David Lynch wanted Cheetos as payment for Steven Spielberg’s The Fabelmans cameo

Minor spoilers for Steven Spielberg’s The Fabelmans–but it might be worth it!

It’s no surprise that Steven Spielberg is a great admirer of some of Hollywood’s greatest directors. One such icon is John Ford, best known for The Searchers, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance and The Grapes of Wrath. Since Steven Spielberg’s latest puts much emphasis on his early days as a budding director, it made since he would include one of his heroes. But who would play John Ford? Spielberg recruited none other than David Lynch, lending what seems to be a noteworthy cameo with an even more memorable payment.

Normally, such a circumstance might see the cameo lender get a small check or just chalk it up to doing a solid for a fellow director. But remember, it’s David Lynch, so he had a rather unusual request if he was going to turn up. His payment of choice? Cheetos. According to The Playlist, citing a Q&A session at a screening for members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, David Lynch only requested that Cheetos be kept on the set for his snacking pleasure.

Bringing Lynch onboard took a bit of time. Per the article, Spielberg “revealed that it took three weeks to convince David Lynch to play legendary director John Ford in a memorable scene at the end of the film.” It came down to Mark Harris (husband of co-writer Tony Kushner) and Laura Dern (star of Lynch’s Blue Velvet, Wild at Heart and Inland Empire) to put Lynch in front of the camera.

John Ford is a director that Steven Spielberg greatly admired and he has frequently cited Ford’s seminal western The Searchers as one of his favorite films. Interestingly, Spielberg has yet to helm a western, although he has recently expressed interest.

The Fabelmans is a clear Oscar frontrunner, taking home the Audience Award after its premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival.

As far as which flavor of Cheetos David Lynch requested, we simply do not have the answer. So we can only speculate? Is he a classic crunchy kind of guy or does he go for the white cheddar puffs? There’s just no figuring out David Lynch.