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Let me make one thing clear from the outset: There’s no such thing as a bad Laura Dern performance. Or even an average Laura Dern performance, for that matter.
There’s a baseline level of excellence that always shines through whenever Dern ends up in front of a camera. She brings the same level of commitment to a 30-second cameo as she does a plum leading role, of which there aren’t nearly enough. Society at large has only recently begun catching up to Dern’s greatness after a five-decade career breathing life into even the limpest of scripts. Her long-overdue Oscar win this past February remains the last and possibly only good thing to happen in 2020. And with Dern’s recent Emmy nomination for her deliciously acidic turn as Renata Klein on Big Little Lies’s second season, the Dern-aissance only continues to grow stronger with each and every casting announcement.
A risk-taking character actress in movie star’s clothing, Dern wades into every crevice of the human psyche in ways few performers dare to venture. So in lieu of doing anything practical while quarantining in Brooklyn, I ventured into Laura Dern’s filmography to construct a deeply scientific and not at all biased ranking of every single time she graced a screen.
After promptly realizing just how many TV movies and Twin Peaks episodes that meant I’d have to watch, I set a few parameters for the sake of my cognitive functions. I could write 10,000 words on Dern’s breathtaking performance as Girl Eating Ice Cream Cone in Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, but I precluded any roles that amounted to an uncredited appearance or blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo. Stage performances are also obvious outliers, but if anyone has a bootleg copy of the play Dern acted in with Glenn Close at a West Hollywood theater in 1991, my DMs are extremely open.
72. Tina, Grizzly II: The Predator (1983)
The story behind the making of this schlockfest is more entertaining than anything happening onscreen. This is saying a lot, considering the film never even made it to theaters after a producer disappeared with the production budget before the shoot was completed. In a bootleg version of Grizzly II that’s been passed around the internet, Dern appears with a then unknown George Clooney as two horny teens having sex around a campfire before being horrifically consumed by a grizzly bear. Dern’s definitely got scream-queen-worthy pipes, but there’s not enough footage available to even justify calling it a performance.
71. Crissy, The Three Wishes of Billy Grier (1984)
Before Benjamin Button there was Billy Grier, a teenager played by Ralph Macchio living with a rare degenerative disease that causes him to age at a rapid pace. Dern was still only just beginning her acting career when she appeared as one of Billy’s classmates in this TV movie that gets phased out of the plot a third of the way through. There’s not much of note here to recommend to anyone other than the most ardent of Dern completists. All others need not apply.
70. Vicki Weaver, The Siege at Ruby Ridge (1996)
A ranked countdown of any performer’s career means sorting through a few outright duds before digging into all the gems that make a performer like Dern so adored. The Siege at Ruby Ridge is certainly one of the former, and it’s safe to assume Dern wouldn’t mind excluding this antiquated miniseries from her filmography entirely. The controversial project dramatized the 1992 attack by federal agents on self-proclaimed white separatist Randy Weaver and his wife, Vicki, a right-wing zealot ultimately killed by FBI sniper fire after an 11-day standoff at an isolated cabin in Idaho. Dern hams it up as Vicki, delivering proclamations about an imminent apocalypse with a campish flair that can’t help but feel slightly misguided.
69. Herself, The Larry Sanders Show (1998)
Garry Shandling’s HBO sitcom set in the world of a fictional late-night talk show frequently guest-starred real-world A-listers playing fictionalized versions of themselves, including Dern on the season six standout “I Buried Sid.” A subplot about Sanders trying to keep his relationship with Dern a secret from his staff and audience results in some awkward chuckles late in the episode, but the suicide of Sanders’ cue card man Sid consumes the bulk of the plot. Dern’s empty talk-show banter dialogue gives her little opportunity to showcase the charisma she has displayed during actual late-night appearances over the decades.
68. Claire Clairmont, Haunted Summer (1988)
While there’s a certain joy to be had from seeing Dern reunited with her Mask costar Eric Stoltz, Haunted Summer is a tepid period piece that somehow manages to make the rumored sex-and-drug-fueled exploits of writers Lord Byron, Mary Shelley, and Percy Shelley boring. As Mary Shelley’s stepsister Claire Clairmont, Dern sports a questionable English accent for one of her more erotically charged performances that never quite rises above the boorish trappings of this dramatically inert period piece.
67. Aunt Teresa, Tenderness (2009)
There was a time in Dern’s career when casting directors didn’t know how to funnel her cool-mom energy into anything of much substance. This resulted in a slate of roles where she’s called on to pop in for a quick scene or three to espouse warmth and guidance when everyone else has turned their back on the protagonist. As the aunt of a violent teen accused of murdering his entire family, Dern is the living embodiment of Tenderness’s titular adjective to befuddling degrees. It’s an ultimately insignificant appearance that calls on Dern to do little more than look anxious while a New York police detective played by Russell Crowe tries to figure out whether her nephew committed the horrific crime.
66. Grace Coxman, Cold Pursuit (2019)
Dern could play a grieving maternal figure in her sleep. (See the previous paragraph.) And frankly, a good night’s rest might have been a better use of her time than this forgettable action thriller starring Liam Neeson as a snowplow driver seeking revenge against the drug dealers who killed their son. Dern is perfectly fine in the role, but her performance can’t help but feel like a wasted opportunity given how many times she’s been underutilized playing a blandly supportive wife while her male counterparts get to indulge in all the excitement.
65. Prudence Simmons, Little Fockers (2010)
You wouldn’t be blamed for forgetting Dern appeared with Ben Stiller and Robert De Niro in Little Fockers, or for forgetting that Little Fockers existed at all. The classic comedy series that began with Meet the Parents ends on a rather unfortunate low note with a threequel that’s high on star power and low on actual jokes. Which is a shame because there’s enough to Dern’s appearance as a smarmy elementary school headmistress to make you wish she had more space to riff on the Gwyneth Paltrow–esque Goop-ery that she appears to be channeling.
