EXCLUSIVE: Laura Dern Gives Us the Lowdown on What It’s Like to Work on ‘Big Little Lies’

From the strong women in front of camera to the badass ones behind it, Big Little Lies star Laura Dern says being on set of the hit HBO show is just as empowering as you’d imagine.

The 52-year-old Golden Globe winner chatted exclusively with PureWow about life behind the scenes on BLL and how championing other women is a major part of what makes it work.

“There is nothing like working amongst other women regardless of your workplace environment,” Dern said. (Amen.)

The Big Little Lies star went on to explain it’s not just fun having a group of similarly minded women on set, they also offer an enormous amount of support: “Especially if you’re raising children, [if] you have fellow workers who are going through some of the same things as you, that instead of isolating and entering the workplace to shut down and not talk about a sick kid or being worried about getting your kids to school or sick parents you’re caring for, you have a community to support you and lift you up as you do for them when they’re going through it.”

To put it in other words, Dern says, “Think about the amount of time we spend in the workplace. We should all have that always. And that’s why we have to fight to frankly have the opportunity to remain in the workplace.”

In fact, it was due in part to the Big Little Lies cast and crew that she and other women on the show were able to fight for fair pay raises in season two. And after being in the trenches together, you bet Dern and co-stars Reese Witherspoon, Nicole Kidman, Shailene Woodley, Meryl Streep and Zoë Kravitz are even closer than before. 

Now we wait and see if the same thing happens with their characters. A little birdie—cough, Dern—may have told us that’s the case.