Laura Dern Says Taylor Swift Is An “Incredible” Friend

Laura Dern is forever bejeweled. On Jan. 12, the actor gushed about her new friendship with Taylor Swift, which is still going strong over a year after they met on the set of Swift’s “Bejeweled” video.

Speaking to People at the Common Ground premiere in Los Angeles, Dern opened up about how close she’s gotten to Swift. “It's one of my deep friendships and I love and admire her so much,” she said. “To find a friend amidst the creative, and she's a superpower... She's incredible. So that's been really fun.”

She wasn’t sure if her connection to Swift has had any impact on her own fanbase, but she would like to think so. “I don't know, but I'll take it,” she quipped. However, her video appearance has already proven to be effective.

In January, Dern told the story of how she was standing in front of a “Welcome to Jurassic Park” sign in Oahu and recognized during a Jurassic Park tour —  but not from her part in the 1993 film. “This girl comes running up to me and says, ‘Oh my god! Oh my god!’ She goes, ‘Aren't you the girl in the Taylor Swift video?’” she recalled to Jimmy Kimmel.

“A Tired, Tacky Wench”

Dern is one of the many stars in Swift’s Cinderella-inspired “Bejeweled” video, appearing as her evil stepmother alongside Alana, Danielle, and Este Haim as the wicked stepsisters. Like the fairytale, they treat Swift as their maid and gleefully torment her, but she wins the crown, castle, and Jack Antonoff (a.k.a. Prince Charming) in the end, with a little help from “fairy goddess” Dita Von Teese.

In October 2022, Swift told Jimmy Fallon how she got Dern to appear in the video, which she also directed. “I was like, ‘Oscar winner Laura Dern, hello. I’ve written a script. It’s a one-scene script in which you are going to call me ‘a tired, tacky wench,’” she said. “And she was like, ‘I’m down.’” She added that directing Dern was “easier than anything I’ve ever done in my life.”

Dern told her version of events to Entertainment Tonight that November, agreeing that the “wench” line sold her on the part. “Even better is when she’s speaking to you on the phone, asking you if there’s any way you could possibly be willing to say these words to her,” she said. “I’m like, ‘I’m in, definitely doing this.’”

Since the video was released, the two have been spotted out to dinner together in New York on various occasions, including a September hang-out with mutual friend Zoë Kravitz. Dern even went to the opening night of Swift’s Eras Tour, earning her cool points with her children, 22-year-old Ellery and 19-year-old Jaya.

"I was very lucky to have an in, and it was so amazing,” she told Seth Meyers in April. “Taylor now knows the kids and wanted them there. We went all Eras pretty much. We went to the party store, and we honored all the bedazzling and all the colors.”