Ask A Muse: Laura Dern
Questions about making work as a multi-hyphenate artist warrant many perspectives — and this is where you’ll find a few. Welcome to “Ask A Muse.”
The Muse: Laura Dern
A fearless actor, producer, and writer, Laura Dern has graced our television screens, appearing in series like Enlightened and Big Little Lies, as well as the big screen in films such as Little Women, Marriage Story, and the upcoming Jurassic World Dominion. Needless to say, we are truly living in a “Dern-aissiance.”
The Question: How did you get your start?
Click play to listen to Laura Dern’s full response; full transcript also available below
“I started witnessing my mother and her friends… who started finding material for the world, because the story had to be told. It grew from a longing to have voice and impact in terms of social justice.”
LAURA DERN: I came from actors and they were told you pick your lane as an artist – you know, what is the thing you should develop, and therefore do? And that’s what actors did.
And so my start was watching two very brave actors who were very disciplined as students, lifelong students, of the craft. And both were at the Actor’s Studio for many years and relied on their community. But the gift of listening to Bryce’s guidance to you all about within that community, finding the people you can grow ideas with for the rest of your life, is such a huge resource.
And I think that for me, my start came from watching my parents and saying, “Oo, I wanna do that. I’m an actor. I can feel it.” And I felt that at a very young age. [I] started studying at nine, did my first movie at eleven, was incredibly serious about it – much more serious than I am today, which is sort of a relief because I was just too… “Actor.” I don’t know, it was too much.
And then I started witnessing my mother and her friends – [an] amazing group of actresses: my godmother, who was also an actress, and a few of my mother’s dearest friends including Jane Fonda being one of them – who started finding material for the world because the story had to be told. And if they were part of the storytelling, then how fantastic. But it started politically, I would say. It grew from a longing to have voice and impact in terms of social justice.
And so I was listening to these conversations of women who knew that story had to be told. If they could be a producer that could get it told, great. If it had a part and them being part of it would help facilitate getting it made, fantastic. Or, if it was a character they loved and they felt like if they ran with that and kind of developed that character, that there was something in this narrative that had value. But it wasn’t casual. It was with incredible passion and discipline that they sought out the stories that hadn’t been told.
And that was incredibly new. They came up against a lot of annoyance, to say the very least, and definite closed doors. Like, “Ugh, these actresses think they can make movies too.” It was not the easiest energy as I witnessed for them as a little girl.
But what I saw was my dad’s friends were starting to direct as actors. You know, watching – Robert Redford was a very close friend of my dads – so watching Redford do it and people being like, “Oh, actors can also direct.” And Jane Fonda becoming an extraordinary producer. It started this – even though by the way, Lucille Ball had been doing it 40 years before everybody, and [was] an extraordinary studio executive and the first person who ever fought for, and won, people (not just women), women and men having childcare as part of their deal in a studio environment.
We’ve had so many badasses. Bette Davis produced, Rosalind Russell produced – but then they forget about that and these people were starting over, particularly to get stories of value told, not just things that could make a lot of money.
So to come to the end of that: for me, that stayed with me, but I didn’t give myself permission until filmmakers that I worked with would listen. I don’t think I would have had the guts to think I was allowed hyphenates or [could] walk into a room and say, “I have an idea for a character, I’d like to develop this.” It really started with directors going, “Wait, that’s a great idea. You should make that movie or you should write that idea, or you should buy that short story or that article and get that made yourself,” that I started waking up to it.
And it’s a really exciting thing to do, especially when you felt like you started your life being pigeonholed as an artist, as though art is supposed to have boundary – that’s insane! That’s like giving kids coloring books and telling them to stay within the lines – gross! You’re not here for that. Your storytelling is too enormous and of too much value at such a critical time in the world, so we just have to do all of it.
Excerpt from Laura Dern’s Q&A with Bryce Dallas Howard and the Nine Muses Lab
