Laura Dern was around 6 years old, watching her mother act on a film set, when she had a revelation.
She was tagging along on summer break while her mother, Diane Ladd, was shooting Martin Scorsese’s 1974 romantic drama “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore.” On set, the legendary director gave Dern a front row seat to the action.
“My greatest memory is watching a scene between my mom and Ellen Burstyn in a bathroom. Marty cracked the door open and shot through the door, and he let me kneel down and watch as they improvised,” Dern told Business Insider. “And I thought to myself watching, ‘Whatever that is that they’re doing, I want to be part of that.'”
The daughter of two famed actors, Ladd and Bruce Dern, she learned about moviemaking not only by watching her parents but also by studying the ultra-famous directors, such as Scorsese and Alfred Hitchcock, who were directing them.
It didn’t take long for Dern to start landing roles of her own. By the time she was a teen, she’d become the muse of David Lynch, who cast her in three of his movies (and later, the limited series “Twin Peaks: The Return”), including classics like “Blue Velvet” and “Wild at Heart.” Steven Spielberg came calling when he needed a no-nonsense paleobotanist for his groundbreaking blockbuster, “Jurassic Park.”
In her over four-decade career, Dern, now 58, has played nearly every kind of role imaginable, from a “Star Wars” rebel leader (“Star Wars: The Last Jedi“) to an Emmy-winning performance as an over-the-top CEO mom (“Big Little Lies“). In 2020, she landed the ultimate career milestone, winning an Oscar for playing fierce divorce lawyer Nora Fanshaw in Noah Baumbach’s “Marriage Story.”
But what’s the secret to Dern’s success? When asked how it’s possible to continue such a varied and successful career after all these years, Dern deflects from her own talent, suggesting it comes down to simply having a great eye for working with the right directors.
“They have a mastery at storytelling that’s unique only to them,” Dern said of what she looks for in a director.
That’s what drew her to “Is This Thing On?,” Bradley Cooper’s latest directing effort, in theaters now. Though he’s largely known as an actor, Cooper’s two previous features, “A Star is Born” and “Maestro,” convinced Dern that he’s also a visionary behind the camera.
“Having made three features, Bradley has shown a language of cinema to each that is wildly different,” she said.
“Is This Thing On?” tells the story of a relationship on the verge of collapse, exploring how each partner copes with the emotional fallout. For Alex (Will Arnett), that means sharing his struggles onstage via standup comedy. Meanwhile, Tess (Dern) sets out on her own path, with Dern delivering a moving performance that examines how there’s still room for rediscovery in middle age, even if it means reevaluating who you love.
“It’s such an intimate and honest movie where we get to explore the subtlety within relationships, which was really exciting,” Dern said.
In Business Insider’s latest “Role Play” interview, Dern delves into everything that excites her about her craft, from the David Lynch movie she can never forget to the moment she finally saw those CGI dinosaurs in “Jurassic Park” on screen.
More from the Role Play series…
On catching the acting bug thanks to Martin Scorsese and realizing her dad is funny thanks to Alfred Hitchcock
One of the first times we see you on screen is as an extra in “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore.” You’re on set because your mother starred in the movie. Did Scorsese just see you and put you in a scene?
Yes. I was probably 6 at the time. I think Marty was probably being nice putting me in a scene. I was sitting around on my summer break getting to watch the cinema hero with my mom, just watching them have the time of their lives together.
Is it true that around the same time, your father was making “Family Plot” with Alfred Hitchcock?
Yeah, the same summer. I went from “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore” with mom to the set with dad, not knowing that I was observing heroes.
Any Hitch stories?
He had the prop department build me a mini director’s chair and let me sit next to him and watch my dad.
Hitch also taught me how hilarious my dad was. When you’re little, you don’t know your parent in context to other people’s experiences of them. My dad would make Hitch laugh so hard. It was beautiful to get to know that part of my dad through this filmmaker that loved him.
On her most ‘bliss-filled, experimental acting gift’ and the David Lynch character that never left her
Is there one movie you did with David Lynch that stands out the most?
