BRUCE DERN
Hollywood’s One & Only
By Dina Morrone
There are actors, and then there are artists who are actors and rise way above their profession. Bruce Dern is the latter. He is a part of a small group of Hollywood royalty from a different era, and he’s pure Hollywood Gold.
His acting career spans 62 years. He’s been in over 175 movies, and TV shows combined, as well as stage plays, and has countless nominations and awards, including two Academy Award® Nominations for Coming Home and Nebraska.
Dern is always fully invested in the behavior of the character, which is why each character he portrays is a gem unto itself. When he’s up on the screen, you can’t take your eyes off of him. And whether his role is big or small, he elevates the entire project just by being in it.
At 82 years young, he’s quite busy and has no intention of slowing down. At the moment I’m writing this piece, he’s on location in Alberta, Canada, shooting the feature film Hands That Bind, directed by Kyle Armstrong.
In 2018, Dern starred in two projects, The Mustang, directed by Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre, and The Peanut Butter Falcon, directed by Tyler Nilson and Michael Schwartz. And he was busy shooting two other features, The Artists Wife, directed by Tom Dolby, and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood by Quentin Tarantino with whom he’s worked on two previous pictures, Django Unchained and The Hateful Eight. On May 21st, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood had its Cannes Film Festival premiere, where it received a 7-minute standing ovation. Needless to say, there’s already plenty of Oscar® buzz!
In 2010, Dern awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame alongside his daughter, Laura Dern, and Diane Ladd, Laura’s mother, and Dern’s ex-wife.
Dern is married to Andrea Beckett and recently celebrated 48 years or marriage.
When I sat down to speak with Mr. Dern, I wasn’t quite sure how I wanted to approach the interview. I looked across the table at him, and I’m not going to lie, I was in awe, for it was the one and only, Mr. Bruce Dern looking back at me! I thought to myself, where do I begin? There’s a lot to cover. After all, he’s had a pretty incredible life. So I sat back, trusted the universe, and let the magic happen.
Mr. Dern is a terrific storyteller. He spoke calmly and quietly and drew me into each word and every detail. I was all ears and almost forgot what the purpose of my being there was.
It’s the kind of thing that happens when you go to a play, movie, or concert, and three hours go by just like that, and you can’t believe you sat there for three hours, glued, and didn’t even look at your watch once. That’s what it felt like to be in the presence of Mr. Dern. I thank him for his generosity, his stories, and his insight.
On behalf of The Eden Magazine, we would like to thank Doris Bergman (The Berg Group) who made the introduction to Mr. Dern at her annual pre Oscars® Gifting Suite.
Mr. Dern, is there a childhood memory you would like to share?
It was 1945. I was at a camp, which was about 20 miles southeast of Hudson Bay, in Canada. We would go out on canoe trips. I was 8, and everyone else was 12 or 13. There would be two kids to a canoe plus a counselor, and there would be three or four canoes, so eight kids total and four councilors. It was a full moon, and it was 11 pm. It was very dark and scary, and suddenly in the distance, we saw a light, and it was coming towards us on the lake. We hadn’t seen another human being in three days. The light got closer and closer. I was in the lead canoe with my counselor, and this guy in another canoe was coming right at me. He was wearing a Pendleton shirt. He was a Cree. At the time, I didn’t know what a Cree was. I remember he was stunning, with his long pitch-black hair, and beautiful skin. He pulled up and touched the gunnel of my canoe. He was holding a lantern, and then he said, “The war is over.” Then I turned around and went away. That is how I learned that the 2nd World War was over. That’s all he said, then turned around and went back from where he came and once again we were in total darkness.
Another childhood memory is about the house where I grew up.
The day I was born my paternal grandfather, George Dern, died. He had also been the Secretary of War and was the first non-Mormon Governor of Utah. A lot of important people would come over to that house for dinner. People like my dad’s law partner who was also my godfather, Adlai Stevenson, who’d run for president twice, as well as my grandmother’s roommate at Wesleyan, Madame Chiang Kai-shek, who was the wife of Chinese nationalist general Chiang Kai-shek. These are just two of the names, and at the time, they were some significant people in the news.
So that I wouldn’t be an eyesore at the table, I was told to wear white gloves. We had to wear a coat and tie to dinner. There would always be an interloper, and the interlopers had a lot to say, and I never forgot what they had to say because they said some pretty interesting things. Well, it turns out a lot of it was just small talk, but I was a kid, what did I know. I just thought it was “big” adult talk.
There were other times my maternal grandfather, McLeish, who was chairman of Carson, Pirie and Scott stores, would come over and he’d say things like, “Name me the five longest rivers in the United States?” Or “Name me ten symphony orchestra conductors.” It was never anything about the movies, nothing about entertainment.
