Pay attention, young ones, because this right here is an example of what happens when our history is lost. Laura Dern is the platonic definition of LGBT ally. But since you are either clearly far too young to remember or too lazy to look it up, let’s go over a few details:
In the *EARLY 90s* — remember, an time when everyone was still freaked out about AIDS and the idea of “gayness” was still widely perceived as wrong or sinful — she leapt at the chance to be part of the first show with a lesbian coming out publicly:
Greatest thing I could’ve ever been part of, honestly. An incredible honor. [...] I was excited. I didn’t think twice about it. It was a great opportunity. And then the calls started coming in once I’d said yes, from a couple of advisers in Hollywood who were out gay men, [telling me] to not do it. A lot of people in my life really worried. And I was like, “This is ridiculous.”
It was a very big deal to have her be part of the show, even as a guest — at the time, Ellen was a small-time standup who had a low-rated sitcom, but Dern was the daughter of Hollywood royalty who’d been in several films that were widely critically acclaimed, and had recently co-starred in of one of the first giant summer blockbusters.
The show was so controversial, they literally had to give her and other guests a fuсkin security detail because of the threats to her safety:
Oprah and I were having a snack, and suddenly a flood of cops swarmed the set and the stage while we were rehearsing. They’re like, “There’s been a bomb threat, we’re sweeping the stage.” And they start literally rushing us off the stage.
Oh, and remember how she was a star on the rise? As a direct result of her being a part of the first show to have someone come out, she went from starring in the biggest blockbuster in the world to having offers dry up virtually overnight.
It was significant. It was significant because I was doing successful independent movies, and, only months before that, I was in Jurassic Park, the most successful movie ever. So it was like, you’re being offered this, you’re being offered that — and it just stopped. Which is kind of wild. By good fortune of the long path of a career, you can look back and say, how great to have it be felt, how backward we are.
I’m sure Dern got closer that we’ll ever know to ruining her career through her appearance on Ellen. But she says she has no regrets.
But what was amazing, which I will never forget, that when she looked in my eyes, she said it was the first time she said “I’m gay” out loud. We didn’t rehearse it, so when she said it to me, and was looking in my eyes and holding my hands and I felt her shaking … the gift — it makes me want to cry — the gift of that, the intimacy of what that means, was such insight for me. And I’ll carry it for the rest of my life.
So next time you want to get all in your navel-gazing feelings about “the straights”?
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