Laura Dern Quotes

What I consider a good part for a woman and what some other Hollywood people think are good women’s parts are very different. I don’t want to play the supportive girlfriend who has nine scenes and just loves that man, maybe cheats on him in one scene but will always be there, and I mean – give me a break.

For me, the key is years of the blessed filmmakers I’ve worked with giving me permission to be bold and jump off cliffs and to be boundaryless. I would put David Lynch at the top of that list.

I think people do their bravest work when given an elusive canvas. That would be seemingly the weirdest, but also the most wonderful.

You don’t always get to work as much as you like, because I’m waiting to find things that I care about. Sometimes that’s frustrating.

I got picked for very unique and independent filmmaking experiences with auteurs. And I’m so lucky.

What do you say when someone has truly inspired you? How do you express to an artist how deeply their work has affected you?

I was raised on movie sets, and I decided for myself at a very young age that it was what I wanted to do.

I like movies about longing and desperation, and dark and light things, stories about people struggling to raise children, and to have relationships and be intimate with each other.

I think my mom exposed me to the concept of using your voice for anything you care about.

It’s a strange world, as David Lynch would say

I was raised by an actress, and I watched all those women turn 60 and ask, Shouldn’t get face work? My mother and Anne Bancroft said, We’re not going to fall into that.

Stay true to your own voice, and don’t worry about needing to be liked or what anybody else thinks. Keep your eyes on your own paper.

Going to the Academy Awards is something I remember since I was six, when I went with my mom for the first time, 14 with my dad, you know, and there I am, at 22, 23, whatever I was, sitting next to my mom. You know, and then again, there with my dad. Like, there’s a beauty to it, and I care deeply about film history.

Whatever character you play, it gives you the chance to expose another side of yourself that maybe you’ve never felt comfortable with, or never knew about.

If you’re looking to be loved for a part, it’s great and enticing to be adorable in a romantic comedy. But then, as an actor, you get stuck.

My mother is extremely interested in everything esoteric.

The really courageous and bold thing is to make movies about human behaviour.

There’s always a side of a woman that likes a man from the other side of the tracks

You can change. And you can be an agent of change.

Anybody you make a movie with when you’re 12 and they’re 14, you’re going to know them your whole life.

I have never been someone who applied ‘work begets work’ to my career, sometimes unfortunately.

In American culture we are supposed to take a pill when we’re depressed or in grief as opposed to actually feeling.

My daughter wants to do yoga with me and wants to be in the theater thing, and I can’t tell her, ‘Don’t be an actress.’ My son loves guitar and loves to be in a band and wants his iTunes downloaded with all this old-school hip-hop so he understands where hip-hop came from.

I know that I’ve seen a mannerism, or a way I’ve cried, or something, where I see a flash of my parents.

I always wondered what it would be like to have a normal childhood.

Like anything else, acting can become boring – a chore, really – if there isn’t any challenge. And I like taking challenges. Just when people think they have me figured out, I like to surprise them.

There are people who consider it almost unpatriotic to be inquisitive and to be truthful about your opinions.

As an actor, you’re not kind of thinking about your own work or watching the movie for the first time.

You don’t have to run away from life your whole life. You can really live. You can change. And you can be an agent of change.

I don’t turn my nose up at anything. If it’s a great part, it’s a great part. I’d love to do a box-office hit.

I resent ever being stereotyped.

I was raised in the ’70s, and I’ve worked with people I love, and I’ve been on sets with my parents, with people who run a set and require of actors a sense of liberty and freedom and exploration and failure into brave achievement.

The only thing that I can personally turn to is compassion, gentleness, a willingness to allow myself to be angry instead of like why am I so angry. It’s so embarrassing. I’ve got to let this go. I’m not going to be a good person if I walk around angry like this.

The really courageous and bold thing is to make movies about human behaviour

I like to play people who are deeply flawed, and I want to find the good nature in them. I even try to be kind to myself when I’ve made big mistakes.

My favorite books are psychology, self-help, and I’m fascinated by Jung, by dream work.

Growth doesn’t hurt. This is what I’ve learned. In the end, it doesn’t hurt. It hurts while it’s happening. But in the end, you know, for life, for parenting, and for the arts, it’s not a bad – not a bad thing to try for.

When man decides he can control nature, he’s in deep trouble.

God bless nannies.

It excites me to go to a movie and be reminded that I’m human, and I’m filled with opposites, and I’m built with flaws. Part of growth and healing is recognizing that.

With ‘Mask,’ ‘Smooth Talk’ and ‘Blue Velvet,’ I loved the specific experiences so much. Each one was a specific filmmaker with a specific vision.

It’s my deepest interest as an actor: I love discovering how human beings work, how their flaws reveal themselves – how to learn and grow from that – and how characters teach me things as a woman and as a parent.

I love to rescue animals…. The pounds were so crowded they were putting animals down almost immediately. Seven thousand dogs were put to sleep.

That’s life – to turn each other on, to feel good, to feel in love.

