Sounds right. Dern is a professional of optimism, happy and resilient like a windmill. Yes, people are probably doomed, he thinks, but what an exciting time to be alive! It radiates behind the face mask (a movie is currently being shot, so catching Covid would be expensive). Isn’t the Soil Association doing a great job in the UK? Isn’t the popularity of vegetable protein awesome? “And look at the promising discovery of bicycles!” No negative words have yet been said about Dern, a deep and daring actor who happens to be playful and committed. None will be added here. It is immediately convincing. A Category 4 hurricane had no chance. Anyway, back in Hawaii, the cast and crew broke into their hotel ballroom. Steven Spielberg played cards with the children. Dern shared the portions with Neil and Jeff Goldblum, who was to be her boyfriend for four years. The chandelier rocked and the ceiling bent. The power failed. The gusts reached 145 miles per hour. By morning, all sets were damaged. The shooting was canceled. (Richard Attenborough slept the whole thing.) Combine the band again… watch the trailer of Jurassic World Dominion. “You go through something like that and it changes everything,” says Dern. “Steven and Jeff and Sam became my family. And my family has remained all these years. “Steven was there when my baby was born and at my son’s baptism.” Dern, it must be said, has been claimed by many tribes. David Lynch, her five-time partner, is “home.” Her co-stars in Big Little Lies (Reese Witherspoon, Nicole Kidman and Meryl Streep) are “sisters”. She has “a very beautiful family energy” with the couple Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach, who directed it in Little Women (as a beatific Marmee) and Marriage Story respectively (her rogue divorce lawyer won a Bafta, an Oscar and a fifth Golden Sphere.). But the Jurassic WhatsApp team sounds particularly strong: “It’s all: ‘I got married! I gave a speech! I directed for the first time! I had a baby! ” This is because, he says, the making of the new film caused an astonishing level of deja vu: “There was a sense of family you could never have otherwise… unless you were in the first Jurassic Park.” Filming began in July 2020. Jurassic World Dominion was one of the first productions to start during Covid – and had the highest stakes. If they failed, there was a real sense that the industry could follow suit. The cast, producers and director Colin Trevorrow stayed at the Langley Hotel near Pinewood Studios in Buckinghamshire for five months with a 107-page safety manual. They had a gym, swimming pool and Frisbee Sundays. Judging by the videos, Goldblum never stopped playing the piano. “We lived together,” says Dern. “We made food together. We understood what made us afraid. We held the presidential elections together. It was a huge moment. Huge.” First bite… Jeff Goldblum, Richard Attenborough, Dern and Sam Neill in Jurassic Park. Photo: Universal / Allstar A strange and disturbing shoot, then, for a strange and disturbing film. The sixth film – and the first to reunite Dern, Goldblum and Neil – is an unexpectedly radical monster. Dern’s character, Dr Ellie Sattler, has moved from paleobotany to soil science. She is separated and happy, unlike her old flame, Dr Alan Grant (Neill), lonely with his fossils. Elli says: “This is amazing. It’s a bit sexy! I do what I want! Go on a date! My children grew up! “I’m an important scientist who influences change!” Its current focus is a scourge of huge locusts that are destroying the world, feeding exclusively on non-genetically modified crops. Could it be the creation of the enigmatic owner of a high-tech dinosaur sanctuary in the Dolomites? Together with Grant, he goes to find out, at the invitation of the “inner philosopher”, Dr. Ian Malcolm (Goldblum). Everything is quite timely, Dern thinks. Even before Covid, Trevorrow was reporting on “genetically modified mosquitoes being released into Florida to help with possible disease problems. A swarm of locusts appeared over Kansas that did not eat certain seeds. I read these articles and I say: we are no longer in science fiction! Jurassic Park is an everyday story now! Except for a T rex walking down the street. “ We must all understand it together, because otherwise we will no longer have a home In the film, Goldblum’s Malcolm promotes a book entitled How the World Will Will. How does Dern think it will happen? She’s not sure, she says, “but I’m not incredibly optimistic.” Recommends the book by John Doerr Speed & Scale, a zero-net manual by the former venture capitalist. “I like to think that compassion is a necessary academic subject in high school. Taking into account the safety and well-being of others should