Laura: I forget what his line was in the scene, but he asked you if you wanted something. And I think my dad's response, for example, was supposed to be, "Are you kidding?" as in, "Of course."

Bruce: Say the line and I'll say what I said to Ricky Martin.

Laura: The whole crew is there, and Abe was talking to the [director of photography] and was like, "Maybe he's going to give us a Dernsie." It is a known thing. [Dad] turns and Ricky was so nervous. I was so nervous. [In the scene, Bruce's Skeet asks Ricky's Robert if he's ever read Timothy Leary, the Harvard psychologist and LSD advocate.] Ricky said, "Should I?"

Bruce: I said, "Does Pinocchio have a wooden d—?"

Laura: Ricky and the whole crew laughed. Everyone stopped. They had the time of their life. That is in the show.

Bruce: Oh, it is?

Laura: Of course. Abe was like, "Are you kidding? They're going to think I wrote it. We're keeping it."

Bruce: They're all apropos to what's going on. I don't plan on what the words are gonna be. I know it all comes from here [points to chest]. It came because my original idea about acting was — it's having the ability to be publicly private.

Laura: That's what he's always said to me and taught me. You've taught me, in addition to that, to not be afraid to keep pushing the boundaries on the kinds of explorations with flawed characters. As a teenager, when I was being offered the girlfriend part or whatever, my dad [said], "Go do three scenes in that movie where you're playing this really unique character. Don't go play the lead girlfriend in the Brat Pack movie or whatever" because he knew I wanted to develop as an actor.

Bruce: Acting is basically about having the ability to look and listen. And if you do that, things can happen.

Q: The story of Skeet and Linda is a tragic one — there's guilt, but there's so much love and they're grappling with his mortality, too. What was that like for you?

Laura: We won't talk about exactly what happens, but the arc of the story is somewhat tragic. It all was going fine until we had to even consider that. I don't think I loved that part. It was quite difficult to imagine.

Bruce: We were as basic as we could be, talking about something we've never fully adventured into, and rightly so.

Laura: We just haven't had those conversations in our relationship.

Q: They're such difficult conversations, no matter your age or stage in life. My mom will casually bring it up sometimes, like, " Here is where I keep all my important documents." I don't want to think about it.

Laura: Oh, yeah, no, the difference between the two of them: With my mother [Diane Ladd], we can all be sitting at Thanksgiving, and to my children she's like, "Just you know, when something happens, I want you to take this, you to take that." And I'm like, "Mom, can we not talk about it?" [My dad and I] just don't go there. We pretty much have talked about everything except that.

Q: Mr. Dern, is it a topic you've never been comfortable discussing?

Bruce: I never think about the event of dying. It's grim opera. Everybody has the same opera coming.

Laura: My favorite thing that you say almost every day that we speak — I go "Hey, Pop. How are you?" You say, "I'm here." That's kind of what you sit with.

Bruce: I've said that since I was 7 years old.

Q: Your character, at this stage in his life, says his biggest regret was not doing a " thing with my life." Do you think about regrets or what it is to fail?

Bruce: I don't look back well. I'm not projecting the future either. I'm just kind of sailing along a day at a time, but with all the accouterments of everything I've had for 87 years.

They always say, "Why don't you direct a movie?" Because it's an art and I'm not an artist like that. All I know is I'm about behavior.

Q: Laura, what is your earliest memory of seeing him on a set?

Laura: I was 6, I think, and Dad was doing the movie "Family Plot" [1976] for Alfred Hitchcock. He brought me to the set. I will never forget that. I don't know if the crew did this, or what, but Hitchcock had his director's chair. Remember? [turns to Bruce] They brought a little mini director's chair and let me sit next to him.

Bruce: At lunch, they sat next to each other.

Laura: He told me stories and explained shots to me. He was really generous with your kid, Dad. That summer was a real turning point where I saw the relationship between a filmmaker and an actor. You guys had such an incredible shorthand that I fell in love with. I think I didn't really understand acting, and necessarily the process of storytelling, but I fell in love with the way a director and an actor work together and come together. That relationship has been the great joy of my life. I always sought out a filmmaker-actor relationship that was like you with Hal Ashby [in "Coming Home"] or you with Hitchcock. I have had a few of those, like my relationship with David Lynch, and I think I longed for that because I saw that thing where they get you, where they could whisper a word and you're like, "Yeah, I know what I'm doing." You just have this instinctual, clear other language to yourselves. That was a huge influence.

Bruce: There's two things I remember. First of all, it was probably 2 a.m. My phone rings and it's the mother person [Laura's mother] and she says, "Wake up! Your daughter's screaming and yelling all over the house."

Laura: Oh, yeah. This is a true story.

Bruce: "She just saw your head fall down the stairs in 'Hush... Hush, Sweet Charlotte.'" They cut my head and my hand off in the movie. Bette Davis does it on purpose. So, I have to get on a phone with her. I said, "Hiiiiiiiiii, Lauraaaaaaaa. I'm way down heeeeeeere, my head is all the way down here." Her mother immediately seized the phone. That was the same incident, the same movie. The other thing that happens to me, where I'm trying to get Laura to understand how to take advantage more of what's actually going on around you in the movie you're doing today. How can you take advantage of that? Listen. Pick up the vibe on the set. Find the tension. Find who's uptight, find who isn't.

Q: You could write another book, Mr. Dern. The stories you recall.

Laura: They're working on a documentary. I'm filming something for it. I'm going to be interviewed.

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