Laura Dern is obviously one of the stars of Big Little Lies, but the actress has been in so many amazing movies throughout her career. With films like Mask, Rambling Rose, Jurassic Park, and Wild at Heart, to name just a few, she has proven to be one of the greatest actresses of her generation.
With Season 2 of Big Little Lies premiering this Sunday on HBO, here are five fast facts you need to know about the actress who won a 2017 Emmy for Supporting Actress in a Limited Series by bringing Renata Klein to life!
Hollywood Royalty
Dern was born on February 10, 1967, to two actors, Bruce Dern and Diane Ladd. She had an elder sister, born in 1961, who drowned at 18 months of age, though this was years before she was born. Her maternal cousin was playwright Tennessee Williams and her godmother was Shelley Winters.
Spiritual Path
The child of 60s counterculture parents, she was raised in Eastern mysticism as well as political radicalism — which wasn’t in step with her more conservative classmates. Early in her career, her roommate was Marianne Williamson, the spirituality guru.
Mother-Daughter Act
Dern and her mother became the first mother-daughter pair to ever be nominated for an Oscar for acting in the same film. They were both in Rambling Rose and were nominated in 1992. They have also played mother and daughter in the films — White Lightning, Wild at Heart, Citizen Ruth, and Daddy and Them.
Sexual Assault Survivor
Following the Harvey Weinstein abuse scandal that broke in 2017, Dern went public with her story of being sexually assaulted. She revealed on the Ellen DeGeneres Show that she had been abused when she was just 14.
Getting Personal
She was once engaged to Jeff Goldblum and also Billy Bob Thornton, who married Angelina Jolie without first ending his engagement to Dern. Dern later became involved with her future ex-husband Ben Harper and gave birth to their two children at home.
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