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You're Not Directing An Actor Toward A Thing They Can't Achieve. Because Direction Is Elusive. When Directors Hold Respect For The Various Craftsmen And -women Who Are Telling The Story, It's The Greatest Result. I Think People Do Their Bravest Work When Given An Elusive Canvas.

-Laura Dern

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You're Not Directing An

Laura Dern

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You're Not Directing An Actor Toward A Thing They Can't Achieve. Because Direction Is Elusive. When Directors Hold Respect For The Various Craftsmen And -women Who Are Telling The Story, It's The Greatest Result. I Think People Do Their Bravest Work When Given An Elusive Canvas.

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People Are More Willing To Talk About Child Abuse. When This Whole Mcmartin Thing Went Down, I Was At A Dinner Party With About Eight People, All From Different Backgrounds And From All Over The World. And Every Single Person At That Table Had Had Some Weird Experience As A Child. I Think Everyone Has - Whether It Was With A Babysitter, Or Playing Doctor, But Usually When Some Older Person Tries To Come In Contact With You. It's Amazing How Much We Block Out.

There Was A Television Show Called The Innocents Of Hollywood. Brooke Shields Is A Friend Of Mine And She Saw One Of The Introductions To It, And She Called Me And Said, "i Think You Better Check This Out." And On This Show They Talked About Parents Who'd Ripped Off Their Kids. One Of Them Said, "my Mother Stole $300,000 From Me As A Child." Well, 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. But God Knows What People Will Say When This Movie Comes Out.

If My Career Were A Hairstyle, It Would Be Helmet-head.

Obviously, The Urge To Molest Children Comes From Some Experience The Person Has Had As A Child, And He Or She Never Worked It Out. Watching Raymond Buckey Describe How He Loved Working With The Kids, I Could Sense This 11-year-old Who'd Stopped And Never Grown Further On A Sexual Level.

I Love Comedy. David's Lynch The Only Person I've Worked With More Than Once Who Sees Me As A Specific Thing - He Sees Me As The Sexy Bimbo, In Ways, And He Also Sees Me As Lucille Ball. Actually, Nick Cage And I Did Lucy And Ricky In Two Scenes In Wild At Heart That Were Cut Because The Movie Was Four Hours Long.

There's Something So Accessible About Heroes Who Have Faults.

I'm Very Connected To My Own Family, And Maybe I Like To Explore The Feelings That Come Up In Families. I'm Fortunate That My Parents Taught Me To Look Further Into Why I Might Feel A Certain Way; It Was Normal To Expose Things.

I Do Think My Mother Was A Bit Overprotective, Not In Any Sordid Way, But Just Normally. She Certainly Might Say To Me, "you Know, Laura, I Don't Have A Good Feeling About That Guy. I Don't Know If I Want You To Go Out With Him."

Private Boarding Schools And Catholic Schools On The East Coast Are Something. Choate Really Ruined My Father's Life. He's Had Nightmares About Choate Every Since He Went There. Treat Williams, Who's A Good Friend, Went To Kent School, In Connecticut. The Stories I've Heard About Those Places - Didn't You Have One Nun Who Was Just The Worst Nightmare?

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 Had A Good Understating About Press: That It's The Actor's Responsibility To Publicize His Or Her Films, That The Press Can Be Fun, That It's Not About Hyping Yourself Into Stardom Or Trying To Sell Yourself As A Hot Ticket. I Think A Lot Of Young Actors Now Are Getting Caught Up In That.

Nick Сage And I Can't Make Love In Movie? That's Scary. And Our Hero? Arnold Schwarzenegger? Using A Body As A Shield Against Bullets? Hey - The World's A Big Place, And People Get Away With What They Get Away With, But To Attack David Lynch For Doing Things I've Seen In Many Movies, That's Weird.

I Love To Rescue Animals.... The Pounds Were So Crowded They Were Putting Animals Down Almost Immediately. Seven Thousand Dogs Were Put To Sleep.

You Can Hardly Tell Where The Computer Models Finish And The Real Dinosaurs Begin

Unfortunately, Overall, Movies Are A Conglomerate. People Buy And Sell People In This Business, Which Can Get Really Ugly Unless You Have The Right Set Of Values And Understand Why You're Doing It. Luckily, I Was Raised By People Who'd Already Gotten To That Point, And Seen All The Yuck Stuff - Which Is Probably Why They Originally Didn't Want Me To Act.

It's Always Been A Desire Of Mine To Work With My Parents

The Actors Are Telling The Truth On Some Level, And People Have To Believe It. At Cannes, A Lot Of People Said, "oh, Shocking," But This Italian Girl Said To Me, "my God, I Just Said That To My Boyfriend The Other Night." That's What Lula From Wild At Hearts Talks About. That's Life - To Turn Each Other On, To Feel Good, To Feel In Love.

