DERN’S TURN
IN-DEMAND ACTRESS LAURA DERN CAN ADD NETFLIX MOVIE STAR TO HER LIST OF CREDITS … AND MAYBE DIRECTOR SOMETIME SOON?
Beloved actress, careerlongevity goddess, scenestealer supreme – after more than four decades in the business, Laura Dern, 52, is better than ever – including her captivating turn in Noah Baumbach’s awards-season darling Marriage Story (in cinemas now and on Netflix from Fri., Dec. 6).
Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson are the couple disintegrating at the centre of Marriage Story, but you get some great moments as Johansson’s character’s divorce lawyer, Nora. I mean, as an actor you can’t dream up speeches that delicious! It’s just crazy amazing. But let me say, I’ve never cried so hard as when I first read the script. It wasn’t just the emotion of the story, it was the perfection of the screenplay. [And] being a parent, I understood this unbelievably sad, broken moment. Nora and Renata from Big Little Lies have some surface similarities – they’re both high-powered women with great wardrobes. But they’re very different, too. Yes! Renata’s all about being liked, and that’s what I love about her. She’s also a rager, and complicated. This woman Nora, she plays it very carefully. She’s a total pro, she’s not rabid or losing her s--t ever. But if the comparison is me wearing high fashion, then I’m really comfortable continuing to play these women, because it’s awfully fun. You’ve taken on so many complex roles over the past 40-plus years. Is finding those parts harder or easier at this point in your career?
Oh my God, I thought harder. And I was scared! Hopefully, there’s been this paradigm shift in every industry now where everyone’s voices matter, and women can be in charge, women can be paid the same, all of those fights. But in terms of [acting], also that women can have ownership of complicated, raw, ugly, beautiful, sexualised – or asexual! – damaged, vulnerable characters. And don’t have to be typecast because of one role or because of ageism.
You’ve worked with so many great directors, from Spielberg to Scorsese. Would you ever direct a feature film?
You know, I’ve tried my best to figure out if I’m gonna hurl my passions into that while raising these amazing creatures that live in my house. [Dern has two teenagers with her ex-husband, musician Ben Harper.] But now that they’re getting older, I would love to consider that. I know I could never do it unless it’s a story that really feels like home to me. Enlightened ended after two seasons in 2013, but your character, that ‘woman on the verge of a nervous breakthrough’, feels so prescient now. How do you think she would play in this moment? When it first came out, a lot of journalists were like, “What’s wrong with Amy? Do you like playing a bipolar character?” I was like, “She’s not bipolar, she’s just angry!” And nobody else seems angry, you know? About Monsanto and Big Tobacco and the ownership of all our representatives in DC. Now
I just feel like we’re all Amy – her rage is ou r rage. In fact, you’re inspiring me, I gotta reach out to HBO and tell them they should show it right now. [Laughs]
What haven’t you done yet, project-wise?
A musical. That would be really inspiring and scary and wonderful. But I was also raised on the films that made me want to bring social justice to storytelling … Network, Norma Rae, Silkwood. [I want to show] that longing for a better world, someone whose voice doesn’t matter, and then suddenly has to. Like my own Mr Smith Goes to Washington. Mrs Smith? Yeah! [Laughs] Yeah.
Leah Greenblatt