reaction to the episode," Broski laughs, "I could picture their eyeballs getting wider and wider as they were watching it." His kids, fortunately, are grown-up and able to handle seeing their dad playing such a deeply disturbing character.
We're not sure if we'll see the Woodsman again (IMDb lists him only as appearing in Episode 8), but Broski knows he's made an impact.
"Oh, it's a crack-up," he tells THR. "I mean, this is memorable. It's obviously going to be with me for the rest of my life. For the rest of my life, I think people are going to come up to me and ask: 'Got a light?'"