The list of characters across Mulholland Drive. Spoilers will follow.
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Protagonists
Betty Elms
Betty Elms
Played by: Naomi Watts
"I just came here from Deep River, Ontario and now I'm in this...dream place!"
An aspiring actress who has just arrived in Hollywood looking for her big break. Also a doppelganger of Diane Selwyn.
- The Ace: Diane is a failed actress who got dumped by Camilla. She didn't get a part in The Sylvia North Story because the director didn't like her. She's bitter and filled with rage. Diane imagines/dreams that she is Betty, a talented actress who knocks everybody's socks off at the audition. In her fantasy, she wins the love of "Rita" instead of getting dumped. And in her fantasy she didn't miss out on that part because she wasn't good enough, she lost the part because the Mafia made Adam Kesher cast someone else.
- Amateur Sleuth: Tries to solve the mystery of Rita's amnesia by sneaking into other people's homes. Her curious persona has been compared to Nancy Drew.
- Expy:
- Betty's personality resembles that of Audrey Horne from Twin Peaks as like Audrey, Betty is driven by infatuation and a sense of adventure despite her naivete. This is far from a coincidence since Mulholland Drive was originally meant to be a Twin Peaks Spin-Off with Audrey Horne as the main protagonist.
- She is also similar to Dale Cooper from Twin Peaks. Like Cooper, she's an idealistic outsider with an interest in solving mysteries.
- Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: She's as radiant in looks as she is in personality.
- Hidden Depths: Betty seems like a rather naive and idealistic young woman, but in her audition scene she accesses a part of herself that we've never seen before and never see again.
- Lipstick Lesbian: Looks very dainty and feminine in a 1950s sense, but is in love with Rita.
- Ms. Fanservice: Despite being very wholesome and proper, she's got a sexy side that comes out during her audition and later that night when she has sex with Rita.
- Nice Girl: Never has a bad word to say about anybody.
"Rita"
Rita
Played by: Laura Harring
"A car....a car accident..."
An amnesiac woman who was the target of a failed assassination. Also a doppelganger of the real Camilla Rhodes.
- Aborted Arc: The mafia tried to kill her in the beginning of the film because she was an actress and was presumably a threat to the mafia's plans regarding Adam's film. However, Rita's real name and specific identity are never revealed and her connections to the film industry like all the other plots in the dream world eventually come to an end without a satisfying conclusion.
- Censor Shadow: In the bedroom when Rita disrobes, we see little more than just her silhouette against the light coming in through the window.
- Color-Coded Characters: Rita usually wears red and black.
- Dye or Die: After seeing a corpse in the bed which she believes to be her own, Rita decides to cut her hair short in an attempt to avoid being recognized. But Betty has a better idea, hiding Rita under a blonde wig of her aunt's.
- Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": Anyone that would know her real name refers to Rita simply as "the girl".
- Expy: Of Laura Palmer, being the damsel in distress who is embroiled in a conspiracy.
- Identity Amnesia: Suffers from this due to getting her head hit in the opening car crash.
- Line-of-Sight Name: Laura Harring's amnesiac character takes the name "Rita" after seeing a Rita Hayworth poster.
- Lipstick Lesbian: She even wears lipstick when she has just showered.
- Ms. Fanservice: She's naked twice in the film.
- Mysterious Past: We don't learn much about her due to the Identity Amnesia. This is resolved in the second half of the film... possibly.
- Quest for Identity: Rita with the help of Betty, after her amnesia from the car accident.
- Raven Hair, Ivory Skin: In sharp contrast to blonde-haired Betty.
- Sleeps in the Nude: Justified since she doesn't have any sleeping clothes.
- Sole Survivor: There were six people involved in the car crash. She was the only lucky one to survive.
Diane Selwyn
Diane Selwyn
Played by: Naomi Watts
"You want me to make this easy for you? No fucking way! It's not gonna be. IT'S NOT EASY FOR ME!"
A failed actress who is bitter over her ex-lover.
- Ate His Gun: How she killed herself.