64. Dr. Ludmilla Trapeznikov, The Mindy Project (2015)
Dern cameoed on Mindy Kaling’s sitcom playing obstetrician Dr. Ludmilla Trapeznikov in the season-three finale “Best Man.” Dern dons an intentionally absurd, vaguely Russian accent as an aggressively honest doctor warning Mindy that her pregnancy is high-risk due to “much age” and “fat.” Dern gives it her all, but it’s a forgettably brief bit that simply pales in comparison to the material Kaling gave the other A-list guest stars throughout her series’ run—including future Dern collaborators Greta Gerwig and Reese Witherspoon.
63. Diane Warren, Teachers (1984)
This high school satire starring Nick Nolte as the teacher of an unruly teen ensemble featured Dern in one of her earliest film roles. As a student at a high school hit with a major lawsuit after it’s revealed to have rewarded a diploma to an illiterate student, Dern is only one of many spunky characters in this black comedy that doesn’t always get its message across neatly. She isn’t given much to do but looks fabulous doing it in a delightfully dated wardrobe of cable-knit turtlenecks and acid-wash denim vests.
62. Laura Lonowski, Downsizing (2017)
Alexander Payne directed Dern in one of her greatest performances two decades earlier (see #2), so hopes were high that they would make movie magic again reuniting for this sci-fi comedy. Alas, Dern is a one-scene wonder as a sales rep espousing the benefits of “downsizing,” a procedure where participants shrink themselves to start a new life in an experimental community. Thankfully it’s still a joy to watch a pint-size Dern luxuriate in a bathtub while showing off her new diamond bracelet bought for spare change in the shrunken-down utopia.
61. Rene Fodie, Lonely Hearts (2006)
This ’40s-set crime drama has its moments, thanks to a handsome ensemble led by Salma Hayek and Jared Leto as the notorious Lonely Hearts Killers, a couple who traveled cross-country murdering rich, single women they’d meet through personal ads. Dern, meanwhile, is on the sidelines yearning for the homicide detective on the case and trying to make him pay more attention to her (relatable). Donning a luscious red lip that would’ve been put to better use as a gun moll in this tepid neo-noir, Dern walks away with bonus points for managing to act convincingly attracted to John Travolta.
60. Catherine, The Last Man on Earth (2017)
Dern’s cameo on a 2017 episode of the postapocalyptic sitcom amounts to barely a minute of screentime, playing a wealthy socialite who eventually succumbs to a virus that wipes out the majority of the human race. It’s worth a watch if only to relish in the sight of Dern butt heads with Kristen Wiig before chowing on a fistful of dog food in a dilapidated supermarket.
59. Debbie, Foxes (1980)
Following four rambunctious valley girls coming of age at the end of the disco era in ’70s Los Angeles, Foxes marked the acting debut of Runaways vocalist Cherie Currie, as well as Dern in her first official credited onscreen role. Sporting thick sunglasses and even thicker blonde locks feathered to perfection, Dern manages to make an impression with just a single scene. As Debbie, Dern plays it cool as a party girl who advises a group of fellow teenage girls discussing diaphragms just to “stick to the pill.”
58. Annie, Bravetown (2015)
This little-seen drama about a DJ who goes to live with his father after accidentally overdosing features one of Dern’s more scatter-brained performances. As a harried mother struggling with prescription drug addiction in the wake of her son’s death in Iraq, she brings more than is called of her to this well-intentioned melodrama. It feels almost out of sync with the rest of the film around her, a pseudo-inspirational fish-out-of-water tale that you’ll have mostly already forgotten about by the time the credits roll.
57. Rebecca, Nightmare Classics (1989)
The short-lived horror anthology aired on Showtime for only four episodes, and Dern appears in the best of the lot in a fairly straightforward adaptation of “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.” As the object of Henry Jekyll’s affections, she delivers every line reading with an elegant English accent that’s a vast improvement over the previous year’s Haunted Summer.
56. Beverly Ladouceur, When The Game Stands Tall (2014)
Dern is the best thing about this inspirational sports drama, based on the true story of a coach who led a high school football team to a record-shattering 151-game winning streak. Playing the—you guessed it—loving mother of a high school football player, Dern phones it in while still tugging at the heartstrings in a film that hits every emotionally manipulative beat you expect it to—although watching Dern dramatically react to a high school football game is infinitely more thrilling than anything you’ll ever witness at an actual sporting event.
55. Miranda Carpenter, I Am Sam (2001)
Starring Sean Penn as a man with a mental disability fighting for custody of his seven-year-old daughter, I Am Sam is a sap fest that’s more cloying than you likely remember. And unfortunately, Dern’s performance as a foster parent eager to adopt Sam’s daughter highlights the film’s tendency to sidestep common sense in favor of emotional heft, painting her as a villain in a case of mischaracterization that even Dern’s inherent likability can’t overcome.
54. Berry Thompson, A Season for Miracles (1999)
Dern recently admitted that she struggled to find work after appearing as a lesbian in the infamous coming-out episode of Ellen DeGeneres’s eponymous sitcom, Ellen. One can assume that’s why the future Oscar winner signed on to star in this holiday tearjerker about a woman played by Carla Gugino trying to keep her two nephews out of foster care. Flicking around cigarettes in a brown bob wig, Dern wrings out a few tears as the children’s’ incarcerated mother but is ultimately another stock character in Hallmark’s arsenal of weepies. Still, there’s a novelty to seeing Dern play the troubled sister instead of the protective aunt for a change.
53. Nellie Bly, Drunk History (2014)
Comedy Central’s revisionist history class has recruited all manner of A-listers from Seth Rogen to Winona Ryder. Dern kills it as Nellie Bly, the pioneering journalist who went undercover in the Women’s Lunatic Asylum in 1887 and wrote an expose detailing the horrors she witnessed. But with the segment clocking in at barely two minutes, it’s hard not to imagine what Dern could’ve accomplished with something meatier.
