Archived Q&A with Laura Dern

• Q

  

  HBO

  A huge thank you to Laura Dern for joining us today. After last night, we’ve now seen 7 episodes of your new HBO series Enlightened – what has surprised you the most about how the series has been received?

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  Laura Dern says:

  The greatest surprise would be that when I speak to people who are connected to the show that they love Amy as much as I do. That with our love of Amy comes fear, concern, at times even, we mock her, but ultimately we believe in her somehow and root for her. That makes me really happy we can share that.

• Q

  

  Carl Bryant

  Will things ever look up for, Amy?

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  Laura Dern says:

  Things will definitely look up for Amy and just as they do...they may start to look down too, but they will look up again because Amy is on the ride of using her voice...as appropriate or inappropriate as it may be at different moments. There will be victories.

• Q

  

  Paris Ridley

  Laura I am glad to see you on HBO every monday! The show is GREAT! My question is... what is up with Amys mother?? Will she ever open up to Amy?

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  Laura Dern says:

  Amy will certainly try to demand that of her, but as we all know with mothers, on the eve of Thanksgiving, if you will, as hard as we try to require our parents to change, they will always be who they are. But I also love that Amy will have, at times, a beautiful effect on people.

• Q

  

  450qubits

  Do you base that characters of Amy and Levi on anyone specific, or are they composites?

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  Laura Dern says:

  Composites for sure. I think the seed of Amy was originally planted by a common cultural apathy we were all feeling over the last decade in this country, and Amy, like so many of us, is as mad as hell and she's not going to take it any more. I'd like to say that it is her damage that makes her this way, but perhaps her damage is not only a deep flaw in her character, it's also the thing that makes Amy the kind of person who will never allow moments like at UC Davis occur. She's gonna get in people's faces.

• Q

  

  Tom Meischker

  Isn't it rather difficult wearing all the hats, as you do, being the creator, executive producer, star, and probably catering?

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  Laura Dern says:

  Good news is, I don't cater. If I did the show never would have aired. Everyone would have walked. But I find the other hats very useful in being a deep participant in the evolution of a character and a story that mean a great deal to me. And very grateful that HBO and Mike White afford me the opportunity to be so deeply involved. Although I do bring snacks.

• Q

  

  Daniel Pua Mazur

  what was your favorite show growing up

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  Laura Dern says:

  I Love Lucy to this day is my obsession, but its hard to not mention All in the Family, Bewitched and the Andy Griffith Show. I watched television all the time.

• Q

  

  Greg Higgins

  Hi Laura, I am a great fan of yours. What has been your most satisfying role to date as an actor? Greg

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  Laura Dern says:

  I luckily get to put Amy Jellicoe right up there. I'm confused by her, worried for her, inspired by her and think she might just save the world...but everybody will probably hate her for it. And other than Amy, I feel like I never could have played a character like Amy without the good fortune of playing a character like Ruth in Citizen Ruth. She taught me a lot about feeling forgotten, which I needed for this character.

• Q

  

  Suzy Brunink

  How does working with your mother, in the role of your mother, inform both the characters' relationships to each other on the show?

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  Laura Dern says:

  First and foremost, Diane Ladd is an incredible actor, so working with her is bliss. The fact that she is my mother gives us a challenge and a gift. We have a very different relationship than this mother and daughter, and because we have the intimacy of a mother-daughter relationship there are no lies and there will always be deep longing and deep knowing. From that we get to play in this investigation of family. It's an amazing experience.

• Q

  

  Brandea Taurman

  Does most of the writing come from Mike White or from you? How do you share the work load?

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  Laura Dern says:

  All the writing comes from Mike. We worked on creating the idea together, and the story, and Mike wrote the scripts brilliantly.

• Q

  

  Truthtax

  Will any episodes show 'pre-breakdown' Amy? Curious whether character is similar or changed much from her breakdown and therapy

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  Laura Dern says:

  There is an upcoming episode which looks back on Amy's family history. It's incredibly moving to me and really tells the story of how we all can end up in broken places in our lives.

• Q

  

  KATIEtheGREENE

  Although I find it tough to watch Amy go through her daily struggles sometimes, I find myself tuning in week-to-week. Were you ever concerned about your viewers being turned off from the empathetic discomfort that is so strongly provoked by Amy?

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  Laura Dern says:

  For whatever reason, as an audience, those are the stories I personally love. I know Mike agrees with me, so in a way, I guess we tried to make a show we would want to watch. Circling back to an aforementioned love, Lucille Ball was a wonderful inspiration. Many of us spent our childhood in agony, waiting for her next screw up, so I was raised on delicious discomfort and I love to do that as an actor. And maybe it will push us a little closer to ourselves if we're more compassionate toward our mistakes.

