Photographs by GREG WILLIAMS
Interview by JANE CROWTHER
The prolific actor has two awards-buzz movies out and has just launched a second season of her self-produced TV show. She tells Hollywood Authentic about being a muse to David Lynch, the family she finds at work and learning to say it as it is.
In Jay Kelly, Noah Baumbach’s bittersweet love letter to moviemaking, the titular Hollywood star (George Clooney) attends an Italian film festival – staying in luxurious accommodation with gorgeous views and encountering people with European sensibilities. So it’s fitting that the film premiered in the land of la dolce vita, bowing at the Venice Film Festival with the cast including Emily Mortimer, Adam Sandler, Billy Crudup and Laura Dern bobbing to their red carpet via water taxi from the Cipriani Hotel, where Greg Williams captured their pre-prem prep and post-event wind-down. ‘It was amazing,’ says Dern of the experience when Hollywood Authentic catches up with her back in LA a few weeks later as she prepares to premiere her next movie, Is This Thing On? ‘The embedded Italian film festival storyline made it particularly delicious!’
Equally delicious, she says, was the experience of making a movie with a company she calls her family. ‘You know, as an only child my best friends have come from every movie that I’ve made, and the filmmakers that found me at a very young age were my best friends. They are as much a part of my life, deeply, as my own family that I was given in this life.’ Key to this particular family is Noah Baumbach, who wrote and directed a story Dern knows well as the child of movie stars – of an actor at the top of his game struggling to balance work and life, trying to navigate fame.
‘I love Noah Baumbach so much. I feel so privileged to have him literally as a family member now. I just feel so safe in our work, in our collaborative discoveries together. I’m like, “Wherever you want me, I’m showing up.” I’ve only had that with a few directors where you feel so blessed to be with them over years. It’s like any relationship – you see so much in each other, and you get to explore and try new things, and you get to know the language of the filmmaker.’
Dern has certainly had her pick of incredible filmmakers in her illustrious, award-winning career, including her long collaborative relationship with David Lynch – more of which later. As the daughter of actors Diane Ladd and Bruce Dern, she has been surrounded by the business from birth and made her film debut in White Lightning and Scorsese’s Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore (opposite her mother), before going on to work with a who’s who of auteurs. Adrian Lyne, Peter Bogdanovich, Martha Coolidge, Steven Spielberg, Clint Eastwood, Alexander Payne, Robert Altman, Paul Thomas Anderson, Jean-Marc Vallée… the list goes on. But while working on Jay Kelly reminded her on all the sublime filmmaking experiences that have brought her to this point, it also marked a reunion of the stars of Grizzly II: Revenge, a 1983 schlock horror that remained unreleased until 2021, featuring Charlie Sheen, Dern and a newbie actor, George Clooney. ‘The ever-famous Grizzly II – we’re giving it so much press!’ she laughs. ‘I’m like, “George, should we be talking about Grizzly II in every interview? The 40-minute, unfinished horror film that we made?” But, you know, what a gorgeous gift that movie was for me, because I got George. And then, on this movie, I got Adam Sandler and his amazing family, who I really call my family now.’
‘Gift’ is a word Dern is fond of using; she projects enthusiasm and gratitude about the opportunities she’s had, and seems invigorated about those that may be on the horizon. The way she talks about her career highlights certainly feel like cherished prizes as she recalls her ‘myriad experiences’. ‘You see a clip of something, or a moment in time – my first movie, I was 11. My whole life is captured from sixth grade on… At 17, I met David Lynch. At 15, I met Peter Bogdanovich on the film Mask. Peter’s way of working was: it’s family. The minute we started, we were in his kitchen cooking or rehearsing. He was introducing me and Eric Stoltz to Renoir and Buñuel movies. He was like, “If I’m going to reference cinema, all of us need to know the language of it.” What an education. It’s a very different way of working. And then meeting David was such an incredible, extraordinary gift that lasted as long as I had him. So I’m very blessed. I’m so grateful that I have those memories, especially as we lose people that we love, that we have all those stories that we experience together. It’s really a great privilege.’
Her experience working with Baumbach on Marriage Story netted her a Best Actress Academy Award after nominations for Rambling Rose and Wild at Heart, as well as BAFTA and Golden Globe wins. She also won an Emmy for her role in Big Little Lies – another ensemble cast where she made friends and learned new tricks, working with Jean-Marc Vallée. So is that feeling of creative fellowship something she actively seeks having experienced it with some of the greatest artists? ‘I think it’s a continual theme for me,’ she considers. ‘I don’t know if it would have had the same value had I not seen it from my parents’ relationships. Yes, my parents were actors who had very close friendships with filmmakers. But more specifically, it was the ’70s. So I got to be privy to ’70s cinema through my parents’ experiences with those filmmakers who made so much impact on film. And the directors that I’m finding now that are becoming my family, have the same language as those people, and the same priorities. So I think that education, if you will, made me long for something very specific.’