“Inland Empire.” They all stand out — every experience, every day, every hour, every minute with David stands out, and are the greatest moments of my life, no exaggeration — but “Inland Empire” was three years of often just the two of us with a Sony camcorder and no other crew. Sometimes, a crew of maybe three. Sometimes, a traditional movie set. Playing multiple characters. Sometimes simultaneously. It was just the most radical, bliss-filled, experimental acting gift of my life with my best friend.
And then he wraps it all up by hanging out on the side of a street with a big “For Your Consideration” billboard of you as your Oscar campaign.
I mean, it can’t get any better than that!
Was it hard to let go of the Lula character when “Wild at Heart” wrapped?
I don’t know that I completely ever did. There are some characters where there is an aspect to them that never leaves you, and she definitely gave me a sense of playfulness, sensuality, daring, and dreaming that were not necessarily parts of my nature that I had explored or knew. So every once in a while, this character becomes a wakeup call to yourself. David was the person in my life who knew parts of me before I had met them yet.
On questioning if ‘Jurassic Park’ would work while making it
“Jurassic Park” isn’t just a classic work from Steven Spielberg. It’s a landmark moment in movie history thanks to its then-novel uses of CGI. The greatest example of that is your reaction in the jeep to seeing the Brachiosaurus. We have evolved a lot since then in terms of where actors should look when acting across imaginary things, but for that movie, what direction did Steven give you to pull off that shot?
I remember Steven realizing that Sam [Neill] and I were looking in different spots. That they would have to get specific for our eye line. So, someone got a giant rod, like an orange picker, and they drew a large “X” on a piece of paper with a Sharpie, put it on the rod, and stuck it high up in a tree so that Sam and I could have the same eye line. It was that raw.
Was there doubt on the “Jurassic Park” set that any of what you were doing would work?
Oh yeah. For sure. Day one, when we were supposed to hear a distant, faint sound that could be the T-Rex, and we all had to listen to the sound at the same moment, Sir Richard Attenborough said, “We’re going to need a cue of some kind, there has to be something ominous about something in the distance and we’re not sure we heard it,” and Steven said, “Don’t worry, don’t worry.”
The camera rolled, and suddenly, with a megaphone in the middle of that moment, Steven sounded exactly like this, [lamely] “Rooarrrr… Rooaaarrr.” And Sir Richard looked at me and was like, “Oh my god, I’m not sure about this!” We had no idea.
We watched the movie together — Steven, myself, Jeff [Goldblum], and Sam [Neill], at Amblin with popcorn. Steven had just finished everything. And we were beside ourselves. Popcorn was flying everywhere. I was grabbing onto Steven, terrified. Mind blown.
On the yearlong process of crafting her famous monologue in ‘Marriage Story.’
Your Oscar-winning performance in “Marriage Story” features a memorable monologue about marriage and how women are perceived in society, which came from many conversations with Noah Baumbach. How did that speech evolve into what we see on screen?
It was a yearlong process with Noah. We would spend hours just talking about relationships and marriage, the business of divorce, the manipulation that happens at the most delicate of moments in anyone’s life when lawyers get involved.
Then the day came when he said, “I would love for you to read the script, I think I’m there,” and I just wept. I thought it was one of the most beautiful things I had ever read.
When you get to that point in the script where he’s given your character this powerful monologue, what are you feeling? Is it terror? Is it excitement?
Excitement. Because it made me laugh so hard. It’s so honest. It’s so direct about her perspective on women in the world and the difference between how a man or a woman is going to be treated in this circumstance.
I believe you contributed one of the funniest lines to that monologue: That God “didn’t even do the fucking!”
I did. And I only say it because Noah’s been so generous to bring that up. It’s the great gift of working with the few directors who become family to you. He is so open and collaborative, like Bradley was, too. Like I had David for so many years in my life, Noah now feels like family.
This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.
“Is This Thing On?” is in theaters now.
Read the original article on Business Insider
The post Laura Dern on her favorite David Lynch movie, taking a risk on ‘Jurassic Park,’ and growing up on a Martin Scorsese set appeared first on Business Insider.
