March 20 (UPI) — Laura Dern offered no shortage of adjectives when it came to describing her character on the new, Monterey-set dramedy “Big Little Lies.”
“She’s horrible and complicated and surface and deep and loving and sexual and tough,” the 50-year-old actress told reporters in New York Sunday. “We were shooting during this most recent [presidential] election, so it was a really interesting time to think about projection on a powerful female. And this idea that, ‘Oh, she is powerful, so she must be frigid.’ Or, ‘She is always working, so she can’t be a mom.’ As a mom, I know I live mostly in guilt about, ‘Oh, my God, I didn’t get to pick them up.’ Or, ‘I’m not doing enough.’ That’s what we mothers do. We worry all the time that we are not enough. And, so, I like that Renata is part of that story and getting to play that character is as interesting and specific, I think, for women as any other character. ”
Co-starring Reese Witherspoon and Nicole Kidman, “Big Little Lies” airs Sunday nights on HBO. Dern will also soon be seen on the big screen in the comedy “Wilson,” opposite Woody Harrelson.