- Broken Bird: It's implied she started out just like Betty, but losing out on roles and eventually getting cruelly dumped by Camilla took their toll on her.
- Bury Your Gays: Kills herself in the end.
- Corrupted Character Copy: To Dorothy Gale. Like Dorothy, Diane lives in a dreary mundane world, but escapes into a dreamland where her alter ego is a universally beloved figure. But while Dorothy is an innocent girl who grows into a heroic figure, Diane is closer to a villain who constructs her dreamworld in a highly self-serving manner so she doesn't have to address her failings as a person. The "Diane Selwyn" in her dream is only ever seen as a rotting corpse, showing that even on a subconscious level Diane knows she's actually closer to a Wicked Witch than a plucky heroine.
- Disproportionate Retribution: After Camilla cuckolds her, Diane has her killed.
- Fan Disservice: The masturbation scene displeases some viewers.
- If I Can't Have You…: Seemingly Diane's motive for murder, after Camilla breaks off their relationship, with jealousy over Camilla's far more successful career being a secondary motive.
- Light Is Not Good: Has blonde hair and tends to wear a lot of light clothes, but is the type of person who would hire an assassin.
- My God, What Have I Done?: The morning after having Camilla killed, Diane spends the rest of the day wracked with guilt. She hallucinates that Camilla is still alive, masturbates out of frustration and eventually kills herself when the hallucinations get more chaotic.
- Never My Fault: The whole dream sequence is Diane creating a false narrative where Camilla survives the hit, which was orchestrated by an Obviously Evil organisation. Betty`s audition shows that she's very capable despite the cheesy script, wishy-washy director and possibly sleazy co-star, as if to say that Diane's failed career had nothing to do with her own shortcomings.
- Never Say That Again: Diane demands this from Camilla during the couch scene, when Camilla says she wants to stop having sex.
- Psycho Lesbian: Goes mad with jealousy after Camilla dumps her.
- Sanity Slippage: Becomes the victim of this.
- Shadow Archetype: To Betty. While Betty was the nicest gal you could ever hope to meet and a talented actress, Diane is implied to be a mediocre actress and is very bitter by the time we meet her.
- Straight Gay: She has at least one dinner dress and can pass for Lipstick Lesbian when she makes the effort.
- Unreliable Narrator: It's implied that the entire film takes place from her perspective. The first half plays out as her fantasy of Hollywood with her as a talented actress and Camilla as her loyal lover. The second half reveals the truth about her but is still peppered with surrealism due to her self-loathing.
- Yandere: Organises a hit on her ex-lover after getting dumped and being forced to watch her make out with at least two different people. Despite this, she still longs for Camilla.
Camilla Rhodes
Camilla Rhodes
Played by: Laura Harring
"Don't be like this, Diane."
A rising star who was Diane's former lover.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: She puts on a sweet and friendly exterior for Diane, but at the same time treats her like she's disposable.
- Bury Your Gays: Diane has her killed out of spite.
- Depraved Bisexual: She is shown as promiscuous with both men and women, manipulative, and vicious. Although she is seen through the eyes of her Psycho Lesbian ex-lover, Diane, so it's very possible that none of this is real.
- Expy: Like Rita, she's one to Laura Palmer as seen in Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me, as Rita embodies the idealised image of Laura while Camilla embodies the flawed reality.
- Idiot Ball: Sure, make out with the director and a random woman in front of your unstable ex-girlfriend. What`s the worst that could happen? That is all assuming that this is actually what happened and not just something Diane's mind conjured up.
- Lipstick Lesbian: Always looks impeccably well-dressed. That is, when she is dressed.
- Ms. Fanservice: She gets a topless scene and is cast as the love interest in Kesher's film.
- Shadow Archetype: To Rita. Rita was devoted to Betty and was simple enough to not break Betty's heart. Camilla isn't quite so pure of heart. There's also the matter of one surviving a hit and the other is heavily implied to have not.
Adam Kesher
Adam Kesher
Played by: Justin Theroux
"That girl is not in my film!"
