A biography for Laura Dernhasn’t been written yet.
“Being an actress my whole life, it feels so good to have a clean face when I'm off, so I'm not a big makeup wearer.”
“I worked with HBO on 'Recount,' and we had a wonderful experience together. I'm such a fan of HBO and how much flexibility they give in character as well as schedule.”
“Every role is a new form of surrender.”
“It excites me to go to a movie and be reminded that I'm human, and I'm filled with opposites, and I'm built with flaws. Part of growth and healing is recognizing that.”
“My mother is extremely interested in everything esoteric.”
“I always wanted to do a 'Ms. Smith Goes to Washington.'”
“What a cool job to be part of - whether it's doing lighting or acting or serving food on set. You're part of telling a story that hopefully has an essential component, and that's super exciting to me.”
“Me and Woody Harrelson, we're twins. We're the same person. I should only make movies with him.”
“Wild at Heart made a few people angry-they thought I was exploiting women by showing that when a woman says no she really means yes.”
“I like to play people who are deeply flawed, and I want to find the good nature in them. I even try to be kind to myself when I've made big mistakes.”
“I've got the sort of personality that requires me to find some sort of release, and for me, it's performing.”
“I don't turn my nose up at anything. If it's a great part, it's a great part. I'd love to do a box-office hit.”
“Having egregious divorces - where you just hate each other - is really the easy way out.”
“When you're playing someone who has a strong ego about themselves, you can't play them when you have the opposite opinion of the one they have of themselves.”
“We like our archetypes and heroes to be what they are at face value. And life doesn't work out like that.”
“All I can start with is what moves me and feels like a great challenge as an actor and I think is saying something unusual or irreverent or human - honest in some way.”
“What I consider a good part for a woman and what some other Hollywood people think are good women's parts are very different. I don't want to play the supportive girlfriend who has nine scenes and just loves that man, maybe cheats on him in one scene but will always be there, and I mean - give me a break.”
“When you're first reading the script and thinking about playing the part, it's slightly daunting. It's easy to question, 'Is an audience going to like me? And is that my job?'”
“My dad was always interested in characters he didn't understand - he was such a great bad guy in movies. And that is really the thing that calls me to the material often: something I struggle to understand in human behaviour.”
“I try to do things I love or care about for some reason.”