The way you say “Amabella” with such a consistently straight face is so incredible to me.
Dern: [laughs] Oh my god.
Where does your version of Renata come from? Do you know someone like her?
Dern: Oh my god. I don’t know. I’m so afraid of myself that I understood her so well [laughs]. I think for Jean-Marc [Vallée] and I both, we had such a delicious time with David [E. Kelley]’s writing, and with the cooking up, on the spot, of where to take her and how to play around with her. Having had an unparalleled love story that Reese and I got to be part of together with Jean-Marc — the film Wild — to be back and just hate each other so much is just so much fun. I think that’s driven us even further than we might have gone. It’s given us permission to unleash. And because we’re so close, there’s a safety in that, I think, as actors. An unapologetic fever.