It wasn’t until Adlai Stevenson won the Governorship of Illinois that everything changed. Soon the discussions in our house began to lean more towards literary.
Besides acting, you are also a marathon runner. You are one of the godfathers of the ultra-long distance running movement in North America in the late ’60s. Please tell us how you first became interested in running long-distance?
I’m from Winnetka, Illinois, which is a part of the North Shore of Chicago. I started to go camping at five years old right after I had finished kindergarten. I was into speed skating and was very good at it. I even competed Nationally. Then just after I turned 10 I was at camp and one day I started running because they didn’t have skating. I gave up speed skating at 10 and switched to running.
I never kept a logbook of my running until I was 21, but at 21 I started logging in every day that I ran. It’s been 62 years, and I still keep a logbook, and I’ve been running ever since.
I have run over 100,000 miles. That’s about four times around the world.
There was a 17-year stretch that I never missed a single day of running. The world record is 33 years.
How do you feel when you are running?
I am not aware of what I am doing, but I am aware of what I am feeling. Is my heart beating okay? There are two rules of thumb when running. If you can carry on a conversation, you are okay. If you can’t carry on a conversation and the breaths are labored and heavy, then you are running too fast. So if you want to run long distances, then you have to do it in a framework of where it’s about putting in the time.
For example, if you said to me, I’d like to run a 10K in a month, I’d say, how long have you been running? And you said, “I’ve run a half hour.” I’d say okay, go out and every week for the next four weeks, add five minutes. In a month you will be at 50 minutes, slowly building up to it.
There are two things to point out; the goals are 1), I am doing it by myself on my own and for example, if the plane goes down, God Forbid, I’ll be able to go someplace for help. And the second is, we have a saying, “If you miss a day. No one knows it. If you miss two days, your opponent knows it. If you miss three days, the crowd knows it.
What makes you feel the need to keep doing it?
Every day we all have the same amount of time – 24 hours. We waste away at least an hour a day doing nothing, so with that hour, I choose to run. At the end of 60 minutes, I like to measure where I ran. Maybe I only went 3 miles but it doesn’t matter because it is something I did on my own, and I feel good, and it is not tearing down my body. However there are theorists today that will tell you that too many marathons will tear you down, but for me, I enjoy going further. It’s like a pioneering spirit.
Would you say that while you’re running, that’s your Zen time?
I would say that when I run I don’t need anyone. I can do it all by myself. It’s just me, and my watch, keeping time, and I can do it anytime I choose and not have to rely on anyone. And while I am doing it, it’s a lot of fun.
Was there ever a plan B if your acting career didn’t take off?
No, there was no plan B. I went to College with the idea of running. It was an Ivy League school. My family wanted me to become a lawyer, but I wanted to be a sportswriter. I was always into sports and knew a lot of statistics and trivia.
I have a very good memory for those things, and I enjoy it. I was also good at talking, and I could dance. Not physically dance, but you know, dance the dance.
What was the turning point that convinced you to go into acting?
I quit College, and I started going to see a lot of movies, and I thought, you know, they are touching me. They are reaching me. I so I wanted to learn how to do that. I’d never acted before. In high school – I attended New Trier high school – and like every high school they have a big production, but I never thought about acting as a career.
There are so many notable names that attended your high school, in Winnetka, New Trier High School. And they’re not just people in the film industry, but also theatre, music, literature, science, technology, sports, politics, and many other areas. That’s impressive.
There were only 12,000 people in Winnetka, but for a small town, there are so many notable people including, Rock Hudson, Donald Rumsfeld, Virginia Madsen, Ralph Bellamy, Ann-Margaret, Charlton Heston, Elisabeth Perkins, Rham Emanuel, to name a few.
What’s the key to your staying focused in both running and acting all of these years?
Discipline.
When I began acting, I spent a lot of time with Tennessee Williams. I did one play off-Broadway for him, it’s where I met Laura’s mom, we did Orpheus Descending, and then Sweet Bird Of Youth, was on Broadway right after that.
Tennessee Williams had such discipline. He said he’d get up every single morning and write. At 6 am Williams would sit down with a blank piece of paper in front of him, and no matter what was on the paper or what was not on the paper, he’d leave the room at 11 am. Whether it came to him or not, he put in the time.
That’s real discipline. I learned a lot from working with Tennessee Williams.
On getting a Star on The Hollywood Walk Of Fame.
Mayor Eric Garcetti, who was a Council member at the time, asked me, “Bruce, what does this day mean to you?” I said, “I like to think of this day as a day a bunch of folks got together and said, you know what, Bruce Dern can play.” And that is actually the last line in my book. But really, I’m just pleased they found out I could play.
Tell me about the first time you met Marilyn Monroe?