52. Helen McNulty, Down Came a Blackbird (1995)
A tad self-indulgent, the made-for-TV movie still makes for a harrowing viewing experience that’s anchored by Dern and costar Vanessa Redgrave. While Dern certainly impresses as a journalist struggling to readjust to life after being kidnapped and tortured in Central America, director Jonathan Sanger’s style would indulge any actor’s more overblown impulses. Featuring bloated monologues and emotional beats that feel more contrived than inspired, Dern transcends some of Blackbird’s more superficial flaws when she isn’t trying quite as hard to convey Helen’s physiological distress.
51. Dr. Ellie Sattler, Jurassic Park III (2001)
Dr. Ellie Sattler is easily the best character to come out of the Jurassic Park franchise, so it’s a damn shame she was brought back for the threequel only to be relegated to the sidelines of all the action—especially when her character’s scenes were written into after the script after it’d already been completed, making her appearance feel all the more inconsequential. Dern retains the same sense of wide-eyed wonder that made Sattler such a compelling screen presence in the first place, but watching her hold a newborn from Washington, D.C., for the majority of her screentime feels like a slap in the face. The world’s foremost paleobotanist deserves so much better.
50. Ethel Kroc, The Founder (2016)
The story of how businessman Ray Kroc created McDonald’s proves a satisfying showcase for Michael Keaton’s enigmatic charm and not much else in this ’50s-set bio-drama. You can feel Dern straining to add more layers to the character of Ray’s long-suffering wife, but the underwritten role doesn’t afford her much to do other than fire off vaguely boilerplate questions like “When’s enough gonna be enough for you?” while washing dishes with a disapproving glare.
49. Cleo, Kroll Show (2014)
One of Dern’s greatest assets as a performer is her willingness to get weird, like when she appeared on Nick Kroll’s sketch comedy series looking like a cross between Cardi B and Bella Thorne. Dern seems like she’s having a blast hamming it up as the mother of Kroll’s rap star wannabe C-Zar, who helps her escape from a halfway home before ultimately abandoning him because “mama’s gotta fly!”
48. Pam Ferris, Happy Endings (2005)
Stuffed with characters brought to life by a colorful ensemble including Maggie Gyllenhaal and Lisa Kudrow, Happy Endings follows the intertwining stories of a diverse group of strangers navigating life, love, and family in Los Angeles. Underutilized as one-half of a lesbian couple locked in a patrimony suit with their sperm donor, Dern nonetheless delivers the film’s most affecting moment during an emotionally-charged dinner scene that’s enough to make you wish she was the focus of the entire film.
47. US Poet Lauretate Tabatha Fortis, The West Wing (2002)
Dern proves herself more than capable of keeping up with Aaron Sorkin’s rat-a-tat dialogue on this season-three episode of the acclaimed political drama. Only a performer as emotionally attuned as she could sell a line reading as saccharine as “An artist’s job is to captivate for however long we’ve asked for your attention. If we stumble into truth, we got lucky.” I wouldn’t be shocked if that was just something Dern said unprompted without realizing the cameras were rolling.
46. Sister Pauline Quinn, Within These Walls (2001)
Playing saintly characters has never been a stretch for Dern, so she effortlessly slides into the role of a nun with a tragic past who built a program for prison inmates to train dogs to be used as service animals. The made-for-TV movie is as syrupy as the premise suggests, but it’s hard not to be won over by Dern’s portrayal of real-life Sister Pauline Quinn’s unflappable sense of hope.
45. Wendy Hebert, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt (2017)
From 30 Rock to Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, Tina Fey has a knack for pushing actors out of their comedic comfort zones and convincing them to embrace the absurdity of her sitcom worlds. Sadly Dern has to play it relatively straight in a season three episode of the Netflix comedy as a woman who intends to marry the reverend who formerly held Kimmy captive. Thankfully she still manages to wring some belly laughs out of her appearance opposite a scene-stealing Titus Burgess.
44. Theresa, The Monday Before Thanksgiving (2008)
Dern’s close pal Courtney Cox directed her in this short film about a woman reflecting on her life before Thanksgiving, a holiday which also marks the anniversary of her mother’s death. Clocking in at about twenty minutes, that’s all the time Dern needs to flesh out the pain and anguish that washes over her character as she reckons with an overwhelming sense of holiday-induced loneliness.
43. Gertrude ‘Gert' Hart, Focus (2001)
Based on an obscure Arthur Miller novel from 1945 about a man (played by William H. Macy) who becomes the target of religious and racial persecution after being mistakenly identified as Jewish by anti-Semitic neighbors, Focus is an appealing parable hampered by its heavy-handed approach. As Macy’s employer-turned-wife in the drama set in post-WWII Brooklyn, Dern and her impressive Noo Yawk accent that end up walking away with the entire film.
42. Wanda LeFauve, The Baby Dance (1998)
Pregnant with her fifth child and living with an unemployed husband in a trailer outside Louisiana, Dern and costar Stockard Channing both snagged Golden Globe nominations for their performances in this TV movie. Careful to avoid leaning into a “white trash” schtick that could easily undermine the material’s admirable intentions, Dern more than holds her own against a performer as bombastic as Channing.
41. Peggy, Dr. T & the Women (2000)
One of Nashville director Robert Altman’s lesser-known works, this fizzy rom-com stars Richard Gere as a smooth-talking gynecologist whose life is turned upside down by the various women who inhabit it. Helen Hunt, Farrah Fawcett, Shelley Long, Kate Hudson, and Liv Tyler all turn in cheeky appearances as the titular women, but it’s Dern who steals the show as Dr. T’s ultra-glam, alcoholic sister-in-law. Any drag queen looking to honor Dern with a glamorous tribute need look no further than Peggy’s mixed prints and extravagant furs.
