Werner Herzog Reveals Touching Reason Behind ‘Bucking Fastard’ Dedication to David Lynch Ahead of Venice Premiere

Acclaimed German filmmaker Werner Herzog said he and the late David Lynch “have a deep, deep understanding of each other’s work.”

Ahead of the Venice Film Festival premiere of Herzog’s latest feature, Bucking Fastard , he sat for a press conference with cast members Kate and Rooney Mara , Domhnall Gleeson and Orlando Bloom on the Lido.

The Fitzcarraldo and Grizzly Man director — who is also picking up the Golden Lion Lifetime Achievement Award on the Lido this year — was swiftly asked why he has dedicated the film to the iconic Lynch ( Blue Velvet , Mulholland Drive , Dune ), who died in January 2025 at the age of 78. Related Stories Lifestyle Jack O'Connell Braves the Venice Heat (and Gets Sweaty) in Dior Look by Jonathan Anderson Movies 'Everest: The Other Side' Review: A Frustrating, Guiltily Compelling Portrait of the Triumph and Tragedy of Extreme Mountaineering

He responded: “During editing, I said to the editor just casually, ‘That’s a film that I would like David Lynch to be with me in the first public screening’ — which is in a few hours. […] We had a deep, deep understanding of each other’s work, although we were quite different. And I had the feeling [that] I wish he could be my first audience… I wish we could turn the wheel of time back and invite him tonight,” he added with a smile, “but it doesn’t happen like this.”

Bucking Fastard follows the Holbrooke sisters, Jean and Joan (the Mara sisters in their first-ever appearance together onscreen), siblings who share a deep, nearly supernatural bond. The sisters dress alike, think alike, and speak simultaneously. They even fall for the same man, the rowdy rogue Gareth Mulroney (Bloom, playing with a thick Irish brogue). Their joint obsession with him leads to legal proceedings and a restraining order.

Herzog said that, for the first time, he wasn’t in need of a two-week rehearsal period with his actors. “They were so good instantly that I said, after five days, ‘We stop that. I’ll meet you in Ireland in front of my camera,'” he recalled. “It was complete confidence in them, and they took it with ease.”

Rooney Mara said being real-life sisters aided that much-needed synchronicity. “I think we found pretty quickly that having a lifetime together and all this history and a childhood of playing together… There was just an unspoken world between us that we didn’t have to work very hard to create at all,” she told the room. “Once we really found our flow together, I’ve never laughed so much. We had so much fun. it was a very once-in-a-lifetime, unique experience.”

Her elder sister added: “Once we figured out the rhythm of our speaking in unison, it felt almost like a song. It was very musical and it happened quite naturally. Surprisingly, it came with a lot of a lot more ease than we were expecting.”

The movie is loosely based on the real case of British identical twin sisters Freda and Greta Chaplin, the subjects of a tabloid court case in the 1980s. The film’s title refers to a synchronized verbal slip the sisters made in court.