To watchers of Big Little Lies, Laura Dern is Renata Klein. So it surprised us to learn, at Dern’s Vulture Festival conversation in New York today, that she doesn’t identify as Renata of the Monterey Five. “I probably was Jane,” she said, referencing the young single mom played by Shailene Woodley — and you can imagine our shock! But she assured us, there’s hope yet: “If we ever did it again, and it gets in me even a little bit more, I’m becoming Renata. Because I so agree with her on so many fronts. I think we all need Renata in us somewhere.” And thanks to her, we have it, and it comes out when we repeat Klein’s iconic season-two line. “They come up, and almost like this [puts hand in front of face], go, ‘I will not not be rich!’ in my face. And I’m like, ‘You needed that!’” she said of her fans. “I feel like it’s everybody’s, which is what’s great about Renata — she’s waking up the things we want to say, but don’t.” So HBO, you have to understand: We need a third season of Big Little Lies, so Laura Dern can truly become Renata Klein.
