Laura Dern Wishes She Could Give Her Oscar to Snubbed Director Greta Gerwig

Backstage at the 2020 Oscars, winner Laura Dern said she wished she could give her trophy to snubbed Little Women director Greta Gerwig.

By kelli boyle Feb 10, 2020 3:10 PMTags
Laura Dern, Greta Gerwig, 2020 OscarsAmy Sussman/Getty Images, Rick Rowell via Getty Images

Laura Dern thinks Greta Gerwig was snubbed by the Oscars this year.

The Big Little Lies star won Best Supporting Actress for her performance in Noah Baumbach's Marriage Story at the 2020 Oscars last night. Her other big film this year was Gerwig's Little Women, which (along with Marriage Story) was nominated for Best Picture (Baumbach and Gerwig are also a couple).

Despite Little Women's slew of nominations, Gerwig herself was not nominated for Best Director. No women were. In the press room following Dern's win, the actress commented on the snub.

As she said, "If I could give this Oscar to Greta Gerwig, I would do it right now."

Then, bringing up The Farewell director Lulu Wang, Dern added, "And Lulu. I mean, there are so many beautiful films. I met the director of Honey Boy yesterday at the Independent Spirit Awards. There are great films. I think that our lens should focus, perhaps, less on the lack of accolades and more on the less—the less opportunity that there is, and even more so the lack of second chances given to female voices."

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As she continued, "And as the business and the people with the money give more and more opportunity to extraordinary and diverse voices and representing who we want to see reflected in film, which is ourselves, we are going to be in a lot different shape."

Referring back to her work with the directorial couple, Dern went on to say that she hopes Gerwig is awarded for her work in the future.

"I share this with Noah and Greta as well, who I spent my year with in art and friendship and now doing press for both films. So I would love to also see her continually awarded for all her beautiful work."

Dern's overall message about representation was a common theme of the night among Hollywood's biggest stars. Natalie Portman, for example, wore a cape embroidered with the names of the snubbed female directors. Stars like Oscar Isaac and Chris Rock called out the Academy's lack of diversity in its nominees.

Watch: Laura Dern's Year With Scarlett Johansson For "Marriage Story"

But where there was fair criticism, there were also a lot of historic wins. Bong Joon-ho's Parasite's was the first international film to ever win Best Picture. And for the first time ever, a woman won Best Original Score (Hildur Guðnadóttir for Joker).

In the press room, Dern listed the ways in which people in Hollywood can demand that this increased representation continues.

"When we say, use our voice," she said, "we are talking about us, each other, in whatever industry we are in. We have power to say something. And when we don't see our culture reflected around us, we get to say something. And I think that's the biggest shift we've seen in the last couple of years is voices matter, and a community of voices rallying around the truth really matter in journalism, in this industry, and in many others."

As she continued, "So make sure that your crew and the storytelling reflects our global community. And if you're an actor on a movie or you're the filmmaker, you're the producer, you get to say something. If you're the DP, you get to say something about your camera crew. And that matters."