A film director who has to deal with an unfaithful wife and a micro-managing executive studio.
- Aborted Arc: There's some build-up between him and Betty, but the dream ends before it can go anywhere.
- Big Fancy House: Adam Kesher has one of these. Of course, he does live on Mulholland Drive, a place famous for its Big Fancy Houses.
- Butt-Monkey:
- Played straight in the dream world, where Adam's day goes From Bad to Worse as it seems as though everyone and everything is conspiring against him. By the end, he's a broke man hiding out in a seedy motel in downtown Los Angeles.
- Averted in the real world, where everything goes mostly smoothly for him. His divorce left him with all the spoils, his film seemingly wrapped up with no major issues, and it's hinted that he'll marry Camilla. It's implied that Diane's hitman kills Camilla by the end of the film, but still, he at the very least is still alive unlike Camilla and Diane.
- Deadpan Snarker: In the first half becomes one as he tries to understand just what the hell is happening to him. By the end he's permanently trapped in Sarcasm Mode.
- Emasculated Cuckold: He finds his wife with the pool man and after some struggle gets shamefully evicted from his own home. Given that this all happens in Diane's dream, there's a sense of sweet irony to be had regarding his affair with Camilla.
- Held Gaze: Has one with Betty during their brief interaction.
- Home-Early Surprise: Adam is fired from his directing job so he comes home early to find his wife in bed with the poolman. After a scuffle, he is forced out of his house.
- Would Hit a Girl: Almost did this to his cheating wife until the poolman/her lover intervened, with his choice of words showing that according to him, Adam is the only one who did anything wrong.
Ryan Entertainment
Mr. Roque
Mr. Roque
Played by: Michael J. Anderson
"The girl is still missing."
An enigmatic figure who has a lot of influence over the film industry.
- Aborted Arc: After getting set up as the Big Bad, we find out he doesn't even exist.
- The Artifact: Presumably if the film was made into a television series he would have had a larger role with a satisfying conclusion.
- Body Horror: Mr. Roque's bizarrely shrunken head on top of his normal-sized body is a slightly more subdued example.
- Creepy Monotone: He also talks with as few words as possible, adding to his creepiness.
- Decomposite Character: He sabotages Adam's film and tries to get Rita killed. While Betty may have the appearance of Diane, Mr. Roque represents all of Diane's villainous tendencies.
- Emerging from the Shadows: How he's introduced.
- Evil Cripple: Stuck in a wheelchair. It's implied he may have some degenerative disorder, given he has trouble talking at certain points and sits in a room that lets in no sunlight.
- Executive Meddling: In-universe example with the dubious figure of Mr. Roque, who is working entirely behind the scenes, exerting his power through the Castigliane brothers ("This is no longer your film"). It's one of the main themes of the first of the movie's two parts, portraying Hollywood as an outright conspiracy/gang that enforces arbitrary decisions onto directors for unexplained reasons.
- Little People Are Surreal: Played with, although most viewers aren't sure what's even going on in that scene. Basically, dwarf actor Michael J. Anderson (of Twin Peaks fame) wears the prosthetic body of a big person, with only his head showing. The effect is weird.
- The Mafia: It's highly implied that Mr. Roque and the Castigliane Brothers aren't your typical meddling executives.
- Obviously Evil: A creepy-looking man who sits in the shadows and pulls strings couldn't possibly be a bad guy. Could he?
Luigi & Vincenzo Castigliane
Luigi & Vincenzo Castigliane
Played by: Angelo Badalamenti (Luigi) & Dan Hedaya (Vincenzo)
"This is no longer your film."
Studio executives and possible mafia figures that demand Adam Kescher do a recast.
- Creator Cameo: Angelo Badalamenti also composed the soundtrack.
- Expy: Of Ben and Jerry Horne, being an eccentric and unscrupulous pair of brothers with a lot of clout.
- Handshake Refusal: They refuse the handshake offered by Ray at the conference.
- The Mafia: It's highly implied that Mr. Roque and the Castigliane Brothers aren't your typical meddling executives.
