Laura Dern interview

In more than 20 years in the profession, Dern has turned down a number of high profile mainstream films in favour of smaller, more personal productions like October Sky which she did in 1999 with Jurassic Park III director Joe Johnston.

She won an Oscar nomination for playing the highly sexed Rose in Rambling Rose and critical acclaim for the dimwitted abortion target in Citizen Ruth.

The important thing for Dern is her movies have to say something.

"I've read a lot of scripts recently in which there is a trend towards very violent, raw, dark genre movie-making. But I think the really courageous and bold thing is to make movies about human behaviour.

"I like movies about longing and desperation, and dark and light things, stories about people struggling to raise children, and to have relationships and be intimate with each other. Those are the most interesting roles," she maintains.

The fact that Dern looks decidedly unglamorous and only does about one film a year keeps her from being a mainstream movie star.

"I really don't consider myself to be a conventional Hollywood star because I've never really been marketed by the big studios to do mass market box office films back to back.

"To tell the truth I find the position of someone like Tom Cruise very scary."

A student of religion and psychology in her spare time, Dern finds the media spotlight the downside of being an actress.

In the past she has had relationships with a number of male co-stars including Jeff Goldblum, Kyle MacLachlan (Blue Velvet) and Vincent Spano (Afterburn).

Last year her former partner Billy Bob Thornton publicly ditched her and married Lara Croft star Angelina Jolie. The public humiliation hurt.

"It's particularly tough when you're silent and the other party is not," she says.

"In the past the people around me were always respectful and loving to each other in the media. But other people utilise the media with total disregard for the feelings and reputations of others.

"I'm trying to hold on to my self respect and dignity in the wake of what happened. The fact is I seem to feel everything very deeply."

She is currently on British screens in maverick director Robert Altman's Dr T And The Women.

In an ensemble cast that includes Kate Hudson, Shelley Long and Farrah Fawcett, it's Dern's performance as a flamboyant and heavy-drinking Dallas socialite that steals the show.

Altman is famous for letting the actors create their own characters.

"It was the purest direction I've ever received," enthuses Dern. "My character, Peggy, is an alcoholic because she feels too much, not because life is too much for her."