Conversations with Bruce Dern (2014)

Conversations with Bruce Dern on January 7, 2014.  Moderated by Joshua Rothkopf, Senior Film Writer, Time Out New York.

Bruce Dern's tremendous career is made up of playing both modern day heroes and legendary villains. Through decades of critically acclaimed performances, Bruce has acquired the reputation of being one of the most talented and prolific actors of his generation. A celebrated stage actor, Bruce was trained by famed director Elia Kazan at The Actor's Studio and made his film debut in Kazan's "Wild River" (1960). In the 1960's, Bruce also found success as a distinguished television actor. He appeared regularly in contemporary Western TV-series as well as Alfred Hitchcock's television series. Hitchcock was such a fan of Bruce, he cast him in both "Marnie" and, "Family Plot" (Hitchcock's final film).

During the 1960's, Bruce went on to work with director Roger Corman and appeared in several of his classic and decade defining films including "Wild Angels." He received critical success for films such as "They Shoot Horses, Don't They?" and "Drive, He Said" and went down in history for his role as Long Hair in "The Cowboys" in which he became the first man ever to kill John Wayne.

Bruce went on to star in such classic films like "The King of Marvin Gardens" with Jack Nicholson and Ellen Burstyn as well as playing Tom Buchanan in "The Great Gatsby" (for which he received a Golden Globe nomination). It was his brilliant and powerful performance in Hal Ashby's "Coming Home" that earned him both an Academy Award® and Golden Globe nomination.

Bruce co-starred with Charlize Theron in "Monster", one of the most critically acclaimed independent films of all time, and he can also be seen on the HBO series "Big Love." Most recently Bruce has worked with iconic directors Francis Ford Coppola in "Twixt" and Quentin Tarantino in "Django Unchained." 

Other credits include: "Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte" with Bette Davis, Douglas Trumball's "Silent Running," Michael Ritchie's "Smile," "Middle Age Crazy" with Anne Margaret, Jason Miller's "That Championship Season," "Tattoo" with Maude Adams, "The 'Burbs" with Tom Hanks, "The Haunting" with Catherine Zeta Jones, Billy Bob Thornton's "All The Pretty Horses," Bob Dylan's "Masked and Anonymous," "Down in the Valley" with Edward Norton, "Astronaut Farmer" with Billy Bob Thornton and "The Cake Eaters" with Kristin Stewart. His other outstanding films include the much heralded "After Dark My Sweet," "Harry Tracy," "On the Edge," "Laughing Policeman," "Posse," the great John Frankenheimer's "Black Sunday" and Walter Hill's "The Driver."