At the start of her film career, Laura Dern took a big risk, quitting college to star in David Lynch’s Blue Velvet.
The Big Little Lies star recalled she learned she had landed the role of Sandy Williams in the 1986 psychological thriller two days after starting college.
“I was 17, so excited to get into UCLA,” Dern said in the most recent episode of Where Everybody Knows Your Name podcast, co-hosted by Ted Danson and Woody Harrelson. “I was there for two days, and I had auditioned and got offered the role in Blue Velvet.”
At the time, Dern was studying psychology and minoring in journalism. She asked the head of the film department for a leave of absence but was denied.
Dern tried to plead her case, saying she would “write papers” and “double-up classes” when she returned, but the UCLA administrators did not waver.
“I said, ‘I have this opportunity and he said, ‘Well, I’ll look at the script if you want to give me the script, but, you know, you’re not going to get a leave of absence. It’s not going to happen. It’s not a medical emergency,’” Dern recounted.
After the head of the film department read the script, she got called back into the office, where they would give her an ultimatum.
“First of all, if you make this choice, you are no longer welcome at UCLA. You’ll be out,” she said they told her. “But secondly, having read this script, that you would give up your college education for this is insane.”
The film, starring Isabella Rossellini and Kyle MacLachlan, became a classic, and Dern noted that Blue Velvet has become part of the school’s curriculum.
“I will just end by saying after my two days, today, if you want to get a masters in film at that school, when you write a thesis, there are three movies you are required to study,” she said. “And you know what one of them is … Pisses me off.”
