Years ago, at the Sundance Film Festival, my mother and I are at a screening of Citizen Ruth at which star Laura Dern is in attendance. At the time, the movie was still called Meet Ruth Stoops. I’m not sure how much the rechristening helped. It wasn’t a bad movie per se (nothing so ripe for comedy as the abortion debate, right?), but let’s just say Ms. Dern and writer/director Alexander Payne have both gone on to bigger and better things.
After the screening the audience lines up to meet the actress. We file to the front of the theater, where Laura Dern greets each person in turn before they are discharged out the rear exit back into daylight. I shake her hand first, followed by my mother. The required pleasantries—the nice to meet you’s, the thanks for coming’s—are efficiently exchanged. We don’t linger. We know how these things work: The assembly line must be kept moving. We are nearly, safely, on our way when Laura Dern decides to mix things up and asks my mom, “How did you like the film?” She seems sincerely to want to know.
My mother is caught off guard by the question. Mothers are so polite; they are the ones that teach us, “If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all.” There is a long pause as she searches for a kind reply. The assembly line grinds to a halt. Laura Dern waits. Ah, yes, nothing like an awkward moment between your mom and Laura Dern. Eventually—perhaps becoming hyper-aware of the long line of audience members snaking behind her—my mother manages a smile and an unpersuasive “It was good.”
Am I imagining it or does Laura Dern’s face fall? There’s no time for a second look. We are funneled on out of the theater.
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