be our priority. Cultivation of our soil, reforestation, sacrifice of our dependence on the consumption of beef and cheese. “We are the consumer,” she continues (Dern has a winning way with emphasis). “Well, if we say we will not buy things that are genetically modified and sprayed with petrochemicals, then we will put a truck in a ton of plastic and send them home, because we would rather have them today than in three days. “I think we would change a lot of companies’ mentalities.” Her hope is that the Earth will return to “a huge beautiful ocean of mostly marine life”, with animals roaming freely as humans “spread out a little more” thanks to “planetary travel”. “I like this idea. Because the other answer is complete disappearance. Just like the movie suggests. “ This is the theme of the Jurassic World Dominion. It’s more ideologically ambitious than you could do on the first watch. Yes, there is overt attention against genetically modified dinosaurs for use as weapons of mass destruction. But the debate over how to manage a peaceful coexistence between humans and animals that should disappear, Dern explains, is intended as a political metaphor. “It’s extremely subversive and somewhat spontaneous,” he says. “How will we modern humans coexist peacefully with the ‘dinosaurs’ who were here first?” And these boys did all the rules. “And when they enter the room, we are dealing with bullies.” Discover… with Kyle MacLachlan in Blue Velvet. Photo: Landmark Media / Alamy He lowers the coffee mask. “I feel privileged that you and I can have this discussion to influence the people who read. We all have the same conversation, but in isolation, this is how bullies work, right? We are isolated and we believe that people are so paralyzed that we hope we will do nothing to keep them making more money and not worry about the inevitable, which is climate change. We must all understand it together, because otherwise we will no longer have a home “. Few could accuse Dern of being as good an actor as a thinker. She made her film debut at seven in Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, a Martin Scorsese film starring her mother, Diane Ladd. That summer, she spent time with her father, Bruce Dern, on the set of Alfred Hitchcock’s Family Plot. At 16, she gained legal emancipation from her parents, not because they were not close – a book of conversations between Dern and Land will be released next year. Bruce’s 86th birthday was celebrated warmly on her Instagram on Sunday – but so she can work long hours as an adult. At 18 she did the Blue Velvet with Lynch. Wild at Heart came a few years later, after Rambling Rose, which won her and Ladd’s Oscar nominations. On Goldblum’s advice, Jurassic Park followed with Alexander Payne’s satire on abortion Citizen Ruth. The template is set for a smart popcorn redirect and reliability. He made Little Fockers and then The Master. Some Women by Kelly Reichardt, then The Founder, a broad biographical film about the man who started McDonald’s. Star Wars: The Last Jedi followed The Tale, a sexual assault survivor story. Family… with her parents, Diane Ladd and Bruce Dern, in 2014. Photo: Barry King / FilmMagic There was a similar story on TV: high profile, but glad it is not popular. Remember not only her raging alpha mother in the Big Little Lies, but also that Dern played the lesbian in which Ellen DeGeneres appeared on her sitcom in 1997. This stopped Dern’s career for a year and led to death threats so reasonable that a complete security detail was needed. Her self-confidence came new and conscious. Her parents had already lost a daughter, Diane, who drowned at the age of 18 months, and Land told her she could not have any more children. Dern was a welcome surprise, but her parents, still gripped by grief, divorced when she was two. “I was terrified of being alone with Laura,” Land said. “I had to force myself not to be overly protective because I had lost a child. The result was to work the other way around. “I allowed her to be a free thinker and that helped her become her own person.” Indeed, Dern’s precocity – and perseverance – has extended beyond her profession. At school, he led a successful student protest against the low salaries of their teachers. At 17, she left home and moved in with Marianne Williamson, the self-help guru and candidate for the 2020 US presidency, then in her 30s, maintaining a metaphysical coffee. Activism took precedence over washing. ‘Extremely subversive’… with Varada Sethu and Sam Neill at Jurassic World Dominion. Photo: Universal Pictures and Amblin Entertainment Since then, Dern has campaigned for immigrant rights, Down Syndrome awareness and gender pay, among other causes. Last month, she …
