Laura Dern

• 1. Introduction

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  Laura Dern enrolled at UCLA planning to major in both psychology and journalism. Two days into the quarter, she withdrew, because a film set needed her. The film was Blue Velvet. Dern is an American actress, and today she holds an Academy Award, a Primetime Emmy Award and five Golden Globes. Her route there was anything but smooth. How does the child of two working actors build a career on risky choices rather than safe ones? And what did those choices pay, and what did they cost her?

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• 2. Born Into Hollywood

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  Laura Elizabeth Dern was born on the 10th of February 1967 in Los Angeles, California. Her parents were the actors Diane Ladd and Bruce Dern. Her great-grandfather George Dern had served as governor of Utah and as Secretary of War. Her great-great-uncle was the poet and writer Archibald MacLeish, who became Librarian of Congress. She was conceived while her parents were filming The Wild Angels.

  Dern was two years old when her parents divorced. Her mother and her maternal grandmother, Mary, did most of the raising. Mary had Norwegian ancestry and came from Oslo. Dern was raised Catholic, and her godmother was the actress Shelley Winters. As a child she developed scoliosis.

  In 1973, Dern appeared as an extra in White Lightning, a film starring her mother. Her official debut came in 1974, opposite Ladd, in Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore. In 1982, at just 15, she served as Miss Golden Globe. That same year she played a rebellious rock band member in the cult film Ladies and Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains.

  At 16, Dern doubled up on her classes so she could graduate high school a semester early. She then sought and won emancipation, which let her work the same hours as an adult on film sets. At 17 she moved out and became roommates with Marianne Williamson, who was 15 years older.

  Her first credited role came in the 1980 coming-of-age film Foxes, starring alongside Jodie Foster. At 11, she had auditioned for a different part after telling casting directors she was 14. In 1985, she was cast in Smooth Talk only two weeks before production began. She played Connie Wyatt, a carefree 15-year-old who attracts the attention of a predatory stranger. The film won the Grand Jury Prize in the dramatic category at Sundance in 1986 and drew largely favorable reviews. It is seen as the film that launched her career.

  In 1985 she also played Diana Adams in Mask, a blind girl who becomes the love interest of Rocky Dennis. Eric Stoltz and Cher starred beside her.

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• 3. The Lynch Collaboration

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  At 17, Dern played Sandy Williams in the mystery thriller Blue Velvet, alongside Kyle MacLachlan and Isabella Rossellini. The film was a critical success, and her performance is widely regarded as her breakthrough. It also began a long working relationship with the director David Lynch.

  In 1990, Lynch cast her opposite Nicolas Cage in the black comedy crime film Wild at Heart. Her character, Lula Fortune, was a vastly different woman from Sandy. Dern described the part as a chance 'to play not only a very sexual person, but also someone who was, in her own way, incredibly comfortable with herself'. The film had won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. Reviews were generally positive, though it polarized some audiences at the time. Her mother, Ladd, appeared in a supporting role.

  The third Lynch film, Inland Empire, arrived in 2006. Lynch shot most of it himself on a hand-held Sony DSR-PD150, and there was no complete screenplay. Dern played an actress named Nikki Grace, who begins taking on the personality of the character she is playing. The film debuted at the Venice Film Festival to polarized reviews, though most were positive. Dern admitted she was not sure what the film was about. She added that she would sign up for any project with Lynch. Looking back, The Ringer named her performance the 19th greatest movie performance of the 21st century.

  The fourth collaboration came in 2017. Dern appeared as Diane Evans in nine episodes of Twin Peaks: The Return.

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• 4. Ellie Sattler

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  In 1991, Dern was cast in The Silence of the Lambs but lost the role. The studio doubted that she was famous enough at the time.

  That same year, Rambling Rose gave her a different kind of distinction. In 1992, she and Ladd became the first mother and daughter nominated for acting Academy Awards for the same film. Dern was nominated for Best Actress as the orphan Rose, and Ladd for Best Supporting Actress. The following year, Dern won a Golden Globe for playing Air Force widow Janet Harduvel in the television film Afterburn. It also brought her first Primetime Emmy nomination.

  Steven Spielberg's 1993 film Jurassic Park made Dern internationally known. She played the paleobotanist Ellie Sattler. Until then she had focused mostly on independent films. Spielberg had admired her work in Smooth Talk and Rambling Rose, and she was his first choice. Nicolas Cage nudged her toward accepting, and she called it an 'easy yes'. She recalled that Spielberg and producer Kathleen Kennedy wanted a 'no-nonsense feminist who had her own independent spirit and was brilliant in her craft'. They did not want an 'oversexualized action heroine'. She compared the shoot to making an independent film.

  In 2001, Jurassic Park III brought Ellie back. Joe Johnston directed, and he had already worked with Dern on the 1999 film October Sky, in which she played a teacher who supports students building rockets. Dern was at first hesitant to return for a cameo. Spielberg, as executive producer, suggested to the writers Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor that Ellie play an important role by saving the other characters. Both writers knew Dern from an earlier project, and the idea won her over.

  In 2022, Jurassic World Dominion finally put Ellie at the center. Dern and director Colin Trevorrow felt protective of the character because of her fan influence. Neill and Goldblum had already led a sequel of their own. Trevorrow explained, 'It was important for the plot to be driven by Ellie. She's the only one of those three characters that hasn't had her own movie.'

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• 5. Risk and Backlash

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  After Jurassic Park, Dern was offered many blockbuster roles. To avoid typecasting, she instead chose Citizen Ruth, the black comedy that marked Alexander Payne's directorial debut. She played a pregnant drug addict who unexpectedly draws national attention from people on both sides of the abortion debate. The film debuted at Sundance to acclaim for itself and for her performance. Miramax gave it only a limited release, likely because of its controversial subject. Ladd made a cameo as Ruth's mother, the third time she had played Dern's mother. Dern's character screams a torrent of abuse at her.

