“When you look at the roles I played, I made a difference in every movie”: Bruce Dern on his life in film

Bruce Dern brought his almost unnerving, rangy intensity to New Hollywood, turning journeyman for years before later highlights like Nebraska (2013) and Django Unchained (2012). Dernsie: The Amazing Life of Bruce Dern runs through his career and his life – father to Laura Dern, husband of Diane Ladd, black-sheep of a prominent American family. Still acting in multiple films per year, 89-year-old Dern displays an endurance echoed by his life-long love of long-distance running. I spoke with the famously garrulous star at the Carlton Hotel in Cannes Film Festival, where Dernsie premiered in Cannes Classics.

Before you began at the Actors’ Studio with the likes of Paul Newman and James Dean, what actors did you like to watch?

Growing up I went to any western I could. I was a movie fan but not a buff. When I went to college in downtown Philadelphia I started seeing more and I said to myself: they’re touching me. How are they doing that? I’d like to learn to do that. I quit college after one year.

You played hordes of villains in TV and movies. But in the ’70s, the intensity you brought to heavies found a new home in the complex characters of The King of Marvin Gardens [1972] or Coming Home [1978].

Well, the parts were bigger, starting with Silent Running [1972]. 

But you could explore some inconvenient emotions. 

Oh, absolutely. But I wasn’t the first choice. I’ve never been the first choice for anything except maybe Nebraska. That was the first time that anybody gave me a piece of material that was tailored for me. But in 1969, I started to panic. And I panicked because there was Easy Rider [1969] – Peter [Fonda], Jack [Nicholson] and Dennis [Hopper]. And Clint [Eastwood] showed up. What happened in the ’70s was I started getting offered the number-two or -three movies that a studio would want to make. And I did them.

The documentary is named after your flair for improv. But how did it go with a micro-planner like Alfred Hitchcock in Family Plot [1976]?

Every camera setup was on a storyboard. But the first day of the movie, he said, “Come here, I want you to sit next to me.” So I sat next to him for 10 weeks. And he got to know me pretty well, and I got to know him pretty well. I said, “You asked for me to be here, why?” He said, “Because you’re the only one who could play the part.” I said, “Why is that?” He said, “Because you’re everywhere at once. Meaning you won’t do what I tell you to do.” And he said, “I thank God for that because I don’t know what to tell you to do. You are a package of behaviour. I need the behaviour.” 

The first time I came here was in 1976 with Alfred Hitchcock. Cannes was honouring him for 60 years in the movie business. When he passed away, he was preparing another movie. It was a sequel to Mutiny on the Bounty [1962]. When they put [William] Bligh adrift with 14 men in a rowboat, how did they get to China? 

Quentin Tarantino says in Dernsie that you’re the finest example of great American acting. What does that mean to you?

Well, Quentin’s dad was a jazz pianist that lived in Orange County. Every night his dad played at a place on La Brea Avenue. So he’d bring his ten-year-old kid with him. And the dad said, it’s nine o’clock – be back, you know, whenever. He was ten! So he walked the streets. And he saw Hollywood at its seamiest time. That’s what he learned about Hollywood. I’d never met him when he called me in and said, “Look, I’m doing this movie Django.” He said, “You’re the icon of your generation.” So I said, “Come on, if that was true, I’d be starring in movies.” He said, “You starred in movies, but people never found them.” And he said, “I love Tattoo [1981].”

“American acting” also rings literally true in that you did only one film abroad: The Twist [1976], with Claude Chabrol.

Yeah, I came over to Paris. I’d never been there. His wife was my co-star, Stéphane Audran. I liked Claude very much because he was very funny. And when you make movies, at least then, in Paris, you’re not really in the studio. You go out every day and shoot the location. And every single day we were out in the street, he would pick a restaurant where he could cook the lunch. Because he was a chef! It was interesting, the night before last, when I was eating in a restaurant, a girl went by. And I said to Laura [Dern], I won the Palme d’Or [for acting] the night she won the Palme d’Or [for Blue Is the Warmest Colour, 2013]. It was Léa Seydoux! She was eating lunch.

That was in 2013, and now here you are with Dernsie.

I think the thing that got me the most about deciding to come was that if you’re in there long enough, by the time you’re 60, there’s an attrition of people – deaths, boredom, quitting, taking themselves out, and so forth and so on. And if you endure, you survive. Because you’re one of a few. You’re not one of a hundred for every fucking part you want. Now I’ll be 90 on June 4th and I have a movie about to come out called Northbound that we made in Canada with – you know who Julia Fox is? The reason I made the documentary is I’m interested in people knowing that if you stay long enough, you’ll find people that give a shit. I’ve been doing this a long fucking time. And I know what it’s like to not be found until you’ve been in the business for years. And it’s all because I played little tiny roles. But when you look at the roles I played, I made a difference in every movie.