40. Linda Peeno, Damaged Care (2002)
As Dr. Linda Peeno, a real-life whistleblower who went up against the managed-care industry after witnessing how it valued profit over human life, Dern is scintillating. This made-for-TV movie could’ve used a little more nuance to stick its dramatically ripe landing, but it’s near impossible not to feel the same sense of righteous fury Dern projects in the courtroom scenes by its galvanizing conclusion.
39. Delilah, Everything Must Go (2010)
Dern’s sole scene in this seriously glib comedy, about an alcoholic attempting to restart his life by selling all of his possessions, is also its highlight. Will Ferrell proves his dramatic chops are nothing to laugh at, culminating with Dern’s appearance as a former classmate he tracks down for an uncomfortable yet ultimately affecting reunion. It’s a prime example of the way she can take just a handful of lines and imbue them with a lifetime of character detail.
38. Kathleen Robinson, Fat Man and Little Boy (1989)
Playing opposite Paul Newman and John Cusack in this historical drama tracking the U.S. Army’s attempts to develop the first nuclear weapons during WWII, Dern is called upon to look cheery in a nurse’s uniform and not much else. While the fact-based story is centered around her male costars, Dern nonetheless manages to milk her supporting role for all it’s worth, especially in later scenes as she watches a radiation-infected Cusack succumb to his wounds.
37. Dortha Schaefer, The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio (2005)
This biographical drama is the sort of old-fashioned concoction that’s become something of a rarity at a time when big-budget spectacles reign supreme, a recurring theme in Dern’s Marvel-free filmography. Starring Julianne Moore as a ’50s housewife who enters a commercial-jingle-writing contest to support her 10 children, the film’s easygoing sincerity works wonders. Donning full Lucille Ball drag as a fellow contestant who offers Moore’s character a respite from her troubled home life, the film is at its most alive every time Dern waltzes on screen with her bouffant hairdo.
36. Bret, Year of the Dog (2007)
Writer Mike White’s directorial debut is decidedly offbeat, with Molly Shannon in an all-too-rare starring role as a reclusive woman whose life changes in unpredictable ways after her dog dies. As her spastic sister-in-law who suspects a babysitter of pumping her newborn full of Benadryl, Dern is hysterical as the neurotic foil to Shannon’s quiet secretary. The film also marks the beginning of Dern’s creative partnership with White, with whom she would reunite only four years later on the HBO series Enlightened, focusing on a character who couldn’t be further from the obnoxious yuppie she plays to perfection here.
35. Janet Harduvel, Afterburn (1992)
Dern earned her first of seven Emmy nominations for this HBO movie based on the true story of a woman who took on the U.S. military after they attempted to cover up the death of her husband, a top-ranked fighter pilot. His crash was attributed to “pilot error,” but she suspects it was a faulty aircraft. Playing a proto–Erin Brockovich in denim shorts and high-heel wedges, Dern delivers style and substance as a brassy waitress who’s ruthless in her pursuit of the truth.
34. Pippi, Wilson (2017)
Wilson is a bitter-tasting comedy that goes down slightly easier thanks to Woody Harrelson and Dern’s easygoing chemistry as an estranged couple who reunite in an effort to reconnect with their daughter. Neither a critical nor commercial hit upon release, Dern is outrageously funny as a former drug addict whose attempts to rebuild her life are thrown into disarray with the arrival of Harrelson’s titular misanthrope. It’s the sort of eccentric character role she excels at, albeit one that was unfortunately overlooked in a year where Big Little Lies colored most of the conversation around Dern.
33. Laura Albert, JT LeRoy (2018)
JT LeRoy is ultimately less than the sum of its superb parts, resulting in a pretty okay movie that should’ve been great. Based on the fascinating true story of author Laura Albert and the woman who masqueraded as her mysterious literary alter ego Jeremiah Terminator LeRoy, the film’s core strength is the pairing of Dern and Kristen Stewart as writer and muse. Costume designer Avery Plewes described Dern’s aesthetic in the film as a mix between “Stevie Nicks and Betsy Johnson,” with its accompanying performance as vibrantly bohemian as the brightly-colored wigs she dons throughout.
32. Sue Murphy, F Is For Family (2015 - Present)
Dern was an inspired choice for comedian Bill Burr’s animated sitcom, voicing the long-suffering wife of a foul-mouthed Korean War veteran (voiced by Burr) and mother of three. While Dern’s dynamic canvas of a face might be wasted here, the voice role proves to be a satisfying vehicle for her reliably soothing take on a character she’s played in live-action roles countless times. Crasser than The Simpsons but more heartfelt than Family Guy, F Is For Family is a charming comedy regularly elevated by Dern’s presence.
31. Jean Noble, Novocaine (2001)
This black comedy thriller is most remembered for the off-camera romance between stars Steve Martin and Helena Bonham Carter, but it also boasts one of Dern’s more delightfully kooky performances. As the wife of a dentist accused of murder, Dern sports a pair of comedically perfect teeth that she uses to chew through the film’s noir-inspired scenery. Novocaine is rather toothless as both comedy and thriller, but Dern’s clearly having a blast goofing off with Martin even if the finished product doesn’t always mirror their sense of playfulness.
30. Annie Ainsley, Fallen Angels (1993)
Seductively stylish, Showtime’s neo-noir anthology brought stories of tough-talking gumshoes and double-crossing femme fatales to the small screen. The ’40s-set series has been forgotten to time, but Dern’s sultry performance in the 1993 episode “Murder, Obliquely” as a woman who falls for a millionaire played by Alan Rickman makes a strong case for a reboot. Due credit must also be given to Alfonso Cuarón, making his English-language directorial debut two decades before snagging Best Director Oscars for Gravity and Roma.
29. Diana Adams, Mask (1985)
Dern was a student at the University of Southern California when she was cast in this true-life story of Rocky Dennis, a boy living with an extremely rare disorder known as lionitis that causes severe facial skull deformities. Before her breakout role in Blue Velvet the following year, Dern became a star to watch with her touching portrayal of a young blind girl who falls for Rocky. Dern expertly avoids easy tears in a film that gives her plenty of opportunities, becoming the emotional centerpiece of the film as one of the only people willing and able to see Rocky for who he is past his illness.
