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blockbuster; it was a bunch of peo-
ple standing around going, “How
are we going to do that?”Have you ever talked to David
Lynch about Jurassic Park? Steven
and David have a profound kinship
as fellow radicals in the world of cin-
ema. I believe in addition to Hitch-
cockian, the next two cinema names
that are now in our dictionaries are
Lynchian and Spielbergian.I love that you consider Spielberg
radical on par with Lynch. David
is thought of as such an insane radi-
cal, and I remember one day doing a
scene [in Jurassic Park] with Steven
and I was like, “You’re completely
insane! You and David, only you two
could do something like this.” He was
like, “Are you kidding? That’s such a
compliment, comparing me to David
Lynch. Why is this insane?” I said,
“Dude, I’m standing in a basement,
terrifi ed, a beast is coming at me, and
fi nally I feel a man put his arm on my
shoulder. I feel so relieved that Sam
Jackson has shown up—and it’s his
dismembered arm! Who else is going
to put me in that circumstance?”After playing Ellie Sattler again,
are there any other characters of
yours you’d like to revisit? I would
want to play Ruth Stoops from Alex-
ander Payne’s 1996 fi lm, Citizen Ruth.That movie, which focuses on one
woman’s right to choose whether
or not to have an abortion, feels
even more prescient now. I am beg-
ging any streamer, anybody, please,
get that movie out there right now.
It’s the most important movie I could
have made for this moment. I think
for my kids’ generation, teenagers,
new voters to see that movie is really
powerful. I’m so proud of that movie,
and as a fi rst feature [for Payne],
it’s so radical. —SHANNON CARLINWhat excites you most about re-
turning to play Ellie Sattler in
this new Jurassic installment?
In 1993, it was rare to see women
in any movie without makeup, not
wearing the sexy outfi t. Everyone
[working on Jurassic Park] consid-
ered diligently how Ellie would dress,
the stunts, her iconic feminist lines.
It really mattered to us—and it really
mattered to [Jurassic World: Domin-
ion director] Colin [Trevorrow] how
she would evolve. My interest in soil
science and climate change, interests
that Ellie would care so deeply about
now, became a big part of her story.
What is Dominion trying to say
about the climate crisis? Ellie has
turned to soil science because soil
can save us all. She’s focused on how
to protect us from the ills of indus-
trial farming, petrochemicals, geneti-
cally modifi ed seed, and the corpo-
rate greed around our food table.
Why do you think so many people
have connected with this charac-
ter? Little girls and boys have come
up to me and said, “You were the
fi rst female character I saw onscreen
equal to the men.” Recently, a woman
I deeply admire, the fi rst female Con-
gresswoman in her district, who’s a
committed supporter of a bipartisan
gun bill, told me Ellie Sattler was the
reason she went into politics.
When you made Jurassic Park you
were an Oscar- nominated indie
actor working with the likes of
David Lynch. What was it like to
then work with Steven Spielberg
and all these dinosaurs? I wor-
shipped Steven Spielberg. Jaws and
Close Encounters to this day are
two of my favorite movies. Without
even knowing what the movie was
about, I was already in. It felt as radi-
cal and indie as anything else I had
made. It wasn’t yet a franchise or a
You have beenworking steadilyin Hollywoodsince 1980.What is stillon your careerbucket list?Laura Dern The Jurassic World: Dominion staron revisiting an iconic character, radical fi lmmaking,and one real-life hero she’d love to play onscreen