Laura Dern Tells What Advice Martin Scorsese Gave Her About Acting

Laura Dern describes her role in Scorsese's Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore and the start of her career. It involved ice cream and an iron stomach.
If you liked this video, there's a lot more where it came from. This is a small excerpt from a much longer conversation that you can watch right here: offcamera.com/i...
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[@nathanlawrence7319]

I love Laura Dern she's great. At first I thought her advice here was, "Just Get Lucky.. I Did!." But I think she is also really saying surround yourself with talented people.. and continue creating and eventually you will be where you want to be

[@oldskool4572]

Helps to be born into that environment as well. Not like she had to struggle. Just saying.

[@Walperion_Music]

@@oldskool4572 Yes. I don't have anyone talented or creative in my small town.. And don't have the money to relocate... So what should I do? Anyway, Laura is my absolute favourite actress of the decade, she's an adoration!

[@MrBeastknows]

@@Walperion_Music Make your own shit, by yourself. I take it you're an actor? Do you have a phone with a camera? That'll be enough. Now you just need to start practicing scripts and film yourself doing them, either solo with a monologue or have a friend off screen reading lines. Take either write a script yourself or take a script from a movie. Though, I suggest taking scripts from movies you HAVEN'T seen so you don't end up doing the same thing the actor did. Make sure the camera is placed in a way that puts you in frame. These videos will be your reel. Then get on actorsaccess.com and start applying for any possible nearby roles. Be sure you have a general headshot and upload whatever videos of yourself that you shot as a reel. Now, you will very likely not get a role in a long time. Whether it's from rejection, never hearing back, or simply because you can't afford to pay for yourself to travel. However, the point here is that you're constantly practicing on scripts. You're constantly acting and able to grow. In this time as well, you can be making your own shorts starring yourself. It will teach you a lot about filmmaking and will understand what a director will need from you, and where you need to be positioned. And hell, maybe one of these shorts will end up good enough to send to a small film festival. Even if they deny you, you're still growing so maybe the next short you make will be good enough if you do even better. And if not then, then that's fine too. Just keep growing. While doing all this in whatever free time you can give, you can also try working towards a good job that can pay for your schooling.

[@Walperion_Music]

​@@MrBeastknows Oh my god thank you for taking the time to reply with such a considerate thought-out comment! I really apreciate it man! You psychological approach to film career and life is great, I will definitely take it on board! I'm not an actor though but I want to help my friend who's I think is extremely talented screenwriter. But we live in a middle of nowhere in Eastern Europe and don't have money to relocate to even somewhere English-speaking, let alone somewhere near LA or such. So that my initial comment was not as much for me as for my friend, who's career I want to help. Because he doesn't believe in himself like I believe in him. So I usually don't know how to motivate him to write screenplays even in his own language, let alone in English aiming for the UK/US cinema. Because it's a long task to write a screenplay, and writing it just for it to collect dust on your desk is a questionable task, if you know it won't ever be used anywhere. Maybe you know some decent websites where people from all over the world can apply their screenplays for English speaking cinema without relocating to English speaking countries? Great respect to you, your approach to life and thanks again for taking a minute to respond! Cheers!

[@MrBeastknows]

@@Walperion_Music idk about outside of the US, but virtualpitchfest.com and stage32.com are two screenwriting platforms for screenwriters that my teacher recommended. Collab.sundance.org is a global learning and storytelling community, from the Sundance festival. They're a good start for a community type thing. Maybe he can find some upcoming American filmmakers who would like to film a script of his. Luckily the internet is able to hook ppl up from around the world, he's just gotta look for those communities. I wish him good luck! Just remind him, nothing is instant or even soon. In the filmmaking world, unless you're already connected, it tends to take a long time to get into it. You just gotta keep going at it and eventually you'll be there. No reason to give up on your dream just cause it takes too long.

[@beflygelt]

quite a luxury to be so picky. Interesting.. It definitely payed out for her. Excited to see her in the new Twin Peaks

[@ivan1196]

can someone please put her in the next jurassic park film with Sam Neil and Jeff Goldblum. We desperately need them back!!

