Laura Dern's Amazing Run
Friday, January 10, 2020 at 8:00AM by Camila Henriquez
If last weekend's Golden Globes were anything to go by, we’ll have an award season packed with Laura Dern speeches. Even though she has been deemed a favorite to win Best Supporting Actress for the past few months, many (myself included) thought the HFPA would go the HFPA way and honor Jennifer Lopez. It was probably the best shot for J.Lo at a televised award, as Globe voters looove their mega-stars. But Dern has an "overdue" narrative that her category rivals just don’t. Well, Annette Bening does, but unfortunately there’s no chance in hell she gets her Oscar this year. Even the nomination would be a shock.
But Dern's Globes victory should have been a foregone conclusion, regardless of Lopez's great Hustler's performance. Laura Dern has a great track record with the HFPA; she has had eight nominations and lost only thrice. With her win last sunday, she joins Carol Burnett, Rosalind Russell, Jessica Lange and Ed Asner in the five-Globe-wins group.
Let's look back at her Globes history - with an Oscar note or two thrown in -- for fun...
1981/1982 - She didn’t start off with a nomination, but with the task always reserved for the offspring of famous actors now known as Golden Globe Ambassador (then, it was Mister or Miss Golden Globe). Laura, as we all know, has acting in her blood; her father Bruce Dern is a three time Globe nominee and mom Diane Ladd a former winner. Both of her parents are also former Oscar nominees. Fun fact #1: 1982 was the infamous year Pia Zadora won Best Newcomer. Fun Fact #2: Laura is still the only former Miss Golden Globe to actually win one. Any thoughts on who could join her? Dakota Johnson, maybe?
1991/1992 - Ten years after giving out awards, she was invited back to the party as a first time nominee for Rambling Rose. It was a tough year, as she faced Thelma and Louise herselves and eventual winner Jodie Foster, who went on to win the Oscar. That season was special for Dern, though, as she and her mother Diane were both nominated for the Globes and the Academy Awards for the same movie, a historic feat that has yet to be equaled.
1993/1994 - Her first win came for the TV movie “Afterburn”. She beat out the likes of Katharine Hepburn, Jessica Lange, Kyra Sedgwick and comeback kid Drew Barrymore. Fun fact: this was win #1 for Laura and also the first of four Globes she won for TV projects. Yes, the “Marriage Story” victory is her first in the film section!
1998/1999 - Another nomination for a TV movie, this time for her turn as a pregnant woman willing to give her child to Stockard Channing in “The Baby Dance”. Both co-stars were nominated in the same category, alongside Miranda Richardson and Ann-Margret, but the HFPA couldn’t resist awarding Angelina Jolie her second Globe in a row for her mesmerizing turn in "Gia”. Yes, I know there’s a gossip connection between the two of them, but let’s not go there.
2008/2009 - Ten years passed until Laura got her fourth nomination and second win, this time for (guess!) the TV movie “Recount”. Directed by Bombshell helmer Jay Roach, the film has Dern playing former Secretary of State Katherine Harris during the whole 2000 election voting recount drama. Laura was a supporting player this time, beating out “In Treatment” costars Melissa George and Dianne Wiest, Eileen Atkins and Rachel Griffiths.
2011/2012 - Many people consider “Enlightened” to be not only one the best comedies TV has ever produced, but also the beginning of the Dernassaince (to me, she never left). She beat out stiff competition that year: Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Laura Linney (remember ‘The Big C’?) and Zooey Deschanel, fresh off the first season of “New Girl”.
2017/2018 - Funnily enough, her second Oscar nomination for Wild wasn’t preceded by Globes recognition. Laura didn’t even get a sophomore nod for “Enlightened”, and had to wait six years to get on that podium again, but it was worth the wait. Her fourth trophy was for her scene stealing work in “Big Little Lies”. Renata Klein became a part of pop culture thanks to Laura’s energetic performance and it was only fair that awards followed on that trend.
2018/2019 - The following year, she was back, this time with a nod for her heartbreaking work in the very underrated “The Tale”. Competition was stiff, though, and Patricia Arquette prevailed for her performance in Ben Stiller’s “Escape at Dannemora”
2019/2020 and Marriage Story!
