David Lynch’s rejection of a creative partnership with Russell Brand left Brand explaining himself onstage: “Makes my answer a little trickier because it was going to be yes.”
The exchange happened on June 9, 2019, during a sold-out David Lynch Foundation conversation at the Fonda Theatre in Los Angeles. Asked whether they’d “collaborate on a creative process,” Lynch answered, “No.” The audience laughed.
The clip spread widely in September 2023, days after 4 women’s allegations of rape and assault against Brand were published. Brand denied those allegations. The footage circulated again in November 2024 and after Lynch’s death on January 16, 2025, at 78.
Brand was sentenced today, November 9, 2026, to 10 years and 6 months in prison. A jury convicted him last week of raping a 21-year-old in 2009 and committing 3 sexual assaults, while acquitting him on 3 other counts. The women whose allegations emerged in 2023 were different from the 6 women involved in the trial.
Reading Lynch’s answer as a warning about Brand goes beyond what the exchange establishes. His answer concerned working together, and his reason remains unknown.
The 2 had longstanding ties through Transcendental Meditation: Brand hosted a benefit for Lynch’s foundation in 2010, and Lynch called him “a great comedian and a great human being” in 2013.
Brand was due to receive the first Freedom From Addiction Award from Lynch’s foundation that same night in 2019.
