How Twin Peaks' Lara Flynn Boyle Learned to Shrug Off Critics of Her Looks and Style: ‘Whatever’ (Exclusive) 

Lara Flynn Boyle has long been the target of critics attacking her looks and style – and she no longer cares what other people think.

“It used to just frustrate me to no end, and now I’m like, ‘I give up,'” the star of the new film Mother, the couch she tells PEOPLE, adding that she has no control over “people’s attraction to something or how they receive me.”

One of her most memorable red carpet moments — wearing a pink tutu and shoes that resembled ballet slippers at the 2003 Golden Globes — was a message of sorts, she says.

“When I wore the tutu, I was like,” Boyle says, pausing to hold up both middle fingers. “Whatever!”

Lara Flynn Boyle and Kyle MacLachlan during the 43rd Primetime Emmy Awards.

Jim Smeal/Ron Galella Collection/Getty

“This is a game and this is entertainment and this is entertainment,” says the former star of the Emmy-nominated legal drama Praxis. “It’s just out of your control.”

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Although Boyle doesn’t do many interviews these days, she does promote Mother, the couchdark comedy about an old woman (Ellen Burstyn) who goes shopping in a furniture store and refuses to get off the sofa.

Her estranged grown children (played by Rhys Ifans, Ewan McGregor and Boyle) rally to come get her. Boyle’s character, Linda, is a no-nonsense chain smoker who is rough around the edges.

She got the part, in part, because writer-director Niclas Larsson had often seen Boyle in the pages of tabloid magazines – which published unflattering photos and sensational headlines about her – and thought she could play Linda well.

As I write the film, “I ask myself, ‘What about Lara?’ I knew I needed someone who had been through something physically and mentally,” says Larsson.

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Despite the negative attention she’s received, Boyle says she’s always tried to keep a level head and not take anything too personally.

Lara Flynn Boyle at the 1999 Golden Globe Awards.

Vinnie Zuffante/Getty

“It will take you two minutes a day or 24 hours a day,” she says. “What are you going to do?”

Boyle, who broke through in 1989 on the ABC series Twin Peakshe came to Hollywood as a teenager and fought to be part of the industry, starring in films like Wayne’s World, In three and Men in Black II. She constantly reminded herself of her desire to act whenever the going got tough.

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“Any time I felt down or self-pitying, I made sure not to complain about it,” she says.

And after all these years, Boyle is still having a good time in Hollywood. In fact, he says, he spends “the best”.

Mother, the couch is in theaters in New York on July 5 before expansion.

Find out more about Lara Flynn Boyle in the new issue of the magazine PEOPLE.

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Source: HIS Education