But we gave her an honorary degree anyway.
Laura Dern is the first recipient of Vultures very official honorary degree.Read about why we picked her here.
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Shes not as salable a persona.
Shes not so easy to categorize.
Read More: Bilge Ebiri on Why We Picked Her
Congratulations on your degree!
Do you feel wiser?Definitely.
And I was desperate to do this movie.
So I went to the head of the film department.
But I never got a degree until now.
You know, we had to.
There were models who were on the covers of magazines, and actors who you saw onJohnny Carson.
There wasFilm CommentorAmerican Film Magazine, and maybe an actor would do an interview and that was it.
And so, I never grew up around a glamorous childhood.
My parents didnt make a great living, just like anyone in the arts.
The kids of artists in L.A. were not the wealthy kids at school.
And Im really grateful for that.
It really prepared me for an understanding of the ebb and flow of the career of an artist.
What do you make of the shift in pop culture powered in part by stan culture on social media.
Actors are on the covers of magazines now.
Were now measuring success on a number of followers.
Were having conversations with 14-year-olds who are famous from a Netflix or HBO show about branding and marketing them.
Theres not a finish line.
That felt really cool.
You always seemed to have this really precocious clarity about the work you wanted to do.
I cant do those Meryl Streep-punch in roles yet.
What matters most is I play someone totally different than what Ive done before.
I always want to play bright people.
Id like to play someone involved in politics, sort of a womans version ofMr.
My God, Id like to play everything.
Did it meet your expectations?
Has it yet to?
Did your expectations change?All of that and more.
Its funny whats naive when were 16, 17, and what is still us.
He was on the cover ofLifemagazine, The Man Who Kills John Wayne.
So he gave me that cautionary tale.
That has really served me when Ive been lucky enough to have a choice.
But where has it not?
I think theres a sea change, culturally, that were all waking up to.
Many have been awake for a very long time, but as a culture, were waking up together.
And the reason they are isnt because [of] #MeToo.
Were all awake now.
We want to buy our own stories.
I want a 60-year-old woman!
Im not 60. its not a bad thing, Im just not ready yet.
You know what I mean?
There were those moments too.
Like what?Well, never say names.
No, I love tea.I mean, its interesting, but its also a little mean.
Oh, its so interesting she did that, but I turned that down.
But definitely there were choices.
It was a big deal, and it was going to be great in terms of success.
That was clearly the role.
And then I got offered this small role to work with Peter Bogdanovich inMask.
Because the agent goes, Well thats no money; thats lots of money.
And youre a kid and you dont know for sure.
But in the quote, its clear I want to play everything.
I have no judgment, and I think thats true.
Ive loved all my characters, even the drug addict who slept with a different guy every night.
Citizen Ruth?Yeah.
And I dont think, at 17, I realized just what I was asking for.
I was like, No, she takes cute drugs.
With other actresses we talked about some of the parts where it was like, shes so cute!
while shes whoring herself out or whatever in anadorableway.
The drugs and alcohol in her home was so painful for her that she had to flee or whatever.
Because its used properly for teenagers that need to get away.
I read that your roommate was Marianne Williamson at the time?Thats true, yeah.
What was that like?Amazing.
She should be a voice in this country because we need voices like that.
In our living room, she helped startProject Angel Food, which was extraordinary.
It was the mid-80s and people were dying of AIDS.
Shes always been on the frontlines like that.
Shes radical and hilarious.
I was 17, she was in her 30s, I think, at the time.
And I was like, Mom, trust me.
As were educating ourselves, its separating out what feels true and what we need.
Hes so brilliant and thoughtful.
We also need his voice in this country.
So if someone asked me, Wouldnt it be cool if we could go Avengers on this?
Wouldnt that be cool?
Cause there are several great minds.
I know weve all felt it.
All these voices are interesting in the right position.
But theyre both scenes of male aggression.
Im curious if you still feel that way looking back.No, I dont.
I think they were doing everything to make a run at make themselves in control.
And so I was right in saying that because thats what I felt for the character.
But as an audience, no.
Its clear she is never coming home, either.
Is it a 30-minute scene?
And at the end, she finally decides to go with him.
In her mind, to protect herself.
How does she not?
Either theyre going to pull her out of that house or shes going to choose to go.
But I didnt understand that then.
Theres another guy in the car.
The mother in me missed it.
Now Im a mother.
When it comes toWild at Heart, it is interesting.
It is an assault.
[Willem Dafoe] plays the most frighteningly hideous character Ive ever seen on screen.
Im terrified of him still, and hes super nice.
I never touch him, and I have an orgasm.
Thats the David [Lynch] exploration of it.
He was looking at how a womans going to give a shot to take control and set a boundary.
Theyre weird, complicated scenes, and I think differently about them now, because Im a grown up.
She comes to realize, as an adult, that its not.
Life changes our stories.
Like, oh now Im 40, and he wasnt a nice person.
Thats what happened in that relationship.
We all have those stories, whether theyre ours or our friends, our lovers, our sisters.
