The “most radical, bliss-filled, experimental” experience of Laura Dern’s career
When Laura Dern was just a teenager, she racked up credits in some pretty iconic movies, preparing herself for a long and acclaimed career which, decades later, would see her bag an Oscar.
Appearing as a young punk in the seminal Ladies and Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains, experiencing the true horrors of male audacity in Smooth Talk, and, of course, accompanying Kyle MacLachlan into the seedy underworld of Blue Velvet, Dern was primed and ready for an impressive career before she’d even hit adulthood.
In the years since, Dern has moved between big-budget movies like Jurassic Park and more unconventional projects like her various collaborations with David Lynch, and it was a certain project she did with the surreal master that she looks back on most fondly, with the pair first meeting when she was cast in Blue Velvet, and soon Dern became one of his most reliable collaborators, seemingly understanding him perfectly.
After reuniting for the campy, violent, The Wizard of Oz-inspired road/crime/romance flick Wild at Heart and the bizarre concert film Industrial Symphony No 1, both in 1990, the pair would take a break from working with each other until 2006’s Inland Empire. It was worth the wait, though, because this proved to be one of the most creatively fulfilling experiences of her life.
Inland Empire is arguably the most Lynchian project the director ever made. It’s his most incomprehensible and daring, with most scenes simply recorded on a handheld digital camera, including Dern’s character going mad on the streets of Hollywood. Lynch was interested in the ‘woman in trouble’ archetype, and following his exploration of troubled women in Tinseltown through Lost Highway and Mulholland Drive, Inland Empire emerged as the most unhinged entry to this unofficial trilogy.
Dern played the dual role of Nikki Grace, an actor, and Sue Blue, with identity blurring as she comes to embody her character to frightening effect. There are interludes taken from Lynch’s 2002 film Rabbits, face-bending jumpscares, a haunting dance to ‘The Locomotion’, and a performance of a lifetime from Dern.
Talking to Yahoo! News, Dern revealed, “They all stand out – every experience, every day, every hour, every minute with David stands out, and are the greatest moments of my life, no exaggeration – but Inland Empire was three years of often just the two of us with a Sony camcorder and no other crew. Sometimes, a crew of maybe three. Sometimes, a traditional movie set. Playing multiple characters. Sometimes simultaneously.”
The film was made without a finished screenplay, with experimentation and natural impulse guiding the project, it’s a truly surreal, uncomfortable, horrifying, and puzzling piece of cinema, but it seems like, for everyone involved, it was incredibly freeing, with Dern concluding, “It was just the most radical, bliss-filled, experimental acting gift of my life with my best friend.”
Lynch even campaigned for Dern to be nominated for an Oscar following the release of the movie, using a huge sign and, in typical Lynchian fashion, a cow. Unfortunately, Dern didn’t get nominated for Inland Empire – the film was perhaps too much for the Academy – but anyone who knows a thing or two about the actor knows how astounding and career-defining her performance really was.