  In 1997, Ellen DeGeneres asked Dern to guest star in 'The Puppy Episode' of the sitcom Ellen. Dern played Susan Richmond, a lesbian who helps DeGeneres' character, Ellen Morgan, come out of the closet. DeGeneres came out offscreen at the same time. The episode featured the first openly gay character in a leading role on television.

  People close to Dern worried about the part, and two of her advisors told her not to accept it. She accepted immediately. She called it an 'extraordinary experience and opportunity' and 'an incredible honor.'

  A public backlash followed the episode. Dern needed a full security detail afterward. She stopped regularly receiving roles and did not work for a year. The episode still earned her a third Primetime Emmy nomination. In 1998, she co-starred in the television film The Baby Dance, which brought a Golden Globe nomination.

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• 6. Television Reinvention

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  In 2008, Dern played Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris in the television film Recount. The role won her the Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress in a series, miniseries or television film.

  Enlightened premiered on HBO in October 2011, with Dern as co-creator and executive producer. She played Amy Jellicoe, a 'health and beauty executive who returns from a post-meltdown retreat to pick up the pieces of her broken life.' Dern brought in the screenwriter Mike White, her collaborator on Year of the Dog, who had suffered an on-the-job meltdown of his own. Ladd played Amy's mother, Helen Jellicoe. The series earned critical acclaim and ran for two seasons. Dern won her third Golden Globe, her fifth nomination, and received her fifth Primetime Emmy nomination.

  Big Little Lies, in 2017, reunited Dern with Reese Witherspoon and the director Jean-Marc Vallée, her partners on Wild. Shailene Woodley, her co-star from The Fault in Our Stars, joined as well, and Dern had helped convince her. Dern played Renata Klein, a fierce and high-powered tech CEO. The role won her first Primetime Emmy and her fourth Golden Globe. In 2019, she returned as Renata for the second season and earned her eighth Primetime Emmy nomination.

  The Tale premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on the 20th of January 2018 to a standing ovation. Dern played Jennifer Fox, a professor and documentary filmmaker recalling her traumatic past, in a film that Fox herself wrote and directed. HBO aired it on the 26th of May 2018. Dern received her seventh Primetime Emmy nomination for the role.

  In 2023, Dern and Witherspoon served as executive producers of the Hulu series Tiny Beautiful Things, based on a book by Cheryl Strayed. Dern also starred in and executive produced the Apple TV+ period series Palm Royale. She plays Linda Shaw across twenty episodes from 2024 to 2026.

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• 7. Supporting Role Triumphs

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  In 2014, Dern played Bobbi, the mother of Cheryl Strayed, in the biopic Wild. She appeared in flashback scenes opposite Reese Witherspoon, under the direction of Jean-Marc Vallée. The role earned her a second Academy Award nomination, this time for Best Supporting Actress.

  In 2017, Dern joined the Star Wars franchise as Vice-Admiral Amilyn Holdo in Rian Johnson's The Last Jedi.

  Noah Baumbach wrote Marriage Story with Dern in mind for the role of the divorce lawyer Nora Fanshaw. In 2019, the film was nominated for Best Picture. So was Greta Gerwig's adaptation of Little Women, where Dern played Marmee March. For Marriage Story she won her first Academy Award, on her third nomination. She also won the BAFTA, the SAG Award and the Golden Globe. It was the first and only Oscar in an acting category for Netflix.

  In 2020, Dern served as executive producer of the animated short film If Anything Happens I Love You, released on Netflix. She was also a producer on the documentary The Way I See It.

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• 8. Life Off Screen

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  In November 2010, Dern and her parents received stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. They were the first family to do so.

  From 1985 to 1989, Dern was in a relationship with her Blue Velvet co-star Kyle MacLachlan. She began dating Jeff Goldblum while filming Jurassic Park, and that relationship ended in 1997. She dated Billy Bob Thornton from 1997 to 1999. They were engaged until she discovered he was dating Angelina Jolie.

  In autumn 2000, Dern began dating the musician Ben Harper after they met at one of his concerts. Their son, Ellery Walker, was born on the 21st of August 2001. The couple married on the 23rd of December 2005 at their home in Los Angeles. Their daughter, Jaya, was born in November 2004. Through the marriage, Dern became stepmother to Harper's children from his first marriage. They finalized their divorce in 2013.

  On the 18th of October 2017, in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein sexual abuse scandal, Dern appeared on The Ellen DeGeneres Show. She revealed that she had been sexually assaulted at age 14.

  On the 11th of January 2009, at the 66th Golden Globe Awards, Dern used her acceptance speech to back the incoming administration of Barack Obama. She spoke of 'the extraordinary, incredible outpouring of people who demanded their voice be heard in this last election so we can look forward to amazing change in this country.'

  Dern advocated Down syndrome awareness in a cover story for Ability Magazine. In 2018, she brought the activist Mónica Ramírez to the 75th Golden Globe Awards as her guest. In September 2018, on her way to the 70th Primetime Emmy Awards ceremony, she asked people to vote for Dean Phillips in his congressional race. That year she also attended a Families Belong Together event and voiced support for immigrants' rights. She speaks up for women's rights and gender pay parity, and for action on gun violence and climate change. In 2019, she became a board member of the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures. She is an ambassador for the American Lung Association and advises its National Board of Directors.

  Ahead of her is Justin Kurzel's science fiction film Morning, in which she is set to star and serve as executive producer. With Amy Adams, she has also signed on to executive produce an HBO adaptation of Claire Lombardo's The Most Fun We Ever Had.

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