Marilyn Monroe was larger than life.
The first day I went to the Actors Studio, this girl walked in wearing a scarf on her head. I was sitting in the back row. There were some empty seats next to me, so she came to the back row and sat next to me.
Marilyn studied privately with Lee Strasberg and Paula Strasberg, but she had never been to the Actor’s Studio. Lee wanted her to come and see what the actor’s studio classroom situation was all about. Seeing that it was my first day, I got introduced to the class. At the time, I was under contract with Mr. Elia Kazan and would be doing my first movie with him called, “Wild River.” Marilyn turned to me and said, “You know I was supposed to do that movie with Kazan but my husband (Arthur Miller) wrote a movie, and I’m going to have to work on my husband’s movie. It’s a conflict.” Actress Lee Remick replaced Marilyn as the female lead, and Montgomery Clift was the male lead.
After class, we walked outside. It was drizzling. Marilyn turned to me and said, “Bruce, it’s Bruce right? You’re Gadg’s wonder kid?” (Gadg was a nickname for Elia Kazan. He earned it in College because he was small, compact and handy to have around.) “Gosh,” I said. “He doesn’t say or use that name outside.” And then she said, “Would you mind walking me across town.” So we start walking in the rain. She said she liked walking in the rain. So there we were talking back and forth until we got to the Sutton Place Hotel. Then just as we were about to turn into the hotel, a lady came running, more like flying, out and onto the street to hail a cab. She ran right past us. She clearly saw us but was headed for a cab. She had a long polo coat which she left wide open and unbuttoned – she looked like a giant bird flying – a little sweater under the coat and loafers, with no socks. I looked at Marilyn, and she had tears in her eyes. I said, “What’s the matter?” And she said, “Bruce, don’t you know who that was?” I said “No.” We both look back and see that the woman is inside a cab going up the street. I turn back, and now Marilyn is sobbing. I put my hands on her shoulders and ask her what’s the matter. She said, “Bruce. Bruce, it was Greta Garbo, and she didn’t even recognize me. She didn’t know it was me.” I didn’t know what to say to her. She was so sad. I came back with a quick response and said, “Oh, I’m sure she was just shining you on.” And she said, “But why would she do that to me.” I said because she looked at you and said to herself, “You’re Marilyn Monroe, I’m Garbo, so stand back and get in line.” And then Marilyn laughed.
Is there someone early on who influenced you on how to live your life?
Most kids I went to school with went into their fathers business, lawyers, doctors, etc., but I was more independent. I had an uncle, Herbert F. Goodrich who was a Justice on the 3rd. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia. The other two judges on the panel were, Hugo Black and Herbert Marshall who both moved up, except my uncle, who died before he had a chance to do so.
I was in College, and my uncle asked me to come down to see him at work one day. He wanted me to hear a case. He called me Lad. He said, “Lad, what did you think.” I said, “Well, I didn’t think it was quite right that either lawyer didn’t finish presenting their case. He said, “It’s not our job to teach litigators how to present a case. We want to know how they came to their conclusion. He went on to say, “Let me tell you something. I get up every morning, I get dressed up and go to work, and I have the best job in the world because every day I have the chance to be fair.”
I never forgot that and that is how I have lived my life.
When your daughter, actress Laura Dern, first got into acting, did you give her any professional advice? And what advice would you give to young actors starting out today?
When Laura first got into acting, she did ask me if I had any advice. I told her first of all you have to learn how to dance. She said, “Dance?” I said not that kind of dancing. The greatest crippler of acting is behind the camera intimidation. It’s never personal. It’s not you. They just want to get their work done and get out of there. So don’t take it personally. Just stay in your own zone, don’t go hiding in your dressing room all day long so that someone has to come to get you, or anything like that. Just be a part of the process.
The second piece of advice I gave her was to take risks. To go out on the edge of the precipice and to do roles other actresses don’t want.
To young actors embarking on an acting career today, I want them to know that it’s an endurance contest, a marathon, and that you are going to keep ascending. There is not a person who gets off a bus, train, car or plane that comes to Hollywood that doesn’t have a least one opportunity for the door to crack open and get in the room. Understand when you are in the room, you don’t have five minutes, you only have 2 ½ minutes before they’ve lost their interest in you. Know that when you are in that room, that you have to leave a piece of yourself. They will never forget that because you are unique no matter who you are or what you look like because you’ve got something no one else on earth has, and that’s you! So put it out there. I don’t mean, do something drastic, but do something they will remember. You must be willing to expose yourself to your best friend who is the camera.
Then turn all cell phones off or don’t take them at all and drive somewhere just the two of you for the weekend. Block everything else out and let it just be the two of you. Sometimes, a connection happens along the way, and when this connection happens, you know you are at the place you wanted to get to all your life which is Hearts Location. In other words, where is your heart at, location-wise? I know not many people have found it.