28. Sally Gerber, A Perfect World (1993)
Starring Kevin Costner in a rare villainous role, A Perfect World is also notable for featuring Dern in her first—and so far only—collaboration with director Clint Eastwood. Dern plays a criminologist on the case of Costner’s escaped convict Butch Haynes, who strikes up a friendship with the young boy he’s kidnapped. The drama stands as one of Eastwood’s more understated directorial efforts, buoyed largely by Dern’s performance as the feisty Sally Gerber. But she’s still woefully underused in a film that’s understandably fixated on the relationship between the central duo. Even though at this point we’re decades overdue for a thriller starring Dern as a cocksure crime solver.
27. Clementine, The Good Time Girls (2017)
A part of Refinery29’s collaboration with the short film series Shatterbox, The Good Time Girls is the blood-soaked feminist Western audiences didn’t know they needed. The male-dominated genre gets a much-welcomed revision in this short film starring Dern as a gunslinger hellbent on revenge against the cadre of oafish goons who did her and her gal pals dirty. The film clocks in at a fast-paced 15 minutes, and not a frame is wasted as Dern slips into badass mode with aplomb. A feature-length adaptation is reportedly in the works.
26. Ruby Montgomery, Daddy and Them (2001)
Dern’s approach to character varies so vastly from project to project, but she could’ve easily made a career as a broad comedic actress if she ever chose to settle in that lane. Billy Bob Thornton wrote, directed, and starred in this Southern-fried comedy about a married couple in Arkansas who come to the aid of a jailed uncle. Sporting a thick drawl as Thornton’s redneck girlfriend, Dern gets the best lines in this underrated comedy while still imbuing her with a sense of humanity amidst hillbilly caricatures.
25. Helen Sullivan, The Master (2012)
Inspired by Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard’s creation of the controversial religion, The Master ranks follows a WWII vet struggling to adapt to post-war society who becomes involved with a religious movement known as the Cause. Paul Thomas Anderson directed Joaquin Phoenix, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and Amy Adams to Oscar nominations, and he packs the ensemble around them with just as much panache. Dern covers more compelling ground as Helen Sullivan, a wealthy benefactor who begins to question what she’s invested so much of her life into. Helen’s religious-motivated struggles are crucial to selling the film’s thematic conflict between causes and followers, pushing Hoffman’s religious zealot over the edge during a standout scene in a film made up entirely of them.
24. Jessica McNeil, Ladies and Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains (1982)
This cult classic about the rise of a fictional punk girl group in post-Go-Go’s America featured Dern and costar Diane Lane in some of their earliest roles. Predating the riot grrl scene of the 1990s, the film’s DIY scrappiness makes for a stylistic homage to the post-MTV rock scene of the early ’80s bolstered by the central performances of its young leads. A 13-year old Dern was so eager to be a part of the film that after Diane Ladd refused to let her travel to Vancouver for the shoot, she sued her mother for emancipation and accepted the role anyway. As bassist to the Fabulous Stains, Dern proves to be an ideal vehicle for glam-rock androgyny as she flits between looks that are part David Bowie and part Debbie Harry. Nearly 40 years later, Dern’s playfully punky Jessica still feels like the type of person you wish you were cooly confident enough to be at that age.
23. Vice Admiral Holdo, Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017)
Liberal identity politics might have ruined the third Star Wars trilogy for its more incel-friendly fanboys, but new characters like Dern’s Vice Admiral Holdo shook things up by ushering in a new era for the franchise. Dern’s purple-haired leader has been at the center of much fan discussion, with praise and disdain thrown at her and director Rian Johnson in equal measure. But I’m here to declare Holdo the best character in The Last Jedi, which also stands as possibly the best entry in the series. There! I said it! Dern’s steely gaze and towering authority are put to excellent use as an officer in the Resistance who clashes with Oscar Isaac’s hot-headed fighter pilot. As much fun as it is to watch Dern fire blasters and dismantle the patriarchy, it’s quieter moments like the emotional reunion between her and Carrie Fisher’s General Leia that make you wish she could’ve been a permanent fixture of the ensemble.
22. Lynn Nash, 99 Homes (2014)
Set in Florida during the Great Recession, the criminally under-seen 99 Homes follows a seedy realtor (Michael Shannon) who kicks a single father (Andrew Garfield) and his family from their home. As the latter’s mother, Dern provides initial levity as a human moral compass who disparages her son’s decision to go into business with the aforementioned realtor. But the film’s deliberate pace unfolds in tandem with her supporting turn, working towards an inevitable climax that’s queasily effective thanks to the unbridled horror etched into Dern’s face throughout 99 Homes’ final moments.
21. Elizabeth Gilbert, Trial By Fire (2018)
Dern has always been endeared to projects with social or political messages at their core. This searing drama based on the tragic real-life story of a man wrongly imprisoned and convicted for burning down a house with his three daughters trapped inside boasts a powerful one. Playing a writer who befriends the man and becomes his chief advocate for release after being convinced of his innocence, Trial By Fire provides Dern with plenty of ammunition for a seemingly straightforward leading role layered with emotional subtext. Conveying sadness, confusion, and outrage in equally simmering measure, Dern’s restrained approach to such explosive material is nothing short of incendiary.
20. Miss Riley, October Sky (1999)
If there’s one thing I’ve learned from watching her entire filmography, it’s that Laura Dern loves nothing more than an earnestly inspirational period piece. Starring Jake Gyllenhaal in his first leading role as a high school student inspired by the first Sputnik launch to take up rocketry—like I said, earnest!—the ’50s-set October Sky is the best of the lot, featuring Dern in one of her most luminous turns. As Miss Riley, a teacher who encourages her students to pursue their dreams, you never once doubt her unwavering devotion to the students of her small-town community. Even when fellow residents voice their disapproval and she’s reprimanded by her school’s principal, Dern’s insistence on watching out for “the unlucky ones” is poignant to behold.
