Laura Dern has won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for Noah Baumach’s Marriage Story. Dern won accolades for her performance as Nora Fanshaw, a touch-talking lawyer representing Nicole (Scarlett Johansson) in her divorce proceedings against Charlie (Adam Driver).
“We can accept an imperfect Dad. Let’s face it, the idea of a good father was only invented like 30 years ago,” Dern’s Nora says as a part of a monologue. “But people absolutely don’t accept those same failings in mothers.. God is the father and God didn’t show up so you have to be perfect and Charlie can be a fuck up and it doesn’t matter. You’ll always be held to a different, higher standard and it’s fucked up, but that’s the way it is.”
The Netflix production was nominated for six Academy Awards, including for Best Picture and Original Screenplay (by Baumbach).
Among America’s finest actresses, Dern has been in several acclaimed films and has also featured in television shows, most recently Big Little Lies. She has previously been nominated for a Best Actress Oscar for Rambling Rose (1992) and as Best Supporting Actress for Wild (2015). She also stars in Greta Gerwig’s Little Women, which was nominated for six Oscars this year.
“Noah Baumbach wrote a movie about love and about breaching divisions in the name of family and home, and hopefully for all of us in the name of our planet,” she said in her acceptance speech. She also thanked her parents, the actors Bruce Dern and Diane Ladd: “I share this with my acting heroes, my legends, Diane Ladd and Bruce Dern. You got game. I love you.”