As I walk into a downtown LA hotel room to speak with Laura Dern, I’m distractingly still looking at my phone. LAFCA is in the middle of voting on their year-end awards which coincidently are taking place at the same time as Lucasfilm‘s pre-screening press day for “Star Wars: The Last Jedi.” Dern, who is here to talk about her role as Vice Admiral Amilyn Holdo in the highly anticipated Rian Johnson directed chapter of the popular franchise, wants to know what’s going on. Who’s won what, precisely.
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Laura Dern: What are updates? What’s happening?
The Playlist: The update is Sally Hopkins just won best actress. Timothée Chalamet won best actor and they still have director and picture to go. Spreading the wealth. They totally spread the wealth today.
Wow. Interesting.
You’re an Academy member. You’re on the Board of Governors actually.
Yes.
Do you have a pile of screeners or have you gone and seen most of your movies so far?
No. I have not. I have been working on a film in Atlanta [Ed Zwick’s “Trial by Fire”] and have been under a rock. I’m about to do hardcore catch upwhich I can’t wait for. Not that I didn’t watch “Stranger Things,” I did. I really have a lot of movies to see and I’m excited to.
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Our conversation then dives into Dern’s thoughts on the current sexual harassment movement gripping the nation and what the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences (Dern is a member of the Board of Governors) and the industry will do next. You can read those comments here, but the rest of our discussion reflected on what has been a remarkable year for the 50-year-old actress. Any Emmy-win for “Big Little Lies,” a celebrated performances in David Lynch’s “Twin Peaks” and now a pivotal role in “The Last Jedi.” The latter two projects requiring a dramatic level of secrecy.
Rian Johnson talks “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” and how he pitched his new trilogy [Interview]
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Let’s talk about your amazing freaking year. What was harder? Keeping secrets that you were shooting “Last Jedi” or that you were in “Twin Peaks”?
I was filming “Star Wars” where they preferred me not to tell my children who my character was at all. “Twin Peaks,” in which David our family member at this point, asked me to not even tell my children what character I was going to portray because there was a lot of focus on, “Would she be seen for the first time as a character.” We were filming “Big Little Lies” in which I couldn’t tell anybody what happens [at the end]. It was exhausting and I was the most boring interview in the entertainment industry.
Wait, were you going back and forth for all three?
I was and I will tell you that as huge and overwhelming a machine and world as “Star Wars” is it is because of [producers] Kathy Kennedy and Ram Bergman and Rian Johnson that they were willing, with as enormous an undertaking as “Star Wars” is, to help me navigate the three different productions. I’m so lucky and everybody worked together, all the productions.
O.K., that’s actually incredible.
It’s incredible. I think mostly because Ron and Rian respect David Lynch so much. That they are like, “What does David need?” I’m like, “Okay, thank God they love David.”
It’s like, “We want to see Twin Peaks’s new season too!”
Exactly. Exactly. Rian who dressed up with his girlfriend as Dale Cooper and Diane for Halloween.
Oh my God.
So, thank God Rian was such a big fan.
I know there’s not a lot you’re allowed to say, but what can you tell us at all about your character in ‘Last Jedi’ now?
My hair is so fantastic. I really suggest everyone get that hair color immediately. That I can tell you. I can also tell you that there’s a new boss in town. I can tell you that I’m around to shake up the resistance. I can tell you that I have space jewelry.
Does the jewelry do things?
Possibly.
Okay. All right.
All I know is it is fabulous. I can tell you in earnest how proud I am to join in this legacy. One, because it was a childhood dream, just playing in my room. But also because, this group of filmmakers care deeply about representing what the world looks like in every way possible and will continue to do it more and more and deepen that commitment more and more. But in the area of strong, powerful female characters. To stand here today with my character, Phasma, Rose and Rey and talk about being females in this legacy and sitting all of us together, all the girls, we were at the screening together and just going crazy over each other’s characters. It’s just so fun. It’s not just that they are powerful. It’s that they’re complicated and going through a journey. They can be vulnerable or feminine. It’s not about girls playing the boys. It’s about women being women who hold power.