The Really Courageous And Bold Thing Is To Make Movies About Human Behaviour

I Feel That Movies Are Gifts That Come To You, And There Are No Accidents In What You End Up Doing.

It's Very Easy To Get Caught Up In - There's A Hype Going On Now That I Haven't Seen In Years, And It's Actually More About Press Than It Is About An Actor's Work Or What Films They've Been In.

There Is So Much In The World To Care About.

I'm Lucky Enough That Directors Sometimes Seek Me Out For Little Projects That People Don't Even Know About, That Just Surface Later On.

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.

You Can Change. And You Can Be An Agent Of Change.

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.

When I Started Dating I Had Relationships With People Who Came From Families That Weren't At All Artistic Or Whatever, And They Didn't Understand How To Communicate. I Find That So Boring.

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.

Mr. Smith Goes To Washington Is One Of The Greatest Films Of All Time.

I Don't Care, But I Don't Get Bitter About Anything As Long As I Can Work And Do The Things I Love. And It Would Be A Beautiful World If Those Things I Love And That Mean Something Could Remain As They Are.

I Just Love, I Love, I Love Movies.

There Are People On The Ratings Board And So Froth Who Don't Want Certain Scenes In The Film. There Are People Who Come Up And Say, "what Graphic Love Scenes. I Think, How Can A Love Scene Be Graphic? Have You Seen Total Recall? In This R-rated Movie You See A Man Who You've Seen Being In Love With And Sleeping With This Fabulous Woman Shoot Her Right Through The Head. "consider This A Divorce" Is Supposed To Be The Funniest Line In The Movie.

I've Always Loved Film More Than Theater, And Film May Be More Closely Related To Making A Record Because You Have That Ability To Go In And Do Your Work And Have No Judgment Around It, And Feel Honest. Then, Much Later, It's Presented To People. But In Theater, People Come Backstage After A Performance And You're About To Do The Same Play Again The Next Night, And People Say, "well, I Didn't Really Believe That Emotion" Or Whatever. It's Really Hard For Me, I Like To Be Closed Up And Just Do The Work.

It's A Strange World, As David Lynch Would Say

Look, If Somebody Said Tomorrow, "we're Making A Lethal Weapon Formula Movie, But It's Incredibly Well-written And For Two Women," I'm Not Going To Say, "oh, Forget It, It's Formula." I Got An Idea The Other Day, That Somebody Should Write A Typical Formula Movie, A Lethal Weapon, And Make It With Me And My Dad. It Could Be All Father-and-daughter Capers. But I'd Want Someone Really Weird To Direct It.

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.

It's Interesting To Talk To My Mom About Her Character In Wild At Heart, Because She Sees Her As A Mother Who's Just Trying To Protect Her Baby From A Bad Boy. I Think That's Why It Works So Beautifully - She Has Conviction About What She's Doing.

It Would Be Great To Make A Movie That Had The Style Of A Great '30's Film.

I Wanted To Go To Jupiter. That Was My Plan From Day One, And David Lynch Gave Me The Ticket.

It Sounds Like A Cliché, But Mother Is Really One Of My Closest Friends, And So's My Dad. He And I Weren't Very Close When I Was Younger, But Now We're Best Friends.

Whether A Movie Part Comes To Me Or I Seek It Out, There's Always This Journey To Darkness Through Light, Or Vice Versa; That Element Has Been In Almost Everything I've Done.

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.

Unfortunately, Overall, Movies Are A Conglomerate. People Buy And Sell People In This Business, Which Can Get Really Ugly.

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'm Friends With Renny Harlan, Who Directed Die Hard 2, And I Will Say, I Thought It Was Beautifully Done. What I Loved About It Was That The Bad Guys Are Basically American Political Figures. They Don't Have East German Accents Or Whatever.

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.

You're Not Directing An Actor Toward A Thing They Can't Achieve. Because Direction Is Elusive. When Directors Hold Respect For The Various Craftsmen And -women Who Are Telling The Story, It's The Greatest Result. I Think People Do Their Bravest Work When Given An Elusive Canvas.

I Left Our Home To Work On A Movie, And While I Was Away, My Boyfriend [billy Bob Thorton] Got Married, And I've Never Heard From Him Again.

When Man Decides He Can Control Nature, He's In Deep Trouble

It Would Be Great To Make A Movie That Had The Style Of A Great '30s Film Or A Movie Of David's Lynch Or Some Other Director I Love That Could Also Make Money, Because That Would Say To The Corporation, "yes, You Can Make Money And Still Do Art." But It's Tricky.

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.

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'm Interested In Flawed Protagonists. I Was Raised On Them.

I Still Have A Lot To Learn. I Just Have Two Cats, And When I'm In A Bad Mood - You Know, It Would Be Very Easy To Throw A Cat Across A Room.

Luckily, I Was Raised By People Whod Already Seen All The Yuck Stuff, Which Is Why They Originally Didnt Want Me To Act. I Understood The Difference Between Getting A Part At A Hollywood Party And Getting A Job.

