10 things you never knew about Laura Dern
Laura Dern is an incredibly versatile actress who has left her mark on audiences, since her turn in the iconic jurassic park as well as in trending titles like big little lies and Marriage story.
Winning the Oscar for her portrayal as a prisonerless divorce lawyer in Marriage story, his award was long in coming for a career filled with bold and daring performances. While Dern’s roles are well-known, there are some fun and perhaps little-known facts about him that would interest those who want to learn more about the diverse and risk-taking actor.
She’s got star power in her blood
Her mom and dad, Bruce Dern and Diane Ladd, are acclaimed Oscar-nominated actors who obviously passed on their talented genes to their daughter Laura. Dern’s mother, Diane Ladd, has starred in a slew of independent and mainstream films, even starring alongside her daughter several times.
Some of Ladd’s most popular films include Wild at Heart, Chinatownand Alice doesn’t live here anymore, which was the film that won him an Oscar. Likewise, Dern’s father, Bruce, has been a constant presence in films since the ’60s and enjoyed a career revival thanks to the popularity and critical attention of his 2013 film, Nebraska.
She got Martin Scorsese’s stamp of approval…at age six
Any actor would kill for the chance to be congratulated by one of the most revered directors of all time, Martin Scorsese. However, when Dern was only six years old, she accompanied her mother to the filming of Scorsese’s film Alice no longer lives here. During filming, Dern was given the job of an extra in a scene where she had to eat an ice cream cone with every take. There were 19 takes, so she must have eaten 19 ice cream cones!
Dern managed not to get sick and impressed Scorsese immensely. After the scene was over, he remarked to Dern’s mother, “This girl is going to be an actress,” as explained on Film News.
She was emancipated at 15
Given that both of Dern’s parents were acclaimed actors, it may come as a surprise that they were in fact strongly opposed to Dern starring in a movie (it was rumored to be the movie Ladies and Gentlemen, Fabulous Spots), as it would have required Dern to travel away from home for filming, according to 80s kids.
As a result, Dern sued for emancipation and won at just 15 so she could make her own decisions about her film career, as well as work as a professional adult actor without the stipulations required of actors under the age of 18. 18 years old. Dern has been adamant that the emancipation was strictly for work/movie reasons and had nothing to do with child-parent conflict and she’s incredibly close with both parents to this day.
She nearly lost her breakout role to Molly Ringwald
Laura Dern’s breakthrough role that brought her to notice with audiences and critics was David Lynch’s 1986 masterpiece, blue velvet. The bold film launched Dern’s career launch and cemented his fruitful working relationship with Lynch for years to come.
However, Dern almost never had that chance if Lynch got his first choice of Molly Ringwald for the role of Sandy, according to Mental Floss. blue velvet has its fair share of shocking and controversial moments, leading Ringlwald’s mother, upon reading the script, to not even show it to her daughter, believing the film to be offensive.
She broke her own no-nudity rule for Wild At Heart
Another David Lynch classic, The heart that is in Desert is an exciting and quirky story with a hypersexualized slant. Before The heart that is in Desert, Dern had a no-nudity policy for herself and even rejected some roles that required nudity.
Yet when she saw how the nudity fit into the story and felt that the love affair between her and Nicolas Cage’s characters was protected, she felt secure enough. ease in revealing everything for the role, while throwing themselves completely into the role, as revealed in an article in 80s kids. As one of Laura Dern’s most memorable roles, the risk was clearly worth the reward.
Dern was almost in the silence of the lambs
It would be an understatement to say that Thesilenceofthelambs was one of the most successful films of 1991. The film cleaned up an Oscar, including a Best Actress win for Jodie Foster as gifted FBI intern Clarice Starling. As much as the character of Clarice is associated with Foster, it was almost another actor who held the role: Laura Dern.
According to E! In line, director Johnathan Demme thought Dern’s audition as Clarice was fantastic and she would do a great job in the role. However, the studio wanted a more famous actor for the part, so Dern didn’t get the part.
She beat Steven Spielberg’s goddaughter for Jurrasic Park
Even though Dern was passed over for the role of Clarice Starling by another actor, Dern got shot when she landed the role of paleobotanist Dr. Ellie Satler in the dinosaur classic, Jurassic Park.
Every actor in Hollywood probably covets a spot in any Steven Spielberg movie and Jurassic Park turned out to be no different, as many famous names auditioned for the role of Dr. Satler. A famous name includes Gwenyth Paltrow, who is Steven Spielberg’s own goddaughter. As noted in a E! In line article, Dern beat out both Paltrow and Oscar winner Helen Hunt for the role that would become one of his best known.
His family made Oscar history in 1992
The 1991 movie Rambling Pink featured Laura Dern in the lead role with her mother, Diane Ladd, in a supporting role. The film gained a lot of acclaim, especially for the film’s acting
The high regard for the film led to Academy Award nominations for Best Actress for Dern and Best Supporting Actress for Ladd for the 1992 Academy Awards. Although neither actor won, the duo entered Oscar history as Dern and Ladd were the first mother-daughter couple to be nominated for an Oscar for the same movie or year.
She faced a career backlash after appearing on Ellen in 1997
Prior to her long-running talk show, Ellen Degeneres had her own sitcom which eventually had a coming-out episode titled “The Puppy Episode”, where Ellen publicly came out as gay. The episode was polarizing and highly controversial for its time. In it, Dern played a lesbian who helps Ellen on her journey to accepting herself.
After the episode’s release, Dern experienced a year and a half without a job due to the backlash from his appearance. However, Dern was proud of her work on the show and even considered her appearance in the episode to be “the greatest thing I could have been a part of”, as told to E! In line.
She’s the inspiration behind one of David Lynch’s movie titles
As well as being a great collaborator with iconoclast David Lynch, Dern was also a great inspiration to the director. One of the biggest inspirations Dern provided to Lynch was the title of Lynch’s 2006 experimental film, Inner Empire.
As written in Factinate.com, Dern had a conversation with Lynch about her then-husband’s hometown in the area of Los Angeles County known as the Inland Empire. Lynch was so taken with the name that he made it the title of his next film, which also starred Dern.
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