And, with that, we get to this past Sunday with her first film win over J.Lo, Bening, Kathy Bates and Margot Robbie. It’s very unlikely that we won’t keep seeing Laura at the podium for the following weeks. She has the narrative all set up: the role, a career of incredible and versatile performances, the respect of her peers and the love of the Academy (she was almost elected AMPAS president, too!). Her Oscar history (just two nominations) may seem sparse given her status in the industry, but, hey, it's like that for many other greats. So, even if her divorce lawyer Nora wouldn't top anyone's list of her all time best work, it’s quite thrilling to be along for the ride of this chapter of her career. An Academy Award is finally on the way.
Reader Comments (49)
Ha-ha-ha...
If Laura Dern is overdue, what about Amy Adams?
:)
Guys, I didn't know the story Laura Dern-Billy Bob Thornton-Angelina Jolie! Shocked! The Film Experience is not just information, it's gossip too! 😉
I generally like Laura Dern and am not averse to her work in Marriage Story, but it's going to grate on my nerves seeing her cakewalk to Oscar victory for this performance.
Of course I remember The Big C. It has a perfect first season. Very interesting run of her with the Globes.
I wonder if things would have been different had The Tale received a cinematic release. The subject matter perhaps means it would be too prickly for Oscar, but I do wonder what that particular awards run might have looked like.
As it, I think she's rather undervalued in Marriage Story. It's a tricky line between balancing Nora's mercurial, smug efficiency, that believable warmth and sincerity that allows Nicole to open up to her in that first scene undercut by just enough cynicism to read true and not so much that we don't buy Nicole would be persuaded by her. Dern is also responsible for a lot of the film's comic energy, which I do think Marriage Story requires to feel as fully thought-out as it does, or at least less miserablist.
We’ll wait for what the actual Oscar nominees are but it SEEMS that we are heading for a Renée Zellweger Cold Mountain Oscar win:
-Only 2 previous nominations so it’s hardly an overdue status of like say Amy Adams or Glenn Close. Plus, has she really ever been snubbed by Oscar? Maybe for Smooth Talk in the 80’s but that’s it.
-Performance-wise, there are more detractors than admirers. Still have barely seen anyone write the words “This is a great performance!”. It’s always substituted for “she’s overdue”. This isn’t “Best Overdue Person We Like”.
-There is much more deserving work in this category. People that actually stretched to show us something new.
After she wins and it’s 10 years later, how are we going to look back on this win?
I love Marriage Story but Dern is probably the most replaceable. In fact, it might've been an even greater movie if you'd put someone else (Sharon Stone? Toni Collette? Janet McTeer? Keri Russell? Patricia Clarkson? Robin Wright? Linney? Limitless options/directions really) in that role.
Nora is not Renata Klein but she is a *very* close spiritual relative of Renata Klein. BLL Season 2 left such a bad taste in my mouth that Dern's performance felt like...a missed opportunity. Painfully mannered. Look how she arches her body over furniture. It's just kabuki Laura Dernisms.
Lula!!! ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤
I'll be so happy to see her winning an Oscar this year
Never in my life did I expect to not be excited for Laura Dern winning on Oscar, but here we are with J Lo giving the performance of a lifetime as Ramona in HUSTLERS.
Those last few lines are what seal the deal for her. Nobody really cares if she has the performance or not. Everybody just loves her.
Geri-I love Amy but Dern has been around much longer, arguably has the more interesting and culturally significant resume, and has somehow only been nominated twice. So I'd argue in terms of the industry she's more overdue. I also think she's been having a moment, whereas Amy always seems more on the outskirts of the type of narratives Hollywood favors whenever she's nominated.
I don’t understand her appeal really. She is “the in the middle actress” with famous parents and a fantastic network in the industry. And she is a good actress, not a great one.
Her performance in Marriage Story is soo not worthy any of the awards she has been given. Poor JLo, Shao, Pugh, Robbie and others
If Dern wins the Oscar, is going to be the worst supporting actress win
I'm so torn. I LOVE Laura Dern but I haven't really been that into the work she's been doing lately that paradoxically have gotten her the most widespread attention.
I think she's fun in Big Little Lies but actually kind of miscast and very broad, kind of the weak link actually. I think even by star wars standards she was actively pretty bad in The Last Jedi in what was admittedly a ridiculously convoluted role. I thought she was weirdly unmemorable in certain women. And I don't get the praise she's been getting in Marriage Story at all. It's such a broadly written role and I don't think she does anything to lessen that. It's really crazy to me how Jennifer Lopez is so obviously giving the best performance in the supporting category, it seems everyone thinks that, and somehow after months of being the obvious frontrunner she's suddenly being shut out by Dern.