- Not So Stoic: When they're first introduced, they say very little and show no emotion outside of cold judgement. Then one of them finds his espresso isn't to his tastes and the whole scene goes off the rails.
- Rambunctious Italian: Luigi is very eccentric.
- The Snack Is More Interesting: At the move exec conference, Luigi Castigliane is more interested in his espresso than the discussion about the main actress.
Wally Brown
Wally Brown
Played by: James Karen
"You've done your aunt proud and I'm going to tell her first chance I get."
A film producer that knows Betty's aunt.
- Nice Guy: Makes efforts to help Betty feel at home during an audition.
- Stylistic Suck: The script he sends Betty is quite cheesy. Betty and Rita crack up when they're rehearsing. All the more impressive that, when Betty does it in the audition, she single-handedly turns it into a tense and highly sexually-charged encounter."Get out! Get out right now before...!""Before what?""Before I kill you!""Then they'd put you in jail!"
Woody Katz
Woody Katz
Played by: Chad Everett
"We're gonna play this niiice and close. Just like in the movies."
An actor that Betty auditions with.
- Actor Allusion: Chad Everett was probably best known for being in the seven-year run as Dr. Joe Gannon in the television series Medical Center (1969) which earned him two Golden Globe Awards and Emmy nominations. Hence the creepy "doctor" type line "just tell me where it hurts, baby."
- Dirty Old Man: His character coerces his friend's daughter into sleeping with him. It's hinted that this wasn't entirely just an act.
- Fan Disservice: The suggestive scene he does with Betty would be sexier if it wasn't for the noticeable age gap.
- Rewatch Bonus: He mentions acting out the same scene with another, dark-haired actress whose name he can't recall. It's most likely Rita.
Bob Brooker
Bob Brooker
Played by: Wayne Grace
"Very good. Very...very good. It was forced at times, but still...humanistic."
A director that auditions Betty.
- Aborted Arc: Downplayed. The film he's working on is never elaborated on, but his assistants say that it was never going to go into production anyway.
- Know-Nothing Know-It-All:
- In the dream world, his direction is incredibly vague."It's not a competition. The two of them. With themselves. So, don't play it for real...until it gets real."
- Averted in the real world, where it is implied that he is a competent director who helped create The Sylvia North Story.
- In the dream world, his direction is incredibly vague.
- Stylistic Suck: Zigzagged. His direction seems comically pretentious and vague, but Woody actually follows his advice, letting Betty lead the scene. At one point, Woody's hand hovers near Betty's ass but doesn't touch it, as if Woody doesn't want to be inappropriate. Betty grabs his wrist and plants his hand firmly on her own ass, immediately raising the stakes and making the scene much more physical. If Bob hadn't told Woody to let Betty take control, the scene wouldn't have been as electrifying. It's all academic because the film never gets made, but...
- True Art Is Incomprehensible: Bob's odd choice of words show he's overthinking a film that seems to be little more than an erotic thriller.
Camilla Rhodes
Camilla Rhodes
Played by: Melissa George
"This is the girl."
A well-connected actress whom Adam Kesher is forced to cast.
- Aside Glance: Internal example. As she's singing Camilla shoots Adam a sinister glance.
- Composite Character: Of the real Camilla and her new blonde lover.
- Decomposite Character: Everything Diane hated about the real Camilla is projected onto her, while her outward appearance was given to the less complex Rita.
- Expy: Of Lana Milford, having the connections to get ahead in showbusiness in spite of an implied lack of talent.
- Small Role, Big Impact: She makes only a single appearance, but it's implied that Rita's attempted murder was done to get her foot in the door and force Adam to cast her.
- Pink Means Feminine: During the musical audition scene, all the women auditioning have pink in their attire with Melissa George's Camilla Rhodes wearing an all-pink dress.
Hollywood Locals
Det. Harry McKnight & Det. Domgaard
Harry McKnight
Played by: Robert Forster (McKnight) & Brent Briscoe (Domgaard)
"Could be someone's missing." "That's what I'm thinking."
