With respect to the wishes of mom! Laura Dern’s 17-year-old daughter, Jaya, will graduate from high school before following in the footsteps of the “Jurassic Park” star.
“Basically, I’m making her wait,” the 55—year-old actress Ellen DeGeneres said on Wednesday, March 30, noting that the teen “might” end up working with her one day.
The Oscar winner, who also has a son Ellery, 20, from ex-husband Ben Harper, added: “I started very early, at 11, and I’m so happy that she’s waiting and wants to go to school, [though] deep down she knows she wants to act. … She often says: “You didn’t wait.”
Further, the Los Angeles native noted that she “pushed” her parents to let her play at a young age, and “imposed” her career on them. “I saw the consequences of not going to school, but just doing my own thing,” the “Marriage Story” star explained during an appearance on the Ellen DeGeneres show.
The Emmy Award winner, who for many years starred in the films “Big Little Lies”, “Little Women”, “Twin Peaks: The Return” and other projects, became a mother in 2001, when her son came to her and the 52-year-old musician. Jaya was born in 2004.
Since finalizing her divorce from Harper in 2013, single parenting has been “stressful,” as Dern told Modern Luxury six years later.
“On good days, I’m kind enough to remember that there are growth issues, and it’s all overwhelming, difficult, or always fun,” the Golden Globe winner told the magazine in August 2019. “On difficult days… a lot of things happen — and it can be difficult to find a minute for yourself. I’ve never seen anyone else bully me in my single parent life.”
At the time, the Wild star noted that she was surrounded by “champions” when she was raising Ellery and Jaya, saying: “I can definitely do it myself.”
Three months earlier, Dern told InStyle that she had become more “ambitious” as a single mother.
“Raising children has given me enough authority on the streets to feel that I have earned the right to earn money,” the graduate of Enlightened explained to the publication in May 2019. “This moment in my life is so sexy and liberating because I’ve had a lot of relationships, I’ve had a marriage, I have wonderful children, so I’m not hiding who I am to find someone who wants to have children or get married.”
Quarantined with their brood during the coronavirus pandemic, Dern and Jaya teamed up on their skin care routines. The teenager even tinted her mom’s roots.
