PREVIEW

Laura Dern is still angry she was forced to drop out of college after landing a role in Blue Velvet. During an episode of the Where Everybody Knows Your Name podcast on Wednesday, the Oscar-winning actress told hosts Ted Danson and Woody Harrelson about how she had intended to pursue a double major in psychology and journalism at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) after completing high school. However, Laura only attended UCLA for two days before getting confirmation that she had won the part of Sandy Williams in David Lynch's 1986 film. The mystery-thriller also starred Kyle MacLachlan and Isabella Rossellini. "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.” While Dern was "ecstatic" to land the part as she "worshipped" director Lynch, when she went to speak to the head of the journalism department regarding taking some time out to make the film, she was told "absolutely not”. ”I said to the (head of the film department), '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,'" she recounted, before explaining how she offered to do extra classes to make the time up. And after the department leader read the Blue Velvet script, Dern was called to his office and told: ”First of all, if you make this choice, you are no longer welcome at UCLA. You'll be out. But secondly, having read this script, that you would give up your college education for this is insane. Obviously, it was an incredibly shocking script.” However, Dern finds it irritating that Blue Velvet is now included in the coursework at the university. ”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? P--ses me off.”
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