19. Frannie Lancaster, The Fault In Our Stars (2014)
Just three years before dueling as Monterey moms in Big Little Lies, Dern played Shailene Woodley’s mother in the big-screen adaptation of John Green’s Y.A. sensation about two teenage cancer patients who fall in love. Something of a scapegoat for the oversaturation of sick-teenager movies that flooded theaters through the 2010s, time hasn’t been particularly kind to The Fault in Our Stars. But give it another watch, and you’ll see that it still packs an emotional wallop, thanks in no small part to Dern’s turn as a mother whose love for her daughter can only be described as boundless. There are too many tear-inducing moments to rank, but the scene where Frannie helplessly wails “I’m not going to be a mother anymore!” when her daughter is hospitalized seemingly at death’s door is certainly near the top.
18. Susan, Ellen (1997)
Ellen DeGeneres’s groundbreaking sitcom is discussed most often in relation to “The Puppy Episode,” a 1997 installment where both DeGeneres and her onscreen avatar came out as gay. Less discussed is the fact that Dern also appears as Susan, a lesbian producer responsible for helping Ellen declare her true feelings to herself and an entire airport terminal. Dern is so effusively charming that it’s completely understandable why Ellen would not only immediately fall for her but also question her own sexuality in the first place. Dern struggled to find work for some time after the episode aired due to right-wing backlash criticizing her participation in DeGeneres’s coming out, but her Ellen appearance would become only the first of many factors playing into Dern’s ascension over the decades as a gay icon.
17. Diane Evans, Twin Peaks: The Return (2017)
Depending on your tolerance for David Lynch’s particular brand of weirdness, Twin Peaks: The Return was either a return to form for the iconoclastic director or a beautifully incoherent, 18-hour slog. As Diane, FBI Agent Dale Cooper’s secretary from the original series who was oft-mentioned but never seen, Dern doesn’t chew through the scenery more than she drives through it with a steamroller. Sporting a sharp blonde bob and her sternest glare to date, Dern has always been a capable guide through the cryptic worlds of Lynchian nightmares, dating all the way back to Blue Velvet. Even if the revival series as a whole provides more questions than answers (what exactly is a tulpa?), Diane stands as one of Dern’s most deliciously atmospheric concoctions.
16. Rose, Rambling Rose (1991)
Laura Dern and Diane Ladd became the first mother-daughter duo to be nominated for Academy Awards in the same year when they earned best-actress (Dern) and best-supporting-actress (Ladd) noms for Rambling Rose. Dern calls to mind a young Emma Stone in the Depression-set drama, where she plays a wily young orphan who gets taken in by a conservative family to avoid falling into a life of prostitution. With it’s dated views on gender roles and sexuality, it’s just a shame that a professional high point like Rambling Rose hasn’t aged quite as elegantly as the rest of her filmography. It’s a testament to Dern’s resilience that her loud, brassy, and downright obnoxious performance as the free-wheeling Rose manages to rise shine through any muck.
15. Katherine Harris, Recount (2008)
I can’t say anything about Dern’s take on Katherine Harris—who refused to meet with Dern before filming despite repeated pleas—that Roger Ebert didn’t already say more succinctly in his review: “The Florida Secretary of State during the 2000 election is not intended as the leading role in “Recount,” an HBO docudrama about that lamentable fiasco, but every time Laura Dern appears on the screen, she owns it. Watch her stride into a room of powerful men, pick up a little paper packet of sugar for her coffee, and shake it with great sweeping arm gestures as if she were a demonstrator in an educational film.”
14. Laura Wells, Certain Women (2016)
Sometimes Dern likes to use juicy monologues and heaps of dialogue to convey who a character is. But through director Kelly Reichardt, she reels in her more grandiose flourishes as a woman threatening to crack with every micro-aggression. Adapted from three Maile Meloy short stories centered around the daily lives of ordinary women in a small Montana town, Certain Women stars Dern, Michelle Williams, and Kristen Stewart in career-best turns. Reichardt’s muted approach to showing rather than telling reveals key information, with Dern’s endlessly expressive face registering every detail. Playing a down-on-her-luck lawyer whose own client won’t accept her legal advice until double-checking it with a male colleague, you half-expect Dern to go full Renata Klein and smash the office to smithereens with a baseball bat. But instead, she simply winces and moves on in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it display of the emotional wear and tear she’s learned to brush off as a means of survival.
13. Terry Linden, We Don’t Live Here Anymore (2004)
Starring Mark Ruffalo, Peter Krause, Naomi Watts, and Dern as two affluent couples whose lives are disrupted by an extramarital affair between spouses, this scruffy indie milks its dramatically ripe premise for some harrowing marital conflict. At the center of it is Dern’s Terry, whose desperate pleas to her unfaithful husband are less motivated by her self-interests than her dedication to their children. Possessing a sense of strength and purpose the other three never had, Terry’s inner and external turmoil as she reckons with her husband’s infidelity is the overwrought drama’s most consistently gripping element.
12. Nora Fanshaw, Marriage Story (2019)
After two prior nominations, Dern finally took home her first Academy Award for playing a cutthroat L.A. divorce lawyer in Noah Baumbach’s dramedy Marriage Story. This makes sense given the performance almost seems tailor-made for the lucky son of a gun in charge of selecting clips for acting category montages. Watching her kick her feet up on the couch to console a teary-eyed Scarlett Johansson or rhapsodize about the ways society punishes mothers while forgiving fathers is to watch a performer with more than four decades of experience under her belt fully at ease with the material she’s working with—and the way she’s working it. Hitting all the right notes as someone who gets paid good money to push all the right buttons, it’s the sort of lived-in performance that Dern makes look effortless. Detractors might cry that her first Oscar should’ve been for a role that better showcased her abilities, but it’s impossible to discount what Dern accomplishes in a calculated and subtly vicious supporting turn. And yet...
