Top 198 Quotes & Sayings by Laura Dern - Page 3

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

Being an actress my whole life, it feels so good to have a clean face when I'm off, so I'm not a big makeup wearer.

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.

David Lynch is like that - every sound, every detail to the end of making the film, he never gives up. It has to be perfect.

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

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.

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.

I worked with HBO on 'Recount,' and we had a wonderful experience together. I'm such a fan of HBO and how much flexibility they give in character as well as schedule.

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.

Sometimes my family got me in the door. Somebody would say, 'Bruce Dern's daughter - sure I'd like to meet her.' It was a point of interest. But after five minutes of talking about my father, I still had to read for the part.

I feel that movies are gifts that come to you, and there are no accidents in what you end up doing.

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.

We like our archetypes and heroes to be what they are at face value. And life doesn't work out like that

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

People have forever been interested in twins.

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.

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.

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'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.

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

There is so much in the world to care about.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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 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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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 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.

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?

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.