The AnOther cover star won Best Supporting Actress for her performance in Marriage Story, the same award her mother Diane Ladd won back in 1974
Last night in London, AnOther Magazine’s freshly revealed S/S20 cover star Laura Dern was presented with the BAFTA award for Best Supporting Actress for her role in Noah Baumbach’s divorce-drama Marriage Story – for which she has also been nominated for an Academy Award. Beating out Margot Robbie (who was nominated twice, for Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and Bombshell), Scarlett Johansson (Jojo Rabbit) and Florence Pugh (Little Women), it was Dern’s scene-stealing performance as lethal Hollywood divorce lawyer Nora Fanshaw that saw her win the prize.
Taking to the stage in a fuschia Valentino gown, the actress spoke of her mother Diane Ladd, who won the very same award back in 1974 for her performance in Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore. “When I was six years old, my mother received this very award in this category, thanks to Mr Scorsese,” she remembered. “It sat on our piano, and my friend asked me, ‘What’s that mask?’ I said, ‘My mom told me that it’s what friends give you to congratulate you, because you get to have the job you love.’ So thank you BAFTA. Thank you for including me in this room of extraordinary artists and friends, as we get to tell stories and do the job we love.”
In Marriage Story, Dern’s character ruthlessly navigates the battleground of divorce, delivering uncompromising negotiations with disarming ease. “I think she’s the first character I’ve played who doesn’t come from deep insecurity,” Dern tells Hannah Lack in the latest issue of AnOther Magazine. “She’s in it to win, no matter the cost. She’s absolutely in control and will never lose her cool. I mean, my God, what a boss.”
“I’ve spent 20 years playing the broken, wounded girl who would never get a shot in the room,” Dern continues. “And it’s kind of amazing that tides are changing and there are enough characters to play this whole other world – of what it means to be a woman and enter this or that workplace, and how they’re treated. Really, we’re going to see storytelling as we’re living it, because we’re all just getting used to it.”
Head here to read the interview in full.
