Oscar: Understand Why Laura Dern's Award Was Important for LGBTs

The actress Laura Dern, 53, won the first Oscar of his career last Sunday (10). She won the award in the supporting actress category for her work in History of a Wedding (2019), a Netflix comedy-drama.

Known for her progressive political stances, Dern has been an openly feminist for many years and a longtime ally of LGBT people. In 1997, she participated in the series Ellen, by Ellen DeGeneres, in the anthological episode in which the current presenter, playing her alter-ego, comes out of the closet as a lesbian declaring that she is in love with the character played by Dern, also a lesbian.

The moment is iconic for LGBT representation in pop culture, but Dern, although at the beginning of that decade she had been nominated for an Oscar for the first time and was one of the protagonists of the great success Jurassic Park , paid a high price for the movement. She was unemployed for almost a year. Her agent dropped her and no major studio signed her afterward (DeGeneres herself also spent years unemployed after the closure of Ellen).

However, in recent years, Dern has played a series of roles in cinema and TV that have made his career regain momentum and be recognized by the public, critics and awards.

Thrilled to win the Oscar, she thanked her for the statuette and paid tribute to her parents, the legendary actors Diane Ladd and Bruce Dern, as well as mentioning in her speech the actresses she competed against in the category and Noah Baumbach, director and screenwriter of Story of a Man Wedding, in which Dern plays a divorce lawyer.

In addition to the Oscar, Dern won other circuit awards for his work, such as the Golden Globe, Bafta, SAG (from the actors' union) and Critics' Choice. Watch her Oscar speech below.