• Q

  

  gail_lee09

  It was great to see the dynamics that changed with Amy when she had a visitor from her treatment, Sandy. What other visitors might we see enter (new or old) into Amy's life?

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  Laura Dern says:

  Between now and the end of this season, there is certainly a revisiting of much of what she's gone through since the beginning, but boy do we have plans for you.

• Q

  

  Walt Garcia

  Laura, one of the best memories I have is sitting in an empty theater watching Citizen Ruth with my brother and cracking up. How are you able to create empathy and even love for characters that may be unlikable like Ruth or even Amy?

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  Laura Dern says:

  Thank you so much, first off, because I take that as the highest compliment. It's what I long to do as an actor and if I can figure it out, then maybe I can do it as a person too. Particularly when working on Recount for HBO playing Katherine Harris, the Florida Secretary of State was a fascinating challenge because I went into it with strong opinions but could only play her from a deep empathy for her. Fun..tricky...I love getting to act. It's awesome.

• Q

  

  John Thompson

  What is your fondest memory of working on the set of "Blue Velvet" ?

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  Laura Dern says:

  I have so many, it's for me like remembering my first year at college. In fact, its what I did instead of showing up for my first year of college. We did a lot of night shoots, and so, we would on our night off, we would try to stay up all night to stay on the same schedule. And I begged David Lynch to watch elephant man with me, which meant so much to me. I have such a great memory of that. I also remember when the hurricane was supposed to hit and several of us gathered together to hunker down and brought food and food. I remember Dennis Hopper walked in with a bag full of batteries and no appliance to put them in. I was 17 years old and thinking, "Where's the flashlight?" That's one of my favorite memories of Dennis.

• Q

  

  leanstein27

  is there anywhere specific where you get your character's wardrobe? They are awesome!

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  Laura Dern says:

  Amy's wardrobe means the world to me. One of the ways I first described Amy to HBO was "you know the girl who dresses like whatever boyfriend she has, or dresses for the environment she's in? That's Amy." I particularly love her braids on the camping trip. In last night's episode it made me so happy to crimp my hair considering the last time Amy went to a club was probably 1990, and so she figured that's what people still do. So I'm having a lot of fun with it and much kudos to Nancy Steiner our costumer for finding vintage pieces as well as modern clothes. I loved the idea that because Amy had to move back in with her mom, and her apartment had probably been locked up because she hadn't paid rent when she was gone, she's having to live out of her closet she had from age 14 to 22. That makes me really happy.

• Q

  

  Brandea Taurman

  In a best case scenario, where would you see Amy in 5 years? Worst case?

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  Laura Dern says:

  Best case scenario, she's single-handedly successfully capped the oil spill in the Gulf and made BP accountable and has now created "Occupy Your Life" her new, not-for-profit organization where you get to be angry about anything as long as healing is on the other side of it. She's got her own place to live and has perhaps moved on from needing to fix the relationships of the past. Worst Case: She and Levi are living out of her mom's car and she's on her way with her last $14 to score him some pills But she's doing it in a great way and she's got a great dress on that's really colorful, and at least she can call Tyler if she needs to talk.

• Q

  

  Majid Essi

  Ms. Dern you are absolutely wonderful! The show is so relative to everyday life and you really did a great job. How does this type of work differ from previous work you have done? You like working on movies better?

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  Laura Dern says:

  Working in this way at HBO is like working on the most freed up Indie movie you could dream of. It is very rare when you are spending other people's money to have your bosses unafraid to allow a group of people to run off and tell a sticky, messy, heartbreaking, hopefully hilarious at times, tale about what it's like to be a person right now, with everything hanging out. HBO has done that for us. It definitely equals some of my favorite experiences on small independent film where you have that kind of anonymity when you're working.

• Q

  

  Ilene Cohen

  Laura, You have created such a great show and also a beautiful performance. I can really relate to the difficulties of going through such a major life transition that includes loss of career and breakup of a major relationship.

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  Laura Dern says:

  Thank you so much. Isn't it amazing how those are the moments where we also get to be introduced to ourselves. I get it, and I love that people are connecting to it.

• Q

  

  HBO

  That’s it for our Live Chat with Enlightened’s Laura Dern. A big thank you to Laura for joining us today. Is there anything you’d like to say before we sign off?

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  Laura Dern says:

  I'm so thrilled to get to talk to you all about the show. Please tell everyone you've ever met, and strangers you will see today, to watch Enlightened, not only because I'm shameless in wanting the promotion, but more importantly, because I truly love Amy and I somehow feel this show gets us somewhere. Maybe deeper in our own skin. I'm stoked that you like it.