We now are grown-ups looking back.
But still seeing a lot.
You played Susan, who is an out lesbian and helps Ellen realize shes gay.
Youre the focus of attraction.
She was a big fan ofCitizen Ruth, and she asked me, would I come join this effort?
Not just to play a role, because there were several of us.
Oprah, who played her therapist in the episode, obviously the cast of her show.
I didnt think twice about it.
It was a great opportunity.
A lot of people in my life really worried.
And I was like, This is ridiculous.
This is where I grew up in a bubble and didnt realize we werent there yet or something.
Theyre like, Theres been a bomb threat, were sweeping the stage.
And they start literally rushing us off the stage.
We only did it for what, ten days?
We all spent the next couple of years really struggling in work and safety.
It was radical to experience that.
It was the only time I ever experienced having to have to have full security detail.
And Ill carry it for the rest of my life.
So Im forever grateful.
My understanding is that you didnt work for a year after that.
Was that the most significant dry spell in your career?It was significant.
So it was like, youre being offered this, youre being offered that and it just stopped.
Which is kind of wild.
I was in my early 20s, and he said, you remind me of Charles Laughton.
I was taken aback.
So many of us females wouldve had a lot more opportunity a lot younger to play the mess.
Like are you sure you want to do that?
And how did HBO decide to do that?
I mean shes angry all the time, shes so unlikable.
Anger on a woman, I dont know.
His name was Tony Soprano.
But I was mad, so I was gross.
Thats incredible, isnt it?
I think I couldve been Tony Soprano if I were a guy.
Or Tom Hanks, who can be affable and a beast and adorable.
Theres much more fluidity in the career of a male actor.
Do you feel likeEnlightenedhappened too soon?Yes.
Where have we gone, wheres our determination, our marching, fighter spirit?
That feeling was like, well, who does?
Who burns all bridges, becomes a whistle-blower, doesnt care if her family hates her?
That was the idea.
And the people who enjoyed it were like, Oh yeah, were there.
We are all Amy.
And thats great news.
Would you bring the show back?We talked about it.
There was a real mapped-out third place to go.
It was a very different show, which now is very normal.
But it seemed so radical only a few years ago.
The bummer was we got cancelled based on live ratings, because thats the way we measured TV.
And a year later, we were measuring TiVo ratings.
About six months later, we had an incredibly successful show.
Three months after the decision,Timemagazine named it the best television show ever.
And it was just crazy.
And then all the other reviews came out with top ten shows, and it was number one.
OverBreaking Bad, which was a masterpiece, and shows that had immense success and many seasons.
How has your relationship evolved since you first met 30 years ago?I was 17 onBlue Velvet.
It just gets better and better.
Hes everything you want him to be.
Ill tell you the best story.
David Lynch received one, and myself, Kyle MacLachlan, and Isabella Rossellini gave him his Oscar.
The whole room goes insane.
He needed a smoke.
And as we went outside, he was holding it and I said, How do you feel?
and he goes, Wow, this is so pretty.
But you know, were just lucky.
Which people say, you know.
And I was accepting it in the way Ive heard other people say it.
He goes, I mean,Tidbit,theyre not our ideas.
Were just lucky if we catch them.
And Im just like, Yeah, well, thats David Lynch.
Theyre not our ideas.
Things move through us.
We didnt make them up.
I just think thats really beautiful.
So when he beginsTwin Peaks: The Return, for instance, does he just call you up?
I was like, Okay, how do you want my hair.
And then he started to describe my hair, and I was like, What is it for?
I cant tell you!
Is it a movie?
I cant tell you!
Um, What does the character …
So thats where it began.
And to play a character that was so known fromTwin Peaks…
But never seen.But never seen, was amazing.
I basically just spend my time saying fuck you a lot.
We all get to just be together, whenever hes ready to play again.
Thats the most youve acted in scenes with him, right?
What was that like?So intense.
It was amazing and fun and hilarious, and we had my favorite moments in it.
I did want to get your thoughts onthe conversation Martin Scorsese beganwhen he saidMarvel movies arent cinema.
And I will listen.
They did thatbeautiful documentaryabout the 70s, and at end, he said, I miss the people.
I would think thats what hes speaking to in the comment.
Theres a lot of worry about people not going to the cinema for the people.
The reminder of sitting in a cinema, just to have this churchlike experience of experiencing something together.
And a spectacle is different.
It gives you a different experience.
A horror film, a Marvel film, aStar Warsfilm.
And I love all of it.
Being inStar Wars, are you kidding?
I want him to do both of those things.
And theyre brilliant in totally different ways.
We have this filmLittle Womencoming out, Christmas Day!
We want to go and have that experience with that shared collective.
I do think thats a big worry.
Because I so agree with her on so many fronts.
We all need Renata in us somewhere.
They come up and go, I will not not be rich!
Im like, You needed that.
Its not mine, its yours.
Its everybodys, which is whats great about Renata.
Shes waking up the things we want to say but dont.
