Laura Dern Breaks Down Her Career, from “Jurassic Park” to “Star Wars"

my mother could feel that I was serious about acting and the quote she often tells in her Mississippi accent is be a doctor be a loyal be a leper missionary but by God don't be an actress so that didn't work hi my name is laura dern and this is the timeline of my career my first listed role is white lightning I was I believe five at the time and my mother was in the film along with Burt Reynolds and other amazing cast of actors and they had dressed me to do a background walk by but I because of trauma forced myself into the movie because I was watching and a man comes toward my mother holding a shotgun and I panicked and started running and grabbed her leg to protect her so it's a devastating story I got my pick up my start in pictures by being traumatized and trying to protect my mother hey you're welcome to see when I was about seven I was an extra and a film my mother was in for Martin Scorsese called Alice's and live here anymore and then at the ripe age of seven I knew I wanted to be an actress ultimately from that experience started studying I remember watching my mother and Ellen Burstyn have a scene in a bathroom together two women talking and watching Scorsese improvise and create and navigate human emotion with them and I fell in love with that idea and my dad that summer was making a film with Hitchcock so I was watching Hitchcock and Scorsese I mean you do the math of course I wanted to be an actor in the dream there was our world and the world would dart because there weren't any robbing so I was 16 years old I met David Lynch on an audition for blue velvet I was so excited just to have the audition and I went in he didn't ask me to read he'd never seen me in a movie we talked about life nature meditation I was then offered the role and he never saw me act I don't know what he saw but I'm so grateful that he trusted me to join his family David creates a world and asks you to hurl yourself into it the fact that someone who's given us so much torment and danger is also the person who taught me comedy who created a mood and a feeling all of it had this beautiful eerie mysterious magic to it wild at heart was even more of an immersion into David's vision and throwing myself off the deep end and he gave me an opportunity to play the polar opposite character then I just had for him only a few years before in blue velvet and Nicolas Cage was such a brave radical actor to partner with and we were true partners on that movie and we loved it so much and when we finished we were so in our sailor and Lula mindset I think we didn't even know how to get out of the movie my outfit and I most of it myself it's very cheerful ramblin rose the fact that our director Martha Coolidge saw my mother so clearly in the role and wanted us to do it together was such a dream come true my mom and I did both get nominated for Oscars from the film and it's the Academy history one of my favorite memories was hauling my grandma is from Alabama my mom's mom who raised me who was the love of my life Mary and I said grandma guess what your daughter and your granddaughter both just got nominated for Academy Awards she said for ramblin rose and I said yeah she goes oh that's good still wish she'd been a hand model welcome to Jurassic people think that was my big studio movie experience but it felt like every other radical independent because they were doing something that hadn't been done and Stevens energy about it is voracious so in the process of making Jurassic Park the Raptors were there I was scared of them they're so real and the animatronic is so amazing and these puppeteers are so brilliant and I'll never forget that feeling I mean it was great as an actor I wasn't looking at nothing this monster was coming after me but the Triceratops was also really there and I fell so in love with him and Sam Neal's so lovely in that scene when he lays on it and feels its breath then hits little tears cousin feel good seeing that movie scene Jurassic Park for the first time was one of my favorite memories i sat with Steven with popcorn and sam neill and Jeff Goldblum was just the four of us we just sat alone in a screening room and it was on and I couldn't believe it I look up and I see the Brachiosaurus that was amazing I started to cry it was so moving even those of us who were in it were stunned Ellen I think you are amazing I think you're amazing to being asked by Ellen to do her coming-out episode the puppy episode was a gift a gift for my children's generation for me for all of us to bear witness to someone's bravery altering history and I feel so honored to have been along for that ride it was amazing she'd seen the film Citizen Ruth that I did and based on that she asked me to do it because she wanted to have that feeling where you go oh my god this person is my best friend soulmate just like me oh my god am i attracted to this person like that was part of the turn for the show but to be part of the specific moment I will never forget I literally was holding her as she said the words and I felt her whole body start shaking and the voice start to crack and to literally be staring in the person's eyes and holding their hands as they say okay for the first time beyond art beyond anything but for their life changed my life so I'm forever grateful it being part of that the shocker was that the aftermath was filled with hate and heightened security and all kinds of horror and so just when you think we're ready we might not be ready and we're going to continue the revolution guys deputy Diane reporting when David calls you say yes myself and Naomi Watts went to have cappuccinos with him he was telling us he was cooking up something oh really who you want to be in it but he described who I would play and then I signed a bunch of paperwork so I could never tell anyone who I was playing and that secret was kept till people saw it which was hard because it was so exciting to play Diane in terms of a look David was so specific clear and we have such a great relationship about building character and you know he just loved building it to the point that he saw her lips be a very specific color and so he mixed paint to get the color to be what he wanted because that lipstick doesn't exist and I just loved that about him that he's that much of an artist and you never let a bully win do you hear me you have to speak up Emma Bella you have to be a big girl and use your voice in this world Leon our novelist began the story David Kelley ran with it from there and jean-marc vallée our director of the first season Reese Witherspoon and I had done wild with him we were all really this family and kind of went right into big little lies together shortly thereafter they really let me participate in building all the things you want in a character it's weird as an actor when your character so takes over that you're a little bit embarrassed by her and that's how I feel she can't help herself guys take after take she just can't you know having female company was a big deal let alone collaborative collaborators so it's been remarkable myself Reese and Nicole Kidman have hardly ever worked with other women so big little lies certainly for us felt like a big part of that second season I mean it's still us but they hired some other woman to join us and Meryl something but I saw I think it'll be okay I mean people Meryl Streep give me a break that's why they call me a bulldog because I had to learn how to fight back with a bully for the very last of the resistance but we're not alone Rian Johnson invited me to lunch to talk about a role in a movie he started talking about this thing he was writing and how he was seeing it and describing this world he was just like in space when everything is so overwhelming and you have to take command of your ship and I was like my god yes that's that's it and so where does it take place and he was like no it's space and I said I know I hear that I get it as a parallel you know but like where is it in small town America early he's like no no no it's Star Wars I was like you're making a Star Wars you did 10 minutes describing a Star Wars movie and I thought he was telling me about some indie movie and then I got to set and they rolled camera and I opened my eyes and they called action and I was staring at c-3po and I started to cry I literally I had to cut I couldn't it was so shocking because we've all pretended in our rooms since 6:00 you know I have a lightsaber and so it's magic what an amazing thing to be part of that when I think back on my different roles and and project forward into future I pray wonderful choices that are given to me and to hopefully continue to play characters I have no idea about I've never even considered playing are nothing like anyone else I've played and yet there's a knowing in there

Channel: Vanity Fair

Views: 664,693

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Id: YRO0TeRoKgM

Length: 12min 6sec (726 seconds)

Published: Wed Jan 02 2019