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Laura Dern was full of praise for Liam Hemsworth in an interview to promote their newly released romance movie, Lonely Planet.
The movie, out today (October 11) on Netflix, follows a newly single author played by Dern on a writer’s retreat in Morroco and Hemsworth, whose character is only on the retreat to support his author girlfriend. Somewhere along the way the two of them become lovers.
In a recent interview with People, the Jurassic Park actor, 57, opened up about particularly filming more intimate scenes with the The Hunger Games star, 34.
Dern explained that there was “definitely an intimacy coordinator” to assist with planning the scene and making both actors feel comfortable, but she also told the outlet she “was so lucky” to have Hemsworth as her scene partner as she called him “literally the safest person I could ever talk through everything in my life with.”
“By the time we were doing those scenes, there was nothing we couldn’t talk about together and work out creatively, professionally, all of that,” she explained. “But we also had a lot of support. We had much, much discussion.”
“Film and filmmaking have changed so that everyone is comfortable in their voice and can set boundaries comfortably without fear of losing a job or being unpopular,” Dern added.
“We both, as young actors, have had a lot of other kinds of experiences on movies,” she said about her and Hemsworth.
Recently, Dern has been reflecting on her career by speaking out on some of her past roles, including her breakout part as Sandy in the 1986 movie Blue Velvet.
Back in July, she spoke on the Where Everybody Knows Your Name podcast hosted by Ted Danson and Woody Harrelson where she revealed she was forced to drop out of college in order to accept her part in the film, and she’s still upset about it.
The actress was supposed to attend the University of California’s Los Angeles campus or UCLA, which now requires film students to watch Blue Velvet as part of their curriculum.
“I was 17, so excited to get into UCLA. I was there for two days, and I had auditioned and got offered the role in Blue Velvet,” she told the hosts. She explained how excited she was to act in a David Lynch movie based on his accolades of being an Oscar-nominated director for The Elephant Man.
However, when she requested a leave of absence from her major department head, the response was “absolutely not.”
“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 said.
After reading the script, the department head had still not budged on his decision and even insulted the film itself as he told her, “Having read this script, that you would give up your college education for this is insane.”
The department head ended up being proven wrong as Lynch went on to receive another Oscar nomination for the film in the Best Director category and Dern went on to star in other films, like Jurassic Park, that are now considered classics.
“I will just end by saying after my two days, today, if you want to get a master’s in film at that school, when you write a thesis there are three movies you are required to study. And you know what one of them is? [Blue Velvet],” she said.
