Laura Dern's Life Story Proves Just How Versatile And Talented She Really Is

Dern's appearance in 1985's Smooth Talk - based on Joyce Carol Oates's disturbing short story Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? - may have been a promising indication of her suitability for David Lynch roles. However, she still almost didn't get her breakthrough part as Blue Velvet's Sandy. Molly Ringwald, then 16, was reportedly Lynch's first choice for the role, but rumor has it that her mother read the script and was so appalled by it she didn't even pass it on to her daughter.

Lynch subsequently cast the 19-year-old Dern after meeting with her just once, and the rest is history.

Dern's Wild at Heart role as the road-loving Lula Fortune has some things in common with her actual origins. She was conceived on the set of Roger Corman's 1966 outlaw-biker-cult film The Wild Angels. As a child, Dern supposedly carried around a still of her parents, Bruce Dern and Diane Ladd, decked out in full biker regalia.

David Lynch was so impressed with Dern's performance in Inland Empire that he felt she deserved an Oscar nomination. However, he also knew that the esoteric and non-linear nature of his film would likely keep it off the Oscar radar entirely. So he took matters into his own hands, and campaigned for Dern's Best Actress nomination using a live cow as a prop.

Though Inland Empire was critically acclaimed and received several prestigious non-Oscar awards, Lynch's cow idea didn't work. But the public was still tickled to see him, the bovine, and its handler campaigning on the corner of Hollywood and LaBrea.

Dern describes the whole process as "a very dark tale," but the reasons she sued for emancipation at age 15 ultimately had less to do with parental conflict than artistic and professional opportunity. As she put it in an episode of Inside the Actor's Studio, Dern sought (and won) her independence so that she could have the freedom to pursue more challenging and controversial roles:

"I was 5'10 and a half, and I was, you know, 14, and looked older than my age, and wanted to work, and couldn't get the job I wanted because I was too young, etcetera etcetera. So, to be emancipated and to be able to make my own decisions as an actor also afforded me the ability to work more and longer hours, and to play older roles. And my parents totally supported me."

Many people think that Dern is an only child, but in fact she isn't: her sister, Diane, tragically died at the age of 18 months after falling into a swimming pool and drowning. According to Dern's mother, Diane Ladd, the child's death was a major factor in Dern having a comparatively "overprotective" childhood:

"I was terrified, being on my own with Laura. I had to force myself not to be overly protective because I had lost one child. The result was that it worked the other way. I allowed her to be a free thinker, and that helped her become her own person."

Dern lived with - and was engaged to - Billy Bob Thornton from 1997-1999, but he ultimately left her for Angelina Jolie. Dern laid the situation on the line in interviews:

"I left our home to work on a movie, and while I was away, my boyfriend got married, and I’ve never heard from him again... it’s like a sudden death. There's never been any closure or clarity."

The two briefly interacted at the 2017 Golden Globes, and things still looked awkward.