Laura Dern's recalls an ‘insane' conversation with her professor

Laura Dern admits her college professor called her “insane” for selecting her career over a diploma education.

On July 23, on Ted Danson and Woody Harrelson’s podcast, Where Everybody Knows Your Name, Dern recalled her college days, and times when she faced hurdles for making shocking career decisions.

She shared, "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”.

As she was selected for the role, she shared the news with her principal to ask for a leave of absence while filming the movie and unexpectedly the principal responded with “absolutely not”.

She insisted back by saying, “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 shared the script of Blue Velvet and after reading the script, Laura repeated his professor's words, “First of all, if you make this choice, you are no longer welcome at UCLA," 

Dern recalled being told. "You’ll be out. But, secondly, having read this script, that you would give up your college education for this is insane."

Jurassic Park (1993)’s Dr. Ellie Sattler pointed out the new criteria of UCLA's film school for graduates and said, “I will just end by saying after my two days, today, if you want to get a masters in film at that school, when you write a thesis there are three movies you are required to study,” she said. “And you know what one of them is. P***** me off”.

Laura Dern has received many awards as actress and producer; those are Academy Awards’ award, BAFTAs’ award, Primetime Emmy Awards, Screen Actors Guild Awards and five Golden Globe Awards’ awards.