Do you have any pets?
My wife Andrea and I have been together for 48 years. We always had German Shepherds. We love German Shepherds, but when we would go on location, we had to take them with us because you can’t turn down a German Shepherd. They have these sad faces when you put things in a suitcase. They sit there with that face and look up at you. So, we no longer have German Shepherds. I have two Main Coon cats, named Romeo and Gigolo.
I read that you don’t drink coffee.
I have never had a cigarette, never had a cup of coffee, never had an alcoholic beverage. Not for any other reason. I wrote a book on this called, Things I Said That Probably Should Not Have, which outlines a lot of why I don’t.
Is there a place you would like to travel to and spend more time?
Lake Tahoe? I lived there for 35 years. Yes, it would have to be Lake Tahoe.
There’s a lot of buzz about Quentin Tarantino’s highly anticipated feature film, Once Upon Time In America, in which you play a real-life character, George Spahn. Since we can’t talk about the details of the project, can we talk about the time period, 1969, when the Charles Manson murders in occurred? How did what happened during that time affect you?
It affected all of Hollywood and me too as I was a member of the Hollywood scene, both living and working in Hollywood.
Within two hours of what was being reported on the news, about the murders at Terry Melcher’s house, the entire town was impotent, and people fled.
Big time movie people, people with money, lots of them fled the city. No one knew who this guy, Charles Manson, was. No one knew the girls who worked for him, but they knew that Terry Melcher was Doris Day’s son, and he was the biggest record producer at the time. Everyone knew that the murders had taken place at the ex-home of Terry Melcher. For a young guy, he was well on his way. Everyone thought, if they could go and try to kill Terry Melcher then they could kill me too. Everyone in the city was terrified, especially people in the music and movie industry. (They didn’t kill Terry. He wasn’t home at the time. He had already sold the house, and it was being leased out to director Roman Polanski and Sharon Tate. Sharon Tate, Roman Polanski’s wife, was the biggest ingénue actress at the time, and she was pregnant with his baby.)
I can’t say anything about Quentin’s upcoming movie, but I will say he is remarkable. He’s done an amazing job, and I have never seen it done in my 60 years.
You have worked with some outstanding directors over the years, which ones stand out the most and why?
I have always said, I worked for six geniuses in my career and not in order of importance they are, Elia Kazan, Alfred Hitchcock, Douglas Trombone, Francis Ford Coppola, Quentin Tarantino, and Alexander Payne. They are geniuses because of their approachability on set. There isn’t a member of the crew, who can’t approach them at any time during the day and ask them what their specific job in the shot is, and that they wouldn’t tell them. They are all professors, and with them, it’s full collaboration no matter who you are.
The reason that I say I’m excited to go to work every-single-day is because each one of the people I mentioned might just do something on that day that has never been done. That’s why I’m there doing it. And therefore they could lead me to a door that I might do something.
With Payne, Coppola, and Tarantino, they are right there where you are when you’re doing a scene. They’re not sitting behind a monitor.
Alexander Payne says it the best, I said to him, “I love that you are right here.” And he said to me, “Where else would I be? I’m not going to watch my movie on a television set.” Because that’s what a lot of directors do, they are looking at your work on a monitor.
You’ve had two Oscar® Nominations that came thirty-nine years apart, the first in 1979 for Coming Home, and the second in 2014 for Nebraska. How different did each nomination feel?
I have always felt that the win is the nomination. You can’t pick a winner. All the nominees are winners.
With a thirty-nine-year difference between nominations, I can say that in Coming Home, I felt so gratified that they noticed me because there was a lot to see in that movie without zeroing in on me, but with Nebraska, I felt welcomed. I felt like they said, “Sit down here, and while you’re at it sit here for the rest of your life because you’ve got game.”
Of all the roles you have played, if you had to choose one as your most significant role, which one would it be?
I’ve been acting for a long time, and I have had a lot of good roles, but I have never had a “great” role until Alexander Payne gave me Nebraska.
Is there an actor or director from the past or present with whom you’d like to work within the future?
The one I will work with next.
You mentioned the words, Hearts Location. What does Hearts Location mean?
One day, Laura said to me, soon after she met Ben Harper, the man she would marry and has two children with, she said, “Dad, how do you really know when you are in love with someone. ” I said, “Well, the first thing you do after you’ve dated a few weeks and you’re sure you want to see him again, you know that he likes you and you like him, you get in the car. Yes. You get in the car, so it’s just about the two of you.”
Special Thank you to
Mr. Bruce Dern
Dina Morrone
Armando Gallo
Lisa Klein
Doris Bergman
Sheri Determan
Isabelle Ruen
Paramount Pictures
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