You know, as an only child my best friends have come from every movie that I’ve made, and the filmmakers that found me at a very young age were my best friends. They are as much a part of my life, deeply, as my own family
That specificity was perhaps never more in evidence than her long and fruitful relationship with Lynch, with whom she made Blue Velvet, Wild at Heart and Inland Empire. The duo met on a casting call for Blue Velvet and, as she wrote in a tribute in the LA Times on his death, bonded over ‘The Wizard of Oz, Bob’s Big Boy turkey sandwiches on white bread, transcendental meditation… and our shared love of Los Angeles’. Lynch cast her and Dern wrote that she ‘quickly traded college for following you to the ends of the Earth. I never looked back’.
‘After David, I was like, “Oh, am I never going to have that with someone else?” I assumed I wouldn’t,’ she says now. ‘But, you know, I did meet Jean-Marc Vallée, and we did get to work more than once together in such beautiful ways [on Wild and Big Little Lies]. And then the family that is Noah and Greta [Gerwig] – I made films with both of them over the course of a year [Little Women and Marriage Story]. That was such an incredible, rare beginning. And we were dear friends before we started the movies. It’s an incredible gift.’
For Baumbach’s Jay Kelly, Dern plays an exasperated publicist trying to harness an unspooling Jay as his career, family life and public persona come into uncomfortable focus after a run-in with a former friend (Crudup). Constantly surrounded by staff, Kelly is nevertheless lonely, and disconnected from his daughters (Grace Edwards and Riley Keough). Though there’s amusement to be had in poking fun at the pomp of Hollywood (private jets, trailers, lifetime achievement awards), the themes of isolation and self-doubt are something Dern perhaps relates to more. ‘All of the chapters of Jay’s life give us room to consider whichever player we’ve been in any of those moments,’ she says. ‘Longing for having done it differently; not wanting to miss our lives when we’re focused on the big picture of being at an Italian film festival or wherever it is for any of us, for any vocation. I was feeling the gift of the moment, remorse in my own life, question marks; all of it…’
The solitude of Jay in a crowded room isn’t something Dern particularly recognises though. ‘I’ve never felt loneliness because I’m an actor. But I felt loneliness as the child of an actor. I know what that cost feels like by the nature of anyone who’s raised by parents who are taken away to go do their work – you do have a loneliness, because inevitably you’re being left for this other thing, whatever that profession is: travelling salesman or an actor or filmmaker. It’s hard to understand in childhood why your parent is not making you the priority, even if it’s impossible in that profession to do so.’
A mother of two herself, Dern considers how things have changed since her mom and dad were trying to juggle acting and parenthood. How her own experience of motherhood was deliberately, and fortunately, different. ‘You know, when my first child was born, I just didn’t work for almost two years, because I wanted to be there because of what I had been through, I’m sure. But I’m lucky. I have had producers or companies with agents and managers being very protective of [parental needs], figuring out ways to let me take my kids with me or getting me home, and giving me several plane tickets. My parents were in indie cinema. They weren’t being paid enough to fly home, you know? So when my parents went to do a movie, and there was nowhere to put a kid, and they didn’t want a kid on the set – I was blessed to have a grandma to be home with. But my parents left for a movie for three months, and I didn’t see them – we would talk on Sundays on a hotel phone which was very expensive. You had to save up your money for the Sunday call. You didn’t have FaceTime and texting your kids. So the heartbreak that I did sometimes experience was, I believe, matched by my mother’s heartbreak of having to work and leave me. So I am blessed to get to do it differently, and still, I’m sure, mess up all the time! I’m just trying my best.’
The actor’s mothering instinct has extended to Hollywood Authentic cover star Austin Butler, playing his parent onscreen in an uncredited cameo in Darren Aronofsky’s Caught Stealing, as well as helping him navigate his sudden fame off-screen in the wake of 2022’s Elvis. Butler’s late mother was often likened to Dern and their friendship blossomed after he told her about this. ‘I feel like I’m learning every day. I don’t know if I’m imparting any wisdom. But I did find a beautiful and particular bond with Austin. I appreciate that he’s asking the questions deeply, and I was really happy to be there for that process.’
