Laura Dern was forced to quit college over ‘Blue Velvet’: “You are no longer welcome”

nme.com:

Blue Velvet.Appearing on a recent episode of Ted Danson and Woody Harrelson’s Where Everybody Knows Your Name podcast, Dern remembered being told she would no longer be welcome at UCLA film school if she took the part.“I was 17, so excited to get into UCLA,” Dern said. “I was there for two days, and I had auditioned and got offered the role in Blue Velvet.”Dean said she was “ecstatic” about landing the role as she “worshiped” Lynch, who had already won an Oscar for directing 1980’s The Elephant Man.

However, when she went to ask to head of her college department about getting a leave of absence, she was told “absolutely not”.“I said, ‘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,’” Dern said about her conversation with the head of UCLA’s film department at the time.After the head of the department read the Blue Velvet script, Dern remembered being called into his office and being 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,” Dern admitted before revealing: “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.