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

Lara Flynn Boyle has long been a target for critics who’ve attacked her appearance 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 movie Mother, Couch tells PEOPLE, adding that she has no control over “people’s attraction to something or how I’m received.”

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

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

“This is play and this is fun and this is a party,” says the Emmy-nominated former star of the legal drama The Practice. “It's just so out of your control.”

Though Boyle doesn’t give many interviews these days, she is promoting Mother, Couch, a dark comedy about an elderly woman (Ellen Burstyn) who goes shopping in a furniture store and refuses to get up from a sofa.

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

She landed the role, in part, because writer-director Niclas Larsson often saw Boyle in the pages of tabloid magazines — which ran unflattering photos and sensational headlines about her — and thought she could embody Linda well.

While writing the movie, “I'm like, ‘What's up with Lara?’ I knew I needed someone who physically and mentally lived through something,” says Larsson. 

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

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

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

“Any moment I was feeling down or sorry for myself, I made sure I did not complain about it,” she says.

And after all these years, Boyle is still having a great time in Hollywood. In fact, she says, she’s having “the best” time.

Mother, Couch is in theaters in New York July 5 before expanding.

For more on Lara Flynn Boyle, pick up the new issue of PEOPLE.