She’s playing another mom in her next film, Bradley Cooper’s awards-buzzy Is This Thing On? based on the real-life experience of British stand-up comedian John Bishop. She plays Tess, a former Olympic volleyball champ whose marriage to Will Arnett’s Alex disintegrates, sending him to stand-up sessions at New York’s Comedy Cellar, and the couple on a voyage of emotional discovery. It’s messy, brutally honest and gives Dern the juicy opportunity to play a complex, relatable mid-life woman. ‘I was so excited Bradley wanted to explore a real relationship, and then also a real couple in their 50s. And to really question in a deep and true way how we lose our way to who we are – which we all do, because we have to continue to redefine ourselves. We’re not who we were at 20. As we go on that discovery and adventure, then we get to redefine the partnership. And if we aren’t looking at ourselves, everything’s going to be lost. So that idea as a premise was really moving to me.’
Every experience I have is teaching me more, especially with these filmmakers who have invited me into their writing process, prep process, editing process. I want to keep learning. I’m definitely open to all the ways that I can be part of storytelling
Written by Arnett and Mark Chappell, Cooper made space for his cast to investigate and contribute to the honing of the characters. ‘He didn’t say, “Here’s the script. Do you want to play the part?” But: “Here’s the invitation. Who is this woman? Let’s find her together.” The process was beautiful. I would share thoughts and ideas, and he would just be like, “Tell me what she’s feeling, what she’s longing for?” These are not therapy-ised people. These are not affluent people. These are all of us trying to figure our shit out.’
Though Dern doesn’t think Tess is like her, there are elements of the character that she’s cleaved to since playing her. ‘I think this is the first character I’ve played where I would say there are parts of me that Bradley knows that I don’t stay true to, that I hope I become when I grow up,’ she smiles. ‘Having that direct “saying it as it is” energy. This is the most honest thing I can say to you… In the last two days even, I’ve found myself – because I’m tired from life and press and whatever – I’ve been saying stuff like Tess would. I think I’m still caught between growing into these qualities, and feeling comfortable with them.’ At this point Dern’s Husky, Baby, begins howling in the house. ‘Sorry, my Husky is very opinionated about this. She is like, “You are not Tess at all. You haven’t told me the truth yet. You haven’t even fed me!”
One thing Baby can agree on, breakfast or not, is the success of Dern as a producer. Having previously produced shorts and docs, she read the novel Mr & Mrs American Pie by Juliet McDaniel, and along with her producing partner, Jayme Lemons, developed the project, shepherding it to TV in the shape of Apple+’s hit limited series, Palm Royale. Originally she planned to play the lead, Maxine, but scheduling meant she offered it to Kristen Wiig with a new role written for Dern as castmate and exec-producer. The show is now rolling out a second season of period adventures among a fierce female cast including Carol Burnett, Allison Janney, Leslie Bibb and Kaia Gerber.
‘As an actor, and a daughter of actors, to see this incredible cast having fun, and loving each other, and doing stuff that nobody gives them a chance to do…’ she marvels. ‘Kristen called me yesterday, and she said, “Did you actually develop a show where you’re letting me basically have musical numbers and dancing, and we’re working with Carol Burnett, and we’re all together producing this?” It’s just amazing. And seeing that, and the attention to detail, thanks to Abe Sylvia, our showrunner, and making sure in the second season that each character has their own arc, and even acting journey – those things are a blessing. Also creating, hopefully, a really lovely fun environment – it’s beautiful that I can do that. And to have that going, and also be exploring, as I love to do as an actor, with these amazing filmmakers that I get to work with.’
She has numerous projects lined up with Lemons under their shingle, Jaywalker Pictures, but perhaps her next progression is direction – especially given that she’s coming into her ‘saying it like it is’ era? ‘I definitely have thought about it. I made a short when I was in my mid-20s, and I loved the experience of that. I love acting – that’s my happy place. But I loved working with actors, and I also was fascinated by the framing as truth, that was so interesting to me. I just didn’t know enough for me to feel confident. But every experience I have is teaching me more, especially with these filmmakers who have invited me into their writing process, prep process, editing process. I want to keep learning. I’m definitely open to all the ways that I can be part of storytelling.’
For now though, there’s breakfast to get for Baby, the press tour for Is This Thing On? and awards season… ‘Last night I was with Adam Sandler and George Clooney. And I was like, “How did I get here, that everyone around me is one of my favourite people?” It’s not just the luck of timing and getting to do these things that I love. But in all three of these projects, I deeply love these people, and admire them so much. You feel like you’re giving a journalist a line when you’re saying that, but I actually am working with my family members. So I’m really grateful.’
Photographs by GREG WILLIAMS
Interview by JANE CROWTHER
Jay Kelly is on Netflix now
Palm Royale S2 is on Apple+ TV
Is This Thing On? is in cinemas 30 January
Laura wears Saint Laurent, Armani Privé and jewellery by Pasquale Bruni
