Considering how many people he's killed or creeped out over the years, Bruce Dern has a lot of friends. After a lifetime of playing psychotic cowboys, cruel fathers, crooked lawmen, and a menagerie of unhinged lovers, the 77-year-old is a Hollywood institution: He knows everyone, has been everywhere, and has done (just about) everything. Everything except be a star.
Now he can cross that one off his list, too. In Nebraska, directed by Alexander Payne (The Descendants), Dern plays Woody Grant, a laconic codger who sets off on a road trip to collect a fortune he thinks he's won. The film is about more than riches, though, at least the monetary kind. It's about a man trying to find some meaning in his life and leave something of value behind.
Dern has attended almost every private screening of the film this awards season, the type packed with Academy voters, and when the lights come up he is always mobbed by supporters. That's new to Dern. ''I've had the lead in several movies, but I've never received any kind of accolades,'' he says, his wispy white hair floating around his head like a milkweed halo. ''They were all movies that a lot of people never found.''