I’m a natural blonde. I was a towhead as a kid, and then it got ashier when I was 18.

I wanted to go to Jupiter. That was my plan from day one, and David Lynch gave me the ticket.

I’m moved by people who see the world differently than others. People who see the world with a longing for its poetry often can be broken people.

I care a lot about fragrance not only in my life, but sometimes it feels right while working on a character.

It’s one thing to have forced time off as an actor, and another thing when you actually say, ‘I don’t want to read anything, and I don’t want to talk to anybody.’

Unfortunately, overall, movies are a conglomerate. People buy and sell people in this business, which can get really ugly.

Love means a lot to me, and I love loving, and I love boys.

Starting my career as a kid, I was doing what jobs I got.

All kids are selfish. I wanted to do homework and do my thing and call my agent. My mother’s needs weren’t in my mind at that moment.

I’ve seen 3-D movies where it seems a little crude or too in-your-face.

Jealousy is a scary thing.

I was on the cover of a lot of magazines, and there were compliments about beauty and fashion and what I was wearing. Man, if you get locked into that, you can lose your freedom as an actress.

It would be great to make a movie that had the style of a great ’30’s film.

There is so much in the world to care about.

There are a lot more female writers wanting to direct their own material and hopefully will be given the opportunity.

It’s interesting to play a real-life person who has already been a character on ‘Saturday Night Live.’

When you’re first reading the script and thinking about playing the part, it’s slightly daunting. It’s easy to question, ‘Is an audience going to like me? And is that my job?’

Having been raised by actors who love moral ambiguity and flawed protagonists, I feel like it’s sort of in the blood to want to take it on.

There’s always a side of a woman that likes a man from the other side of the tracks.

There’s something so accessible about heroes who have faults.

When you’re playing someone who has a strong ego about themselves, you can’t play them when you have the opposite opinion of the one they have of themselves.

All I can start with is what moves me and feels like a great challenge as an actor and I think is saying something unusual or irreverent or human – honest in some way.

I certainly wouldn’t mind if ‘Jurassic Park’ turns out to be commercially successful, and somebody says, ‘Hey, you were in a box-office hit, and if you want to do another movie, we’ll give you five million dollars to make it.’

I knew you had to go in and audition and maybe they’d hire you, and that’s where you start. I had a good understanding about press: that it’s the actor’s responsibility to publicize his or her films.

I really don’t consider myself to be a conventional Hollywood star. I’ve never really been marketed by the big studios to do mass market box office films.

I think it’s interesting that there’s always a dark cloud hanging over my character, in every movie. Even in Fat Man and Little Boy, where it’s a real dark cloud. In Mask, it’s more the judgment of others, but it’s still a threat.

Decision-making is very scary for me.

I’m interested in flawed protagonists. I was raised on them.

Wild at Heart made a few people angry-they thought I was exploiting women by showing that when a woman says no she really means yes.

I made a commitment to myself; that I wanted to be an actress, and I wanted to do films that make a difference. It has to move people.

Sadly, half of marriages end in divorce. Half of my girl friends and male friends have been through one, and their kids are doing great. There’s no shame around it – unless you want to project that on to yourself – but certainly there’s no longer cultural shame. Everyone is walking through it.

I always fall in love with qualities of people I work with.

It’s really fun to act like a bimbo. But it’s fun to act like a bimbo only when people know that you really aren’t one.

Having egregious divorces – where you just hate each other – is really the easy way out.

Diet is weird. It’s elusive. I just try to listen to my body.

I was raised Catholic, and my grandmother taught me to stay. As a teenager, I thought if you went on a date, you should stay for a couple of years. I didn’t realize that if he wasn’t your cup of tea, you got to leave.

I don’t think you have to be in these serious, heavy, independent little movies to be an actor. Some of the most interesting acting I’ve seen is on cable television.

I remember there being a period of time when I had a baby, and I was so sleep-deprived that I’d get into having no filter, and that was not good.

I feel so lucky to have a mom who is not only an extraordinary actor but someone who is game enough to not worry about our relationship versus what we play in movies or television.

I’ve got the sort of personality that requires me to find some sort of release, and for me, it’s performing.

At the end of the day, you have to sit with the scripts and decide where your heart is.

I try to do things I love or care about for some reason.

I will be working with David Lynch when I’m 80.

I love when actors can let go of where and how they have to do it, and just that we do it. That we are flawed and human, and don’t worry about how we look or who we are, or that it seems too old of a character if we’re still young.

I always wanted to do a ‘Ms. Smith Goes to Washington.’

At 12, turned 13, made a movie with Sex Pistols and The Clash. Learned about a lot of things I never knew and hope will never know again. Don’t know how my parents let me do that.

My mother opened a bank account for me when I made $60 on my first day of work as an extra. She’s that kind of mother.

Whatever character you play, it gives you the chance to expose another side of yourself that maybe you’ve never felt comfortable with, or never knew about

If you have a movie coming out, and people are talking about you, the amount of scripts will build.