Well, I'm one of those who had a particular relationship with the whole Twin Peaks universe. I had glimpses of the series when I was just a kid. As I already said somewhere else, I wasn't allowed to watch it. By the way, one or two years later, knowing already the series plot, I had watched the movie so many times that I fell in love with it. Some years laters I finally watched the series completely for the first time and realized that Donna was originally played by a different actress and I wasn't impressed much with the work Lara F. Boyle did during the series. Although she is an interesting character, opposed to the one of the dead Laura, including the final mistery about who her real dad is. I like the fact that she really breaks down and cries in a very emotional and theatrical way only in the pilot and in the finale. In between she had a few cries, but those two stick to my memory as genuine and impressive. But, having seen the movie and having read the diary, I'm with Nefud and those others when they say Moira Kelly was more suitable and did justice to her character as depicted in the diary.
Now, the issue about ages has bugged me for a while too. And I came to this conclusion. In Twin Peaks, no one is innocent, especially the girls. So, they strangely look like girls trying to look like women as soon as they can. It's a typical 50s-60s portrayal of young women. The paradox is that Twin Peaks takes place in the 1990s, but it looks like there time had stopped for like 30-40 years. This happens also with Laura Dern in Blue Velvet, she was supposed to be a teenager since she was in high school but her mannerism, her looks, the hair, the clothes (also those of her friends and of Jeffrey's) belong to the adult-emulative universe shown in classical 50s-60s movies. That's what every girl (except maybe Shelly, who seems to mantain an air of innocence till the end) goes through in Twin Peaks. Also Audrey, in the pilot she really looks girly, but she gradually loses that quality and becomes a woman. So, using actresses that are evidently older or looking older than teenagers perfectly works for the timeless frame of Twin Peaks.
Laura never looked really that teen and that's because of her history. So Sheryl is perfect and when Maddy comes up, she is always Sheryl Lee but now she is evidently playing a little bit older cousin who claims she has her own apartment and a job. Definitely not the high-school girl prototype.
"Did they scoff the whole damn Smörgåsbord?" (Audrey)
"Gimme a donut!" (Coop)