11. Marmee March, Little Women (2019)
Dern is so good at acting just this side of over the top that her broader characters tend to get the most recognition. On the flipside, films like Little Women serve as a lovely reminder of how stunning her more intimate turns can be even when the role isn’t particularly flashy. Most famously played by Susan Sarandon in the 1994 adaptation, Dern’s Marmee March is in line with Greta Gerwig’s revisionist take on the beloved Louisa May Alcott novel. Having played endless variations of a kind-hearted mother throughout her career, Dern embodies Marmee with a pureness of heart that never comes off cloying. The role fits Dern hand in glove, and she captures Marmee’s devotion to her four daughters as well as the rich inner life she’s suppressed to provide for them (“I am angry nearly every day of my life”). In a perfect world, Dern could’ve nabbed two best supporting actress noms in the same year for Marriage Story and Little Women, but I’d give the latter an edge for making a character audiences are so familiar with feel so refreshed.
10. Dr. Ellie Sattler, Jurassic Park (1993)
Dern is so deeply ingrained in millennial minds as Dr. Ellie Sattler that it’s difficult to imagine just how bizarre her casting in the blockbuster was back in 1993. The actor was just coming off her first Oscar nomination for Rambling Rose when Steven Spielberg reached out with a tempting offer: “I know that you’re doing your independent films, but I need you to be chased by dinosaurs, in awe of dinosaurs, and have the adventure of a lifetime. Will you do this with me?” Thankfully she said yes and brought the world’s foremost paleobotanist to life with the requisite sense of awe (and then some). When Sattler fumbles taking her sunglasses off as she eyes her first real dinosaur in sheer disbelief, Dern makes you believe it’s really there. Spielberg’s dinosaur epic is a success across the board, but Dern gets extra points for subverting the damsel-in-distress tropes that reduce Dr. Sattler to a piece of eye candy in Michael Crichton’s original novel. Her cinematic Sattler is warmhearted and fiercely intelligent, bringing the same sense of character-minded motivation to her scenes with CGI dinosaurs as she did with her fellow actors in all those independent films.
9. Connie Wyatt, Smooth Talk (1985)
Smooth Talk starts out like most teen dramas of its time. Dern appears in her first leading role as Connie, a sexually curious teenage girl aimlessly drifting through her idyllic Northern California town. She constantly fights with her mom, piles on makeup, and flirts with boys far older than her. But her free-spirited journey through the suburbs is halted after she encounters 20-something drifter Arnold Friend, whose initially alluring charms quickly turn dangerous. Dern’s display of terrified curiosity is unforgettable, capturing a young woman on the cusp of adulthood intoxicated by the idea of a life beyond her familiar surroundings. As one of the great cinematic explorations of teenage girlhood and suburban malaise, Smooth Talk—based on the classic Joyce Carol Oates short story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?”—offers a powerful showcase for an 18-year-old Dern only just coming into her own as performer.
8. Sandy Williams, Blue Velvet (1986)
Blue Velvet was Dern’s first film with David Lynch, kicking off one of cinema’s most creatively fruitful partnerships on a thrilling high note. The breakout film that put them both on the map is a twisted neo-noir set in a seemingly idyllic suburb whose technicolor finish masks its violent core. Dern plays Sandy, the sweet-as-pie girl next door to Kyle MacLachlan’s Jeffrey, who, after discovering a severed human ear in a field, becomes tangled up in an investigation tied to a crew of colorful criminals including a mysterious nightclub singer and a gas-huffing drug dealer. Aesthetically, Dern’s Sandy is a model of squeaky-clean purity outfitted in retro floral dresses in various shades of pink. But like Dern’s most memorable characters—and the film itself—there’s more to Sandy than meets the eye as she joins forces with Jeffrey to discover the origins of the severed ear. Look no further than the infamous robins speech where Sandy recounts an abstract dream that could only come from the mind of David Lynch. As Sandy, Dern acts as an audience guide through the darkly sadistic world of Blue Velvet while still embracing it’s surrealistic touches.
7. Renata Klein, Big Little Lies (2017 - 2019)
The role most responsible for ushering in the Dern-aissance and endearing the 53-year-old actor to an entirely new generation of fans, Renata Klein will rightfully go down as one of Dern’s most gleefully unhinged creations. Playing Monterey’s most misunderstood mom, Dern was the biggest source of comedic relief on the soapy HBO drama about a group of upper-class women whose lives unravel to the point of murder. Pithy one-liners and GIF-ready outbursts of a baseball-bat-wielding Klein aside, Dern manages to find the humanity beneath the occasionally cartoonish antics of a working mother on a one-woman mission to avenge her bullied daughter. Dern plays Klein as irate and wild when necessary, but there’s a believability that makes every laugh sting because she doesn’t shy away from highlighting Klein’s legitimate sources of rage—be it a philandering husband with a model-train obsession or internalized misogyny. Watching Dern butt heads with Reese Witherspoon and trade barbs with Meryl Streep is pure bliss, but it’s only so much fun to hate Renata Klein because you can’t help but love her a little.
6. Lula Fortune, Wild at Heart (1990)
Dern’s range is second to none for viewers now familiar with her slate of unorthodox characters, but she was still a relative ingenue when she starred opposite Nicholas Cage in David Lynch’s twisted melodrama about lovers on the lam. As Sailor Ripley and Lula Pace Fortune, Cage and Dern’s chemistry is combustible as a couple who can’t stop running into trouble across a stretch of open highway. Dern’s skin-tight wardrobe of leopard-print skirts and black bodycon dresses are “hotter than Georgia asphalt” but couldn’t be further from the Goody Two-shoes audiences first met in films like Mask and Blue Velvet. As a character, Dern’s Lula is a geyser of emotion, a wild child who feels everything and vocalizes those feelings whether it’s appropriate or not. But as a turning point in Dern’s filmography, Lula and the ballsiness of her performance mark the second phase of Dern’s career as she transitioned from being “Diane Ladd’s actor daughter” to one of the most unpredictable actors of her era.