I'd Never Done Nudity In A Movie; I've Never Sort Of Condoned It For Myself, But David Lynch Wanted It, And I Was Completely Comfortable With It Because That Love Story Was So Protected. There's Never A Moment Where You Feel Anything Is Exploited.

People Have Forever Been Interested In Twins.

I Study Carl Jung, Who Talks A Lot About The Shadow Side, The Repressed Side. I Think The Scariest Thing In The World Is Repression. There's Plenty To Be Idealistic About, But We Have To Be Aware Of All Sides Of Ourselves, And There Are Definitely Shadows In All Of Us.

We Like Our Archetypes And Heroes To Be What They Are At Face Value. And Life Doesn't Work Out Like That

I Would Say Steven Spielberg Is Family To Me. He's A Genius. We Survived A Hurricane Together. I Ran From Half-puppet,half-nothing Creatures. It Was Months Of Our Life As Family. It Was The Wildest Film, Jurassic Park, I'd Ever Worked On That Way.

In Smooth Talk It Was A Much More Intuitive Search - I Was Only 17 At The Time, And I Wasn't Aware, As Women Are When They Get A Little Older, That There's Always A Side Of A Woman That Likes A Man From The Other Side Of The Tracks. We All Have An Attraction To What's Different From Us.

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. You'll Be Offered The "lead" In This New Hot Film With Such-and-such A-list Director, "a Fabulous Part" - A Fabulous Part? A Fabulous Part Is A Character With A Soul, Who Starts Here And Goes To There, You Know? There Aren't Many Of Those.

I Was Raised By An Actress, And I Watched All Those Women Turn 60 And Ask, "should I Get Face Work?" And My Mother And Anne Bancroft Said To Each Other, "we Are Who We Are, And We're Not Going To Fall Into That."

I Don't Turn My Nose Up At Anything. If It's A Great Part, It's A Great Part. It's Not Like, "i Don't Make Studio Films; I Work For David Lynch And Maybe A Few American Playhouse Directors, But That's It" - I'd Love To Do A Box-office Hit.

There's Always A Side Of A Woman That Likes A Man From The Other Side Of The Tracks

Even If You've Gone Through An Average Childhood, You Have Girlfriends Who Get Pregnant And Then Have To Choose Whether Or Not To Have A Child. And This Stuff Certainly Makes You Think About What You're Taking On. I Certainly Want To Have Children, But I Could Never Do It Until I Felt I Loved Myself Enough, And Wanted To Bring Someone Into The World Because I Had Some Kind Of Security.

Virginia Mayo Had Kind Of A Small Role In The Best Years Of Our Lives, But You Got The Whole Character In One Scene. Where Are Those Parts? I Was Talking To Somebody About Great Actors: Morgan Freeman's Name Came Up, Forest Whitaker, Denzel Washington. And I Realized, There're No Black Actresses. Where's There A Black Actress Who's Been Extremely Successful In The Past 10 Years?

I Went To A Catholic School. The Private School Was Good - The Teachers Wanted All Of Us To Have The Freedom To Think For Ourselves. The Education Was Good At The Catholic School, But You Only Got That One Ideology.

I Hope We Can Be Consummate Artists As Women Or Revolutionaries, Or Whatever Women Want To Be, And Also Have Love, Not Only For Ourselves But From A Partner.

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.

I'm Interested In Human Nature. That's Why I Chose To Become An Actor. Whatever People Are Struggling With, The Struggle Is Often Where The Drama Is.

What About Good Small Roles For Women? I've Told My Agent, If There Are Two Great Scenes In A Film, I Don't Care, If It's Something With That Great Edge To It.

I Made A Commitment To Myself: That I Wanted To Be An Actress, And I Wanted To Do Films That Make A Difference. Whether It Makes Someone Laugh, Or It Has A Moral To The Story - It Doesn't Have To Be An Ethical Film, But It Has To Move People. If It Doesn't Excite Me, It's Not Worth Doing - It's Better To Work On Myself And My Own Life And Wait Until Another Great Thing Comes Along.

That's Life - To Turn Each Other On, To Feel Good, To Feel In Love.

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.

It's Always Been A Desire Of Mine To Work With My Parents, So Wild At Heart Was A Wish Come True. The First Day We Did A Scene Together I Came Down The Stairs And My Mom Pointed That Finger At Me: "don't You Dare Talk To That Boy Again!" You Know, I've Seen That Finger For 23 Years. And I Started Laughing, She Started Laughing, Then The Whole Crew Broke Up - In That Moment, They All Knew That She And I Had Been There Before.

As Someone Who Has Been Asked To Ask David Lynch What His Movies Mean For 25 Years, I'm Very Careful About Asking Artists What Their Art Means.

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

What Do You Say When Someone Has Truly Inspired You? How Do You Express To An Artist How Deeply Their Work Has Affected You?

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