Two detectives who investigate the failed attempt on Rita's life.
- Aborted Arc: Their investigation goes nowhere, as they don't existnote .
- The Artifact: When the film was pitched as a television series, they were originally going to have a larger role.
Aunt Ruth
Ruth
Played by: Maya Bond
"She's letting me stay here while she's working on a movie that's being made in Canada. But I guess you already know that."
Betty's aunt, who allows Betty to stay at her place while she shoots in Canada.
- Dead All Along: In the second half of the film, Diane reveals that her aunt died and left her some money.
- Out of Focus: She's in all of two scenes and neither gives her character any emphasis.
Dan
Dan
Played by: Patrick Fischler
"I had a dream about this place."
A man who has sinister visions revolving around the Winkie's diner.
- Died in Your Arms Tonight: As soon as he sees the bum, he collapses into his friend's arms and goes completely still.
- Hero of Another Story: His scene is entirely independent of the major plots and in the real world he's just some guy that Diane saw out of the corner of her eye.
- Oh, Crap!: After telling his companion how the dream plays out, he breaks into a cold sweat when reality plays out exactly the same way, compelling him to go down into that back alleyway...
- Or Was It a Dream?: His reason for coming to Winkies is to address the dreams he keeps having of someone hiding behind the building causing something that leaves his companion terrified.
- Properly Paranoid: The crux of his scene was that he was right that there's something sinister festering behind Winkies.
- Stepford Smiler: At first he's all upbeat and talking about his dreams like they're no big deal, but it barely hides the sense of dread he's been carrying.
- Through the Eyes of Madness: It's implied that only he can see the bum behind Winkies, as it appears right in front of his companion, who doesn't even acknowledge its existence.
- We Hardly Knew Ye: He's killed off in his very first scene. His brief appearance in the real world gives us no insight into his character.
Catherine "Coco" Lenoix
Catherine "Coco" Lenoix
Played by: Ann Miller
Betty's landlady in the dream world and Adam's mother in the real world.
- Cool Old Lady: At least in the first act. We don't get much information on her real-world equivalent.
- Curse of The Ancients: Coco curses like this."What you're telling me is a load of horse-pucky..."
Joe
Joe
Played by: Mark Pellegrino
"Aw man! That's unheard of! An accident like that, who could have foreseen that?"
"Once you hand that over to me, it's a done deal. Are you sure you want this?"
A hired hitman that's been tasked with hunting down Camilla.
- Blatant Lies: The hitman telling a watching janitor that his heavyset victim is hurt bad, and he wants to call an ambulance for her, while she's violently struggling in his arms.
- Butt-Monkey: Nothing ever goes right with his incarnation in the dream world in few minutes of screen time: he fails to stage a suicide on one of his hits and ends up killing two more people in a string of slapstick encounters. And while he gets a decent lead on Rita, his supposed target, he never properly catches up on her, and if he's working for the organization, that would mean even more trouble for him. This is in stark contrast to his real life counterpart, who not only is efficient in his profession, but also works for private individuals only.
- Conversation Casualty: Joe executing Ed in the middle of a cheerful conversation.
- Epic Fail: In the dream world, he's tasked with killing a man and making it look like a suicide. As soon as he slips his gun into the man's hand, he accidentally sends off another bullet that wounds a woman in the next room. He tries killing the woman, but attracts the attention of a janitor. He kills both of them, but the janitor's vacuum cleaner is left on. He tries silencing the vacuum cleaner by shooting it, which causes an electrical short that sets off the fire alarm.
- Flirtatious Smack on the Ass: Smacks the prostitute on the ass when she enters the back of the blue van.
- I Just Shot Marvin in the Face: Perpetrated by the most negligent hitman since Vincent Vega.
- Mirror Self: His "Betty story" version is comically inept, bungling a fake suicide badly that he has to kill two more people and still manages to set the building on fire. His "Diane story" version is implied to be much more efficient, since he promises Diane that the blue key will show up when he's killed Camilla, and indeed it does, which triggers Diane's suicidal guilt and mental breakdown.
