Having a good mentor is important. I wasn’t particularly driven to be an actor. I’d tried lots of things out in college. I had a lot of interests; acting was just one of them. I’m not sure I ever thought: “I could do this,” rather than: “I like doing this and I’d like to be able to do it.” But I was lucky to have really good people showing me the way. I’ve had a few help me, but meeting David Lynch had a monumental impact on me.

Sometimes you have to accept you’re just not good enough. My dream – my fantasy – was to be a professional golfer. I spent so much time playing golf with my dad. Very early I realised that it just wasn’t going to happen. As soon as I started playing in tournaments against other people my age – and in some cases, younger – I realised I just couldn’t cut it. When I decided to go all in on acting, I didn’t really feel that.

I don’t understand all of Twin Peaks. The fans understand it much more than me! When you’re being directed by David [Lynch] it’s sometimes hard to follow everything he’s trying to say. I’m not sure how bothered David is about that. He really does allow his subconscious to move him through stories. I think he likes the actors he works with to do that, too. I think that’s a big reason why his work is so interesting.

Dale Cooper is actually more David than me. There’s a lot of me in him and he’s absolutely my favourite character I’ve played. I’m a pretty positive person, I’m good natured, I take great pleasure in simple things or moments, whether that’s coffee or pie. But I added a lot of David’s traits in playing him, whether that was vocalisations or particular phrases David says. Really, Dale Cooper is David, not me.

Actors have a pretty dark sense of humour. After we’ve finished a job we’ll all say, “Well, that’s it, I’ll never work again,” and everyone laughs. But I’ll be honest, I’m not sure I’ve ever really worried about that. I’ve found it more exhilarating than anything. I knew pretty early that Showgirls [Paul Verhoeven’s 1995 megaflop] was going to be destroyed by the critics, but I thought I’d be OK because not only was I pretty established, but I wasn’t on any kind of upward trajectory. I was right. It came and it went, and I weathered it.

I try to do my best, always. What surprised me about Showgirls is I didn’t see it coming. Being in the middle of it, I saw some pretty powerful filmmaking. I thought the choreography was brilliant. We had some hugely talented people working on it. Then I saw the finished project and I’d really, really got it wrong. It taught me that you don’t know what a thing is going to be when you’re in the middle of something. All you can do is your best.

I’ve learned so much about parenting from my parents. My parents cared more that me and my brothers were passionate about what we were doing than anything else. I’ve tried to adopt a similar approach with my children. I’m not the same kind of disciplinarian my father was; I’m all about a conversation rather than anything like a spanking. But in other ways I’m hugely influenced by the two of them. I was very close to my parents. My mum died in 1986 and my dad went in 2011. I’d like to think I’ve inherited the same sense of kindness they both had.

The Staggering Girl is available on MUBI, Apple and Amazon