When You Love Your Friends
Laura Dern and Charlize Theron were the women of the hour Tuesday night in New York.
BY MAXINE WALLY AND KRISTEN TAUER
PHOTOGRAPHS BY JILLIAN SOLLAZZO AND NINA WESTERVELT
“Laura f--king Dern.”
These were the opening words of Naomi Watts’ speech on Tuesday night at MoMA.
The actresses — with Adam Driver,
Noah Baumbach, Gwendoline Christie, Brooke Shields and more — gathered at the 2019 Film Benefit, sponsored by Chanel, for a celebration of Dern’s lifetime of work on screen and as a women’s advocate.
All parties present had worked with or been touched by Dern in some way. And everyone had something deeply kind to say about her.
Driver, who spent the past few months working with Dern on “Marriage Story,” directed by Baumbach, got on stage to deliver some quick comments about his costar before dipping out the door marked “Exit.”
“She doesn’t hide herself from her roles, which is what makes her characters alive on-screen,” he said as the crowd, assembled in the subterranean theater inside the museum, murmured their agreement. “It’s actually one of my favorite qualities about her work as an actor. You’d be correct in assuming she’s someone who’s more interested in navigating different worlds than being defined by them.”
A couple hours prior on the red carpet, Christie pulled Dern into a deep embrace. The “Game of Thrones” alum recalled that Dern was one of the first people to tell her about the “Time’s Up” movement while they were on set together for “Star Wars.”
It was also among the first times she’d ever spoken candidly with another woman about the gender-based pitfalls of their industry.
“Laura actually told me that if you are employed on a film in, I believe, a leading capacity, you can ask for a female sound engineer to work with you and to mic you,” Christie said. “That will enable a woman to have a job in that department, which helps to continue to work toward changing the gender balance.”
For Dern, the characters are the most important part of her work, and they drive her to portray people in unique and yet real ways.
“There’s a piece of me in every single part I’ve ever played, because I couldn’t play it if I couldn’t find that,” she said. “They all deserve a voice, and I think how they are similar is that it’s taken a long time for women to know they’re entitled to a voice in this world, so I’ve been discovering my own through these amazing women.”
After hailing Dern for her creativity, f friendship i d hi and didi idiosyncrasy as a person and d an actress, Watts closed her comments with, “I f--king love you, Laura f--king Dern.”
Uptown, Charlize Theron took her fundraising efforts to uptown Manhattan for the Charlize Theron Africa Outreach Project. Hosted in New York for the first time, at the Africa Center in East Harlem, N.Y., the event drums up support for the initiative founded by Theron over a decade ago to provide health resources for youth living in Africa.
“It’s obviously where I’m from, and
I’ve been personally really affected by the unnecessary suffering that a lot of people of my country have faced, and still face, because of something that is completely preventable,” the actress and South Africa native said of her continued commitment to the cause. “I don’t know how to disconnect from that; it’s just a part of me. I always knew that if I was ever fortunate enough to give back in a big way, it’d be South Africa.”
The event was hosted by Awkwafina, who could be found chatting with Drew Barrymore during the cocktail hour. Other g guests at the intimate dinner included
Amy Schumer and her chef husband Chris Fischer, former president of South Africa Kgalema Motlanthe and Nelson Mandela’s grandson g Kweku Mandela.
During the live auction, guests had the opportunity to bid on a trip to South Africa and private styling experience at the Dior flagship. “This is lit, y’all. I don’t even get to w wear Dior. One day, y’all,” said Awkwafina in an effort to drum up p excitement.
Theron also tapped into her relationship w with Boyz II Men. The actress worked with the group for the film “Longshot” and the musical trio capped apped off the evening with a short acoustic ic performance.
“Honestly, it t was a phone call that Charlize made,” said group member Shawn wn Stockman, who w was warming up and harmonizing b before taking the stage. “We met her previously y working on a movie together, ‘Longshot,’ gshot,’ and found she w was a big fan of ours. She told us about this charity rity event and what she’s doing, and nd if we didn’t mind if we had the time ime to come by. And we were like, ike, ‘absolutely.’ And we’ve been en educated on w what this organization nization actually does, which is amazing for the youth in Africa, a, so that’s an extra b bonus. We get to do something for a friend and d we get to learn and participate e in something that will affect a lot of people in a big way.”