- Plethora of Mistakes: His plan to kill Ed and make it look like suicide goes awry when he accidentally triggers the gun while wiping his handprint off and then he decided to "kill" the vacuum which triggers the building's smoke detector alarm.
Woman in # 12
Woman in #12
Played by: Johanna Stein
"Oh, by the way, those two detectives came by again looking for you."
Diane Selwyn's old flatmate.
- All There in the Manual: She mentions she previously used to inhabit room 17, so the address board indicates her name is De Rosa.
- Ambiguously Gay: She was a roommate of Diane's in both worlds and looks noticeably less feminine than all the other women.
Cookie
Cookie
Played by: Geno Silva
"It's my duty to inform you that whoever you're hiding from...they know where you are."
A hotel manager. Might also be a member of Club Silencio.
- Ambiguous Situation: Geno Silva also plays the emcee at Club Silencio. It's not made clear if the emcee is also meant to be Cookie, but his distinct mustache lends credibility to this theory.
- Magnificent Moustaches of Mexico: His trademark.
- Nice Guy: His interaction with Adam shows that he looks after his guests, even if the hotel he's running is less than stellar.
Louise Bonner
Louise Bonner
Played by: Lee Grant
"Someone is in trouble!"
Betty's neighbor and a clairvoyant.
- The Cassandra: A very blatant example of one.
- Cloudcuckoolander: She talks to Betty as if in a trance, though when Coco talks to her she seemingly regains herself.
- Expy: To the Log Lady from Twin Peaks. Both have some connection with the spirit world that makes them come across as a bit odd.
Supernatural Forces
The Bum
Bum
Played by: Bonnie Aarons
"There's a man...in back of this place. He's the one who's doing it! I can see him through the wall! I can see his face!"
A derelict who lives in the alleyway behind Winkies.
- Ambiguously Human: Just the way it slides out of nowhere, its Ambiguous Gender and the fact that it's impossibly filthy hint that it's no ordinary bum.
- Crosscast Role: He is played by actress Bonnie Aarons.
Bet you didn't see that coming, eh? - The Dreaded: Dan is terrified of the reoccurring dream where he can see the creature through the walls, and the story he tells is unsettling enough to make his friend a bit unnerved as well. Then they go see it in the alleyway behind the diner and the mere sight of the creature is enough to make Dan faint in horror.
- Humanoid Abomination: There's no clear explanation as to who or what this person is.
- Jump Scare: One of the most iconic examples of the modern age — this is how the man behind Winkies is introduced, only to disappear just as quickly.
- Magical Homeless Person: He is strongly implied to be a godlike mystical being who pulls all the strings behind the movie's plot.
- Mundane Horror: The "man behind Winkies" scene is the quintessence of this. Two men are talking in a diner, with one of them telling the other about a nightmare he had, in which there was a horrible abomination in the back of the diner. Everything happens in broad daylight, with many customers around, and nothing indicates anything out of the ordinary. Nonetheless, they go to check, and when it looks like nobody is there, and he is about to calm down... the abomination actually appears.
- Nothing Is Scarier: A Lynch trademark, exemplified in the "man behind Winkies" scene. Almost five minutes of low-key, almost hushed conversation as build-up, then the two men leave the diner, with both of them (and the audience) terrified of what they might find behind the restaurant as the camera creeeeeeeeeeeeps towards the wall, and then, BOOM.
- Psychopomp: One possible theory. Dan drops dead as soon as he sees it. Later on it releases the old couple who terrorize Diane into suicide. As Diane's body goes cold, the bum can be seen fading into focus.
The Old Couple
Old Couple
Played by: Jeanne Bates & Dan Birnbaum
"Remember, I'll be watching for you on the big screen!"
A sinister old couple who take an interest in Betty/Diane.
- Ambiguously Human: They can alter their size and crawl out of the blue box, so at the very least they're magical in nature.
- Evil Laugh: Their first interaction with Betty seems benign, but after they board their cab, they begin to laugh hysterically, in absolute silence. We're given no such mercy from the sound during the final scene.
