VOSS Posted May 24 Share Posted May 24 Quote Laura Dern's mellifluous voice gently emanates over the phone from Italy where she's currently filming with Noah Baumbach. Marriage Story, her last project with the Brooklyn director with a knack for turning a hyper-real yet artful lens on to everyday life, won her an Oscar, Golden Globe and Bafta in 2020 for her 18-minute turn as Nora Fanshaw, the no-bullshit lawyer who power-charges Scarlett Johansson's divorce from Adam Driver. Her punchy monologue — 'People don't accept mothers who drink too much wine and yell at their children and call him an a**hole' — has become synonymous with a kind of unflinching honesty in film; see also America Ferrera's feminist speech in Barbie for Baumbach's wife, Greta Gerwig. A thread that runs through her work is an honest depiction of motherhood in all its messy glory. Dern has two children from her marriage to musician Ben Harper (they divorced in 2013), a son, Ellery, 22, and daughter, Jaya, 19. 'My daughter let me know she saw Citizen Ruth, in which I'm pregnant and a drug addict; I think that they've pretty much seen the gamut. It was good to hear that my daughter loved that movie and can laugh about it.' Watching family on screen is a given in the Dern-world. Her parents are the actors Bruce Dern and Diane Ladd. 'They're both such great actors, but I don't think I identify with the characters they've played. I hope it's the same for my kids and certainly, of all the things that I have explored and what it is to be female, motherhood, the lack thereof, the longing for it, the way one throws away the responsibility, the over-anxious yearning… I've looked at that from many different sides, and that's been an incredible education in what it is to be human.' With both parents in the industry and children entering it (her son is a musician, her daughter is starring alongside her in a Roger Vivier campaign) how does she feel about the nepo baby discourse? 'I'm appalled by it, actually, because I don't understand it. It never came up when all of us "nepo babies" were working. Myself and Jamie Lee Curtis…Your butcher is a nepo baby, your baker, the seamstress, the tailor. Lawyers and doctors who get their kids internships working at a practice so they can see if it's what's right for them. Isn't it our job [to inspire our children]?' she says. 'I was so proud of it when I started. Because I love legacy and the history of film. I was raised around so many beautiful film-makers and actors and painters that inspired me. Gregory Peck and his wife Veronique were like godparents to me. My godmother is [the late] Shelley Winters. I would bring up legacy in interviews, and it mattered to me [but] no one cared. It wasn't interesting. It wasn't part of the story. I remember being rarely, if never, asked about my parents. I think social media has done that. It's a label but it takes away from the professional. I think it's awesome to be the child of an inspiring parent, even if the inspiration is I know I don't want to do what my parents do.' Source Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ultraviolence.xx Posted May 24 Share Posted May 24 18 minutes ago, VOSS said: Your butcher is a nepo baby, your baker, the seamstress, the tailor. yawn. call me when my bakers, seamstresses, and tailors are multimillionaires. 7 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Riot Posted May 24 Share Posted May 24 Why do they always act so dumb? Most of the times when people talk about nepo babies they are referring to the connections they have especially at the start of their careers. I'm glad that she mentioned Jamie Lee Curtis, because the Halloween producers literally said that they cast her mainly because she was the daughter of famous scream queen Janet Leigh. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mornings Posted May 24 Share Posted May 24 I LOVE Laura Dern but she's still an appalled faux-naive white woman at the end of the day. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BionicWooHoo Posted May 24 Share Posted May 24 Smh another out of touch rich white lady 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
l3disko Posted May 24 Share Posted May 24 Spoken like a true Nepo baby 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raspy Posted May 24 Share Posted May 24 sounds about white 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aston Martin Posted May 24 Share Posted May 24 12 minutes ago, ultraviolence.xx said: yawn. call me when my bakers, seamstresses, and tailors are multimillionaires. This, and the barriers of entry in any of these jobs fields (whether you get into them yourself or have connections) are vastly lower than being a full-time Hollywood actor with an agent, publicist, stylist, makeup artist, assistant, and/or manager. It was a disingenuous comparison on her part. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brenda-walsh Posted May 24 Share Posted May 24 33 minutes ago, VOSS said: Lawyers and doctors who get their kids internships working at a practice what point was she trying to make with this? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mike_int Posted May 24 Share Posted May 24 (edited) Lets be honest, 99% of people with famous or rich parents would use it to their benefit. I would too. The point is to be humble and simply agree that, yes I was privileged because of my parents, thats it. Moving on ... Edited May 24 by mike_int 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gui Blackout Posted May 24 Share Posted May 24 Laura is in the Jane Fonda, Liza Minnelli, Sofia Coppola category of nepo baby, she's talented and proved herself. Leave her alone 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Totami Legend Posted May 24 Share Posted May 24 It's an issue when like 80% of the big employed big actors / actresses are nepo babies. People more talented than a mid Chalamet doesn't even get breakout roles and the reason is under our eyes. And when someone who came from nothing gets big, they try to control them. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Khal Posted May 24 Share Posted May 24 "Appalling" was that undeserved Oscar. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Slayne Posted May 24 Share Posted May 24 Quote 'I'm appalled by it, actually, because I don't understand it. It never came up when all of us "nepo babies" were working. Myself and Jamie Lee Curtis… yea and maybe that's a problem! she's very out of touch. nobody is telling her to return her awards, but to pretend that nepo babies do not have it significantly easier when entering the entertainment industry and that that's ok is so... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cyanide Posted May 24 Share Posted May 24 They'll always do backflips around this discourse instead of just admitting that they got their footing in the industry due to nepotism and moving on. See the thread between them all? Lily Rose said something equally white woman coded too Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ahauntingnearu Posted May 24 Share Posted May 24 More Nepo baby talk? Yawn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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