USA TODAY International Edition
Dern doing double duty on the circuit
Laura Dern has picked up just about every possible trophy this awards season. If there was a prize for simply running the fivemonth marathon to Oscar night, she’d most certainly win that, too. ❚ Ever since Noah Baumbach’s tender divorce drama “Marriage Story” premiered at Venice Film Festival in late August, Dern has gamely shown up to every red carpet, industry screening and awards luncheon to promote her latest pair of critically adored movies. In “Marriage Story” ( now streaming on Netflix), she’s the scene- stealing Nora, a shark divorce attorney defending Scarlett Johansson’s Nicole in a child custody battle; and in “Little Women” ( in theaters nationwide), Greta Gerwig’s bracing adaptation of the Louisa May Alcott novel, she plays the March sisters’ wise matriarch, Marmee.
“Everybody’s feeling a bit of fatigue from this very full season, and I’m feeling it just because I’ve been bouncing between both films,” Dern says chirpily, stuck in bumper- to- bumper traffic on her way to be feted at yet another event.
Once it’s all over, “a few days of rest would be delicious,” she adds.
“Just cuddling my kids, taking them to school without the pressure of jumping on an airplane, will be much appreciated by them. I really look forward to that.”
The Oscars await Dern on Feb. 9 ( ABC, 8 p. m. EST/ 5 PST), where she’s the front- runner to take home best supporting actress for “Marriage Story” after sweeping the category at the Golden Globe, Screen Actors Guild and Critics’ Choice awards last month. It’d be the first Oscar win
in three nominations for the actress, whose credits include “Blue Velvet,” “Jurassic Park,” “Wild” and HBO’s “Big Little Lies.”
“Hustlers” star Jennifer Lopez, whose Oscar snub sparked outcry online, “was Dern’s only real competition, ( so her) path is completely clear,” says Erik Anderson, founder of AwardsWatch.com. “She simply has too much on her side: Hollywood family royalty, on the ( Academy’s) Board of Governors, working the circuit more than anyone. She’s unstoppable.”
Dern, 52, is the daughter of actor Bruce Dern and actress Diane Ladd, who was Oscar- nominated in 1975 for “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore” and brought a then- 8- year- old Dern to the show. They went again in 1992, when both were nominated for “Rambling Rose” ( Ladd in supporting, Dern for lead).
“It’s been a very beautiful story that I connect to deeply in terms of my parents, which is really special,” Dern says.
Reading “Marriage Story” for the first time, she was instantly drawn to the “ruthless” and “deliciously fun” Nora, who wrestles to keep Nicole’s young son ( Azhy Robertson) in Los Angeles, much to the frustration of his New York- based dad Charlie ( Adam Driver). But Dern also appreciates the fictitious character’s humanity.
“Nora wanted to represent the underrepresented,” Dern says. “In the maledominated business she entered, she saw how egregiously disparaging the differences were between a mother and a father,” in terms of how the court rules who’s “fit” to be a parent.
In the film’s most fist- pumping moment, as Nicole prepares for child custody evaluation, Nora rails against a patriarchal society that “can accept an imperfect dad” but not “those same failings in mothers.” Delivering an incisive, expletive- laden monologue, Nora points fingers at the Bible: “The basis of our Judeo- Christian whatever is Mary, mother of Jesus, and she’s perfect. She’s a virgin who gives birth. ... God is the father, and God didn’t show up.”
“It was the best Christmas present I ever received,” Dern says of the scene. “Nicole is in this position to talk about who she really is as a mother, and Nora says, ‘ You don’t get to be that honest. That’s not going to fly. And this is why: This is what history and the law do to mothers who answer authentically,’ which I think is just amazing.”
Motherhood also is a theme of “Little Women,” as Dern’s Marmee struggles to raise four young girls – the spirited Jo ( Saoirse Ronan) chief among them – while her husband fights for the Union in the Civil War. Marmee warmly imparts lessons about gratitude and forgiveness to her daughters, but unlike past film adaptations of Alcott’s 1868 book, she also has a palpable loneliness and anger, too.
The cast “would say I’m the most Jo of everybody – and I understand why, in ( her) fight for revolution and that sort of energy,” Dern says. “But interestingly, when I read it as a 12- year- old for the first time being raised by a single mother and being an only child, the part of the book that resonated to me most was the mother- daughter relationship between Marmee and Jo.”
“Little Women” and “Marriage Story” each are nominated for six Oscars, including best picture, and Dern describes a “familial connection” with Gerwig and Baumbach. ( The filmmakers are also real- life partners, with whom she frequently socializes outside of work.) So the actress naturally was disappointed when they both missed out on director Oscar nominations, continuing the Academy’s long history of ignoring female filmmakers. ( Only five women have been nominated for director in the awards’ 92- year history, the last being Gerwig for “Lady Bird” in 2018.)
“Greta made a perfect movie that should get nominated in every possible way for every single thing,” Dern says. Yet, “I think it’s more important to look at the numbers of how many women made movies this year and how few were at the helm. The more we change that, the more opportunity there will be to celebrate those women’s movies.”
Next up, Dern will reprise her iconic role of paleobotanist Ellie Sattler in “Jurassic World 3,” returning to the dino franchise along with original “Jurassic Park” cast members Jeff Goldblum and Sam Neill.
Although she hasn’t read a finished script yet, “I know everybody’s working diligently on doing something really exciting and fun, and it has delight and reason behind it,” Dern says.
And she’s still crossing her fingers for a third season of “Big Little Lies,” which won her an Emmy playing the Type A, meme- spawning supermom Renata Klein. The hit drama was intended as a one- off miniseries but managed to reunite stars Nicole Kidman, Reese Witherspoon and Dern for Season 2 last summer.
A third installment depends on everyone’s schedules, “but my hope and prayer is that they have a path toward it,” Dern says.
“I just want to play Renata again – I can’t believe I miss her so much, it troubles me. I’m sorry for my kids, but I’m excited as an actor.”