At the recent press day for Mike White’s generally pleasantly offbeat Year of the Dog, Laura Dern talked some about parenting as a story device, and playing a mother on screen now that she’s one in real life. “The area of
parenting is so funny and interesting because you feel so out of control when
you’re given this job of protecting. It creates panic,” Dern says.

“Bret is deeply neurotic and a true perfectionist,” Dern continues, talking about her character. “The
difference between her and most of us in the world that are new moms, because I
think there is a level of obsessiveness and neuroses that comes with becoming a
parent, like… ‘Oh my God, my job is to protect you for the rest of your life? How did
this happen?’ So I think that’s innate in way, even though when you try to be
conscious and balanced it’s easy to get neurotic about one’s children. The
difference is most of us look at our children and say, ‘I want to control every
waking moment of the rest of your life and make sure it’s OK… too bad the world
isn’t like that.’ Bret says, ‘And I know I can.’ And she believes it in her core. That’s why she was so fun to play. Because anyone who has that kind of ego
it so fantastic. And Tom McCarthy was so amazing as her husband, because he’s
sort of like her dog, he’s sitting
there just acquiescing to whatever she says.”