In Gregory Elwood’s piece titled “The Fablemans’ Finally Lands in LA As Best Picture Buzz Grows,” a hilarious anecdote is revealed regarding the casting of David Lynch as John Ford in Spielberg’s film:
Spielberg also revealed that it took three weeks to convince David Lynch to play legendary director John Fordin a memorable scene at the end of the film. He credits Kusnher’s husband, Mark Harris, with suggesting Lynch and Laura Dern for calling her longtime creative colleague numerous times to get him to commit. It appears Lynch doesn’t like being in front of the camera if he doesn’t have to. Oh, and his only request was that there were Cheetos on set.
This is the most Lynchian request. Of course, it was well worth the Cheeto investment since Lynch’s cameo is the highlight of the movie (along with Judd Hirsch’s scenes).
Variety admitted in February that Lynch’s “role remained a closely guarded secret,” which is odd since the other roles in the film had been notably cast and announced without secrecy.
There have been many stories of a young Spielberg sneaking onto film sets and meeting legends of the era. He famously met Ford at the age of 15 doing just that. Lynch actually sounds a lot like Spielberg's impersonation of the time he met John Ford.
A fun tidbit I had heard years ago was Spielberg admitting that he was a big fan of Lynch’s “Twin Peaks” and that if a third season of the show had happened in the ‘90s, then he would have approached Lynch to direct an episode.