[@alexispapageorgiou72]

Mommy and Daddy cannot get you to the top. They might give you a little push but that's about it. I love art.

[@lochricolife2777]

She was great in October Sky ... And the other movie , the rabbit farm movie

[@stefcisne]

god she's incredible

[@Walperion_Music]

Her best work was deffo "The Enlightened". If you haven't watched it - it's awesome! Because she was the leading role there and could open her wings to tthe fullest!

[@crd311]

deffo is not a thing. def is tho. and it's shorter. you might want to try it

[@Walperion_Music]

@@crd311 Thanks I'mnot an English speaker and now after you said it I will try it somewhere! :) Maybe somewhere on a funeral or smth. ) Thanks!

[@gregsthrottle]

Enlightened is SO freaking brilliant, and yes, Amy is definitely her best role! We Don’t Live Here Anymore is also top of her résumé, in my humble opinion.

[@SFoureman]

Thank God, for all of us, her career didn't go down the Brat Pack tube! She comes from a far more quality stock than that.

[@Scriptease123]

She didn't get the Brat Pack films, but most of them no longer have careers.

[@cappyjones]

Great example of a good looking older woman allowing herself to age without chopping her face all to shite. I have a major crush on her!

[@Walperion_Music]

Lol "older"? I wonder if she'd be flattered by that if she would hear it lol!

[@cappyjones]

@@Walperion_Music By Hollywood standards.

[@RobHollanderMusic]

She's an underrated great.

[@schrire39]

“You’re building a body of work…don’t stop doing that” How is that “advice”? Every actor wants to work and it’s almost never their choice when a job is on offer.

[@xmaseveeve5259]

Nope.

[@LOUBNAFILLE]

"Simultaneously....independantly minded.." Waou, her vocabulary is so underrated, like cate blanchett, i like people talking with the best picking word of their mind.

[@theramilpodcast2300]

It always goes back to luck.

[@aequinozio]

sorry I didn’t get what ‘advice’ Scorsese gave her...

[@-emerald-8646]

Eat 19 ice creams 🥰

[@crazyman8472]

“Remember me, from ‘Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore’? I ate 19 ice cream cones and didn’t get sick!” 😜

[@charliem.p.4864]

You provoke your luck though. If she wasn't talented she would have been picked for the more indie movies. Ok, I just wanted to ask someone who knows English better than I do: I've noticed a lot of women call themselves "actor" and not "actress". Is the word "actress" pejorative in English?

[@LIamaLlama554]

“Actress” is considered old-fashioned and a bit sexist/misogynist. “Actor” is used to describe professionals regardless of gender.

[@charliem.p.4864]

@@LIamaLlama554 Thanks Rory! :)

[@kymberlypray6985]

✔️ Wildly talented ✔️ Gorgeous ✔️ Grounded In absence of her ability and hard-work, connections were a non-entity.

[@plasticweapon]

SJW nutjob.

[@kymberlypray6985]

@@plasticweapon Bummer your life isn’t going to plan … try fixing your outlook.

[@Jupitesign]

Laura who?

[@mistressfannypack9184]

watch inland empire if you haven't already

[@terriblecrayon]

Damn straight. She's unreal in that film.

[@tylerasweet]

Yes! Wild At Heart also

[@dkthg]

@@tylerasweet Also Smooth Talk it made me turgid.

[@Walperion_Music]

Yes Inland Empire has maybe the best closing-credits sequence ever!

[@jackreed7287]

She was lucky.... her mum and dad were hollywood actors.

[@corneliuspraeda6452]

Then Disney called, told her they wanted her to play a lousy character but threw a obscene amount of money at her, and she said "Eh, why not?".

[@joske103]

Unfortunatly she hasent done anything besides Jurassic Park that anyone remembers.

[@herewegokids7]

joske103 isnt she in Big Little Lies

[@ianhubbard1927]

Blue Velvet? Wild at Heart? Inland Empire? See a trend?

[@TellMeCupe]

Big little lies, marriage story

[@gordongordon98]

joske103 Open your mind son

[@alanclark9326]

Rambling Rose with her , her mom and Robert Duvall is a wonderful film.