Fingers crossed for her! Decades of goodwill to her whole family and her own superb skill will only reap good rewards
@Geri - Laura Dern "glie spiccia casa" to Amy Adams. Not once, but three times
Melanie Griffith is also former Miss Golden Globes who went onto win.
Personally, I'm not buying the "overdue" narrative pushing Dern to an Oscar win. If anything, it'll be, like at the Globes, the interest in giving Marriage Story "something," especially if its nomination tally runs much lower than expected on Monday. Its ceiling looks to be at 8, but Director, Score, and Editing all look shaky right now. Plus, like the last 3 winners in the category, having a simultaneous presence on television should help.
And I still think her best performance that the Globes rewarded was her first in Afterburn. She wasn't even there to accept it that evening, so no Dern speech then, and it was a weaker category (no other Emmy nominees were in the lineup), but she even lost the Cable Ace Award that year to Patricia Arquette (who also bested her last year at the Globes), so I'm just glad the performance was recognized somewhere. The other 4 wins, by contrast, really feel like overkill to me, and I felt like there were other performances I would have rather seen rewarded.
Geri and Peter: I, too, am disappointed that Amy Adams STILL hasn't won an Oscar. Peter, I think you're right about her being on the outskirts. I thought her work in American Hustle was amazing. She has been in so many movies I have loved. And, her work in Sharp Objects was wonderful, too
The other "never won" I lament for is Annette Bening.
@Charlea, I don't think we'll ever look back on this performance as an earth-shattering win. But, I don't think it needs that for a supporting win. Also the key difference between Laura and Renee is that Laura is well loved. So even those who don't like the win will love the fact that Laura has won.
When I watched Marraige Story, I really enjoyed her performance. It didn't jump out to me as a "we must reward her now" performance like, say Cruz's or Lupita's in their winning years, but it was incredibly strong.
I see some of you are very bored today.
This reminds me of Julianne Moore in Still Alice. She deserves an award, but for this? Only as a career honor. Otherwise it's merely a competent, workmanlike performance. She made a bigger impact in Wild and 99 Homes, with little more screen time than extended cameos. And she would have been more deserving for Certain Women, too. She's not even the Best Supporting Actress of this movie! That would be Julie Hagerty.
I have a funny feeling that Margot Robbie will upset.
It's cool she and David Lynch (her best performances are Inland Empire and Twin Peaks the Return imo) will both be honored this year.
It's not the BEST role or performance in her career, but it's the RIGHT role and performance for this moment in time. There will always be a more deserving winner in any category for any award, even the Nobel. Those things are always personal and relative. But this narrative here in the comments that it's awful that she's winning for this role or that there are much more deserving winners is just besides the point. Oscar winners are not the Best in anything that year. It's all in the eye of the beholder, fellas. I'm actually happy she's winning and hope it can translate in more lead roles in high profile (not mainstream) movies.
I'm sorry but Ray Liotta & Alan Alda were 100 times better...She was basically doing a one woman show: "Renatta goes to Law School". Nothing to see here folks. 🤷♂️
JLo already won in my heart.
@Charlea, unlike Renée Zellweger's incredibly compact Oscar-winning role (back-to-back-to-back noms culminating in a win, which her breakthrough role preceded only by seven years), Dern has decades of high-quality, critically-acclaimed work on film that I'd argue may even eclipse Adams' in terms of award-worthy. Consider (à la Melissa Leo):
- 1985's Smooth Talk, snubbed for Jessica Lange (Sweet Dreams)
- 1990's Wild at Heart, for which you could swap out Joanne Woodward (Mr. & Mrs. Bridges)
- 1996's Citizen Ruth, a performance that absolutely should've been nominated in lieu of Diane Keaton (Marvin's Room)
- 2004's We Don't Live Here Anymore, which merited a spot over Laura Linney (Kinsey)
- 2006's Inland Empire, a daring performance wholly deserving of the nom Kate Winslet (Little Children) got
It's frankly a (minor) miracle that Dern got nominated for Wild, but what a wonderful decision on AMPAS' part. (She's the heart—and half the soul—of that movie.)
P.S. It took me a sec. to even recall the Angelina Jolie-Billy Bob Thornton-Laura Dern connection, that's how absolutely overwhelmingly large the Angelina Jolie-Brad Pitt-Jennifer Aniston drama still looms in our public consciousness. Oy.
I'm sorry but Ray Liotta & Alan Alda were 100 times better...She was basically doing a one woman show: "Renatta goes to Law School". Nothing to see here folks. 🤷♂️
JLo already won in my heart.