- Evil Old Folks: Miniature evil old folks, no less.
- The Fourth Wall Will Not Protect You: Somehow they managed to break out of the dreamworld and torment Diane. And when Diane is dead, they're nowhere to be found. Best watch this movie with your lights on.
- Miniature Senior Citizens: In the most literal and nightmarish sense.
- Mundane Horror: Of a different variety than the bum; they're every inch your average elderly well-to-do white couple... which makes their unnatural movements and unexplained (hallucinatory?) attack on Diane all the more nightmarish.
The Cowboy
Cowboy
Played by: Lafayette Montgomery
"Well, now. Here's a man who wants to get right down to it. Kind of anxious to get to it, are you?"
The owner and manager of a corral who has a vested interest in Adam Kescher's film.
- Alien Fair Folk: May be this, given his relation to electricity (lightbulb turning on/off when he appears/disappears), his somewhat peculiar appearance and behavior, and numerous similarities to characters of this type from Twin Peaks.
- Ambiguously Human: His choice of wardrobe feels more like a costume than proper attire and his skin is unnaturally streamlined with very limited facial expressions, like he's wearing a mask.
- Emerging from the Shadows: The way he only appears when a light flickers on gives off this vibe.
- Faux Affably Evil: Acts friendly and tries to engage in small talk with Kesher, all the while looking down his nose at him and making it clear that Kesher must submit or suffer the consequences.
- No Brows: His creepiness is amplified by his lack of eyebrows.
- Rule of Three: The Cowboy says "If you do good, you'll see me one more time. If you do bad, you'll see me two more times." While he doesn't encounter Adam after this, he does appear before Diane, who as the dreamer would have experienced this interaction and has a skeleton in her closet.
- Stealth Hi/Bye: Appears and disappears without a trace at the corral.
- In a weirder way, his appearance at the party in Diane's world. Barely a walk-on cameo... but he's there all the same at Diane's tipping point.
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: To Mystery Man from Lost Highway, both being enigmatic and near omnipotent Ambiguously Human type of characters who may or may not be capable of warping between alternate realities. Both also lack eyebrows and tend to emerge from the shadows quite literally.
- Wham Line: "Hey pretty girl. Time to wake up."
Club Silencio
Club Silencio
Played by: Richard Green (The Magician), Cori Glazer (Blue-Haired Woman) Rebekah Del Rio (As Herself)
"It is all...an illusion!"
"Llorando...Llorando...Llorando...No es fácil de entender! Que al verte otra vez! Yo seguiré llorando..."
"Silencio..."
Performers at a late-night club.
- Author Avatar: The Magician's lecture on false images and wish-fulfillment carries meaning that seems to come straight from the mouth of the director.
- Beard of Evil: While calling the Magician "evil" is a bit of a stretch, he's still pretty creepy.
- The Chanteuse: Rebekah Del Rio. When she collapses, the song keeps playing, implying that she was lip-synching the whole thing. Then again, it's hard to tell with this movie.
- Classy Cane: The Magician has one.
- Cold Ham: There is no band...
- Familiar Soundtrack, Foreign Lyrics: "Llorando" is a Spanish cover of Roy Orbison's "Crying."
- Gratuitous French: The magician abuses this trope.
- Grief Song: "Llorando" translates to "crying".
- Kubrick Stare: The Magician gives one with a sinister smile before seeming to disappear in a puff of smoke.
- Large Ham: NO! HAY! BANDA! — That magician sure loves his ham.
- Love Nostalgia Song: The song "Llorando" is either a Break-Up Song or a song about a loved one dying.
- Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: The Magician repeatedly says everything is fake, but if you pay close attention you'll see he made a cane materialise in his hand and makes it disappear seconds later. There's also the way he disappears in a puff of smoke.
- Rewatch Bonus: The blue-haired woman can be seen observing from a balcony as the Magician delivers his soliloquy.
- Smoke Out: The Magician finishes his act using this trick.
