Golden Globes 2020: Laura Dern’s backstage speech on “relationship endings” is so refreshing
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- Hollie Richardson
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After winning Best Supporting Actress for her role in Marriage Story at the Golden Globes, Laura Dern explained how her own experiences of divorce helped her realise the purpose of the film.
It’s universally known that Laura Dern deserves all the awards. In the last few years, she’s brought the Dern touch to some truly incredible roles, including Renata Klein in Big Little Lies and Marmee in Little Women. But it’s her portrayal of no-nonsense divorce lawyer Nora Fanshaw in Marriage Story that won her the Best Supporting Actress award at the Golden Globes 2020.
Directed by Noah Baumbach and streamed on Netflix, Marriage Story is a film that many of us laughed and cried over during the Christmas break. It tells the familiar tale of a married couple who are going through a divorce while living at opposite ends of America. The fact that they have a child together makes the proceedings even more difficult and heart-breaking.
Although the film had multiple nominations at the Globes, Dern took home the only winning award. That’s probably because she managed to perfectly portray her character as both absolutely terrifying and hilarious in equal measures.
Speaking backstage after the win, Dern opened up about how she personally related to the story. She also credited her parents’ divorce, as well as her own divorce, for helping her to learn that “endings are not failures” when it comes to relationships.
“In just one cast, which could have been a million different people, and one crew, which could have been a million different people, we all felt personal,” she said.
Watch Laura Dern’s full backstage speech at the Golden Globes 2020
“So to my amazing divorced parents, and my amazing step parents, and my amazing children – who came from love despite an ending in a marriage – we’re so privileged to redefine what family looks like.”
Dern continued to explain how director Baumbach perfectly articulated what the film is about.
“As Noah first said about the story when we first talked about it, he said ‘I want to tell a love story where endings are not failures’. And that really moved me and struck me deeply.”
She concluded: “So, there was no one on this movie that hadn’t had their family ‘reconfigured’ if you will, so we all share that. If feels deeply personal to all of us.”
Just like the movie itself, Dern’s winning words about it are moving, thought-provoking and essential for anyone who’s affected by divorce.
In fact, can someone please just hand her another award for saying it?
Images: Getty