JF-
Thanks, Now I want to see Sharon Stone in Dern's MARRIAGE STORY role immediately!
I just saw “Marriage Story” and thought Laura Dern and Ray Liotta were the best parts of it. They act like they are in a Movie, while Driver and Johannson act like they are in a Play, one of the director’s terrible trendy self-congratulatory plays. Dern and Liotta add oomph, colour, and momentum.
I thought watching Marriage Story “oh, here’s where all the Woody Allen fans have gone”.
Having watched both “Little Women” and “Marriage Story”, LW is by far the better movie. Although I think I liked Laura Dern’s performance in “Marriage Story” better, Dern’s interpretation of Marmee, the mother, in “Little Women” is revelatory.
“Little Women”s direction is ten times more full of energy, focus, and smarts than “Marriage Story”, and has such a powerful ability to re-adjust narrative to make a point, that I kept (uncharitably) thinking that Bambauch isn’t going to be able to make such a leisurely movie about his second divorce.
For me, Citizen Ruth is peak Dern.
People love the David Lynch stuff and Rambling Rose has been getting a lot of play recently, for some reason. I thought that was a forgettable, sentimental little movie.
But Citizen Ruth really captures everything that makes Laura Dern great. It’s her To Die For or [safe].
What were we talking about again...sorry, that pic of Vincent Spano, dayum...
I am torn about this. I do love Dern in Marriage Story, but it's really not an Oscar-winning performance: it's one-note, repetitive and has no arc. And I agree with the poster who said Julie is the Best Supporting Actress in the movie. But I do love Dern in general. Of the probable Oscar nominees, I actually love Scarlett in Jojo Rabbit the best. That was a very moving turn. I haven't seen Little Women yet so I can't comment on Florence.
I think it would be really great to get back to rewarding the best acting. I know this will never happen. Sigh.
Great article. Thank you for reminding me about the greatness of Amy Jellicoe.
Ben: Bingo!
I can’t help but think that if Jennifer Lopez was winning all of these awards, then people would be moaning that she was winning too much and why wasn’t Laura Dern winning?
I really like Laura Dern, she is a very good actress, but this year Jennifer Lopez and Margot Robbie are better than her.
I know Laura is the favourite, but I hope JLo wins.
@ken s.
Totally. A solid, good enough performance that's winning more for career recognition. And in a weak field of contenders, I'm fine with it. We all want Laura to have a golden boy. (Lopez definitely shoulda won the Globe though).
Her performance in "Marriage Story" is superb, a classic scene-stealing role of the sort that has landed Oscars for many an actor. Nothing to sneeze at, certainly.
It's a real shame she is winning for 1 note work any actress her age could've done,I was beyond underwhelmed with this performance,Alda to me gave a better representation of a type with more shading,Nora never comes down from being p*ssed off,it seemed so calculatedly written and performed,does Nora even like men.
If she'd have won for Wild I would have been happy as she is simply lovely in that film.
I am so glad Dern is finally getting the recognition she always deserved, for her brilliant performance in Marriage Story. It is the true supporting, quitessential role, that people for a while has forgotten to appreciate but it was always the meaning of supporting. People and Oscar Watchers - maninly - were so used to see category frauded roles that were supporting going lead (JLo herself, Alicia Vinkander, Jennifer Connely, Viola Davis, etc) that maybe they forgot the meaning of Supporting. Dern's monologue in Marriage Story is something already considered classic in the books of cinema. You don't need to have a big screen time to nail something. You just need to have the necessary. Think about Beatrice Straight which won a Supporting Actress Oscar for a solely scene of 5 minutes in "Network", but it was a masterclass. People here on this trend seems so bitter to comment about Dern. Maybe because they were misguided all the season with the artificial hype built towards Lopez (which reminds me a lot of the Jennifer Aniston "Cake" situation 5 year ago.) And people arguing that Adams is more overdue based on number of nominations - not, she is not, altough I really love her and want see her winning. Laura Dern has almost 5 decades of hard work, being cast at 6 by Martin Scorsese in "Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore", being the muse of David Lynch, and being the star of the biggest blockbuster of the 90's (Jurassic Park). You don't need to have many nominations to be overdue. Just ask John Wayne( 1 sole nomination in his entire career, which was his solely win just a few years before his death), Henry Fonda (2 nominations on his entire career and a solely win, just few months before his death),Jack Palance (1 sole nomination and win), James Coburn (1 sole nomination and win), Isabelle Huppert (1 sole nomination, with no wins), Catherine Deneuve (1 sole nomination with no wins), Sophia Loren (1 sole nomination, 1 win),Cicely Tyson (1 sole nomination, no wins, Honorary Oscar),Gena Rowlands (2 nominations, no wins, honorary Oscar), Judy Davis (2 nominations, no wins), among many others.Dern's body of work is brilliant, and being rewarded for a stellar performance is just a coronation of a life.