5. Bobbie Lambrecht, Wild (2014)
Based on Cheryl Strayed’s 2012 memoir, Wild stars Reese Witherspoon as the writer recounting her experiences hiking the Pacific Crest Trail in the aftermath of her mother’s death. Dern has always been able to make a deep impact with limited screen time, and her Oscar-nominated turn as Cheryl’s mother Bobbi Strayed is composed entirely of knockout moments. In just a handful of flashbacks, Dern doesn’t waste a single second showing what made Bobbi such an irreplaceable figure in Cheryl’s life. Struggling in practically every conceivable way but fighting to remain optimistic for the sake of her children, Bobbi is a performance with a smile on its lips and a tear in its eye. Her inevitable death is predictably crushing, but Dern finds unexpected humor and soul in a performance that never veers into tragedy porn. Popping up as a figment of Cheryl’s imagination at crucial moments during her journey on the PCT, viewers feel Dern’s singularly angelic presence throughout the film as much as Cheryl does.
4. Nikki Grace / Susan Blue*, Inland Empire* (2006)
Laura Dern said Inland Empire began as a phone call from David Lynch saying: “Do you want to come and experiment?” The resulting three hours are less of a “film” than a nightmarish fever dream that lingers. Shot by the director on a low-resolution handheld digital camera that adds a disorienting home-movie vibe, Inland Empire follows an actress, played by Dern, whose life begins to mimic the fictional film she’s shooting to the point that lines between the two worlds begin to blur. And that’s about the only plot you’re gonna get, with the rest of the film fleshed out by head-scratching moments like a sitcom starring three humanoid rabbits. None of it makes a single lick of sense, and Dern herself has admitted that to this day she’s not sure what exactly Inland Empire is about. She’s so unforgettably good in a film that asks for a frightening amount of its leading lady that Lynch set up his own Oscar campaign on the corner of Hollywood Boulevard and La Brea. The director sat with a live cow next to an image of his favorite leading lady with the text: For Your Consideration, Laura Dern. Even if she didn’t end up snagging a nomination, Dern can rest easy knowing her efforts are forever embedded in the minds of any viewer who dares to enter Lynch’s macabre fantasy.
3. Jennifer Fox, The Tale (2018)
The Tale is based on writer-director Jennifer Fox’s own experiences with sexual abuse, which came to light after her mother unearthed a childhood short story where 13-year-old Jennifer recounted how her horse-riding instructor (Elizabeth Debicki) lured the teenage girl into a sexual relationship with her 40-something running coach (Jason Ritter). The cinematic memoir stars Dern as Fox’s onscreen avatar, flipping between past and present as the now 40-something filmmaker begins to reexamine the nature of a relationship she’d always viewed as consensual. Dern is disturbingly compelling as a woman working her way through the haze clouding past and present relationships after decades spent refusing to view herself as a victim, culminating in one of the actor’s finest moments to date when confronting the man who raped her as a child during The Tale’s stomach-turning finale. As the most provocative cinematic depiction of sexual trauma in recent memory, The Tale is certainly difficult to watch, but Dern’s fiercely committed performance makes it urgently worthwhile.
2. Ruth Stoops, Citizen Ruth (1996)
If Laura Dern were making this list, she’d likely put Ruth Stoops at the top. “I’ve never fallen in love with a character more,” she once said of her titular role in Alexander Payne’s acidic 1996 comedy. “There was not a scene where I wasn’t barfing or fucking or vomiting or burping. I was just a disgusting mess.” But it takes expert precision to play a character this grotesque, and Dern is in a league of her own as a paint-huffing delinquent who finds herself at the center of a national abortion debate after becoming pregnant with her fifth unwanted child. With pro-life and pro-choice activists attempting to sway Ruth to their respective sides, Dern earns zero sympathy, hurling out insults like “suck the shit out of my ass, you fucker!” with hilarious gusto at anyone who gets in the way of her drinking and drugging. The film avoids redeeming Ruth in any way that makes her more likable and would dull this satire’s bite, giving Dern the chance to play it loose and wild. When her pro-life mother appears at the climax asking, “What if I’d aborted you?,” Ruth doesn’t let you catch a sympathetic breath before she’s screaming back over a megaphone, “Well, at least I wouldn’t have had to suck your boyfriend’s cock!” It’s very easy to see what Dern loved so much about this part.
1. Amy Jellicoe, Enlightened (2011 - 2013)
This HBO dramedy flew pretty under the radar during its two-season run, despite being regularly hailed by everyone from Entertainment Weekly to The Atlantic as the best show nobody was watching. But time has only heightened the pleasures of Dern’s first starring series role about, per its tagline, a “woman on the verge of a nervous breakthrough.” We meet her self-destructive executive Amy Jellicoe at the exact moment her personal and professional lives publicly implode, leading to a stint in a sort of spiritual rehab where she experiences a grand philosophical reawakening. Enlightened follows Jellicoe’s fraught attempts at being a better person, with Dern’s Golden Globe–winning performance a towering monument to the art of falling apart. If previous roles only allowed Dern to operate on two sides of the emotional coin—big and broad or quiet and intimate—Enlightened shows the full breadth of skill she’s attained after a lifetime spent in front of the camera. Jellicoe is loud and uncompromising, obnoxious and occasionally unbearable in her newfound search to be an “agent of change” while disrupting the lives of everyone from her live-in mother (Diane Ladd) to her ex-husband (Luke Wilson). Her obsession with finding ways to bypass corporate greed and the ways society systemically caters to the rich and powerful was topical in 2011, but it reads as nearly prophetic in 2020. Big Little Lies might have ushered in the Dern-aissance we live in today, but those in the know have been proclaiming her unparalleled greatness from the moment she stepped into the shoes of Jellicoe, a TV antihero for the ages.