All the love in the world for Dern! She’s great in Marriage Story and truly deserves the Oscar for it. But at the expense of our beloved J.Lo... maybe this scenario could bring someone else into the spotlight. Is Florence Pugh the new Marcia Gay Harden?
Yes, I am also on board with the smaller chorus of support for Dern's MS performance, against the tidal wave of "it's not her best role" comments (including the original article). Jhonny said it well*. The only thing I would add is that we have to remember that "most intense" does not always qualify as "best". Dern had fun with her role, but also threw all her talent and skill into it
* except for the correction that John Wayne and Sophia Loren each had TWO acting nominations, and Jack Palance had THREE.
Dern's inevitable win is like Viola Davis winning for Fences by doing a greatest hits medley,there's not 1 surprise in each of those performances and it was spinning on characters they have played before,too samey.
Who is she dating in that picture? Is that Vince Spano? Yum
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again Renee means so much to the general cinema going public than you all think and certainly much more than Laura Dern does.
Get over Renee.
Dern’s performance in INLAND EMPIRE is a Colossus. I’m pretty sure she covers the entire spectrum of emotion in those three hours AND more than a handful of variations within those emotions to boot. She was near-peerless that year.
Her performance in Marriage Story is probably considered “lesser” in part because she makes it look so easy, and also due to the reception of her return to Renata in the second season of Big Little Lies, which was admittedly out of left field even to me (though once I jived to it, thought it expressed a desire in Dern to exercise her own acting muscles!).
Jennifer Lopez is terrific in Hustlers.... but what exactly makes that performance more worthy than Dern’s? Neither is my pick for best of the year, and I’m genuinely curious why Lopez’s performance has so many people worked up into a frenzy.
JF, for being the only one to recognise the true peak and masterful performance of Laura Dern, Condragulations you are the winner of this week’s challenge.
Jhonny, for terrible Oscar knowledge and arrogance not to do a cursory imdb search, I’m sorry my dear but you are up for elimination.
@ Gerald - not the BEST nor the RIGHT.
Is David Lynch's muse gonna win for this one note performance? Embarrasing... Give her roles to really work on!
If the Academy can give Laura Dern the oscar for Marriage Story, why didn't they give the gold to Amy Adams for Vice? Same arguments can be used on her.
I like Dern but I’m not a huge fan. I think this would be one of the weaker Best Supporting Actress wins in recent memory, especially with such great work from Pugh, Shuzhen, Lopez, and Yeo-jeong this year. And I agree that she doesn’t even give the best “supporting actress” performance in her own movie!
Jhonny, while I think it’s true that the ubiquity of leading performances in the supporting actress category has distorted many people’s perception of what a supporting role is, my issues with Dern’s work in Marriage Story have nothing to do with her brief screen time. The role is one note and Dern does little to complicate it, you often catch her acting, and the recasting possibilities are endless.
I don’t mean to start a mother-daughter acting battle, but I screened Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore recently, and thought Diane Ladd did a terrific job of underplaying and suggesting a full inner life for a somewhat stock character, also with limited screen time. Her work is more along the lines of what I like to see awarded in this category, but Best Supporting Actress seems to be more of a popularity contest, particularly in recent years.
Put me down as another one who doesn't get why J Lo is getting SO much love here. She was good. Very good. Excellent pole dancing. I don't think it was a huge stretch for her though. She'll deserve the nomination and I hope she's not snubbed. But Laura Dern is generally in a different category, and just because she made "Marriage Story" look easy doesn't mean it wasn't brilliant work.
I just rewatched Marriage Story and I have to say, Dern’s “Mary, Mother of Jesus” monologue is Heaven. I’m safe in my assumption that scene is what solidified her for so many people plus the fact she’s Hollywood royalty (which also helped her get in for her lovely work in Wild, one of the true all-time surprise nominations on Oscar morning).
Pugh gets my vote for single-handedly changing my stance on a literary character through her performance, but Dern is by no means a zombie nominee: there’s life in her performance, and the broadness that is constituted as “acting” might actually be the character itself.