Laura Dern to join Kristen Stewart in 'JT Leroy'

Image from Variety

By Darian Scalamoni

            Laura Dern has been one of the most consistent workers of the last few years for her age getting roles in TV with HBO’s Big Little Lies as well as film with critical darlings like 99 Homes, Certain Women and Wild. The latter even garnered Dern an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress. She’s staying busy after Deadline reports that she’s in talks to co-star with Kristen Stewart in JT Leroy.

            JT Leroy is based on Savannah Knoop’s book titled, Girl Boy Girl: How I Became JT Leroy and chronicles the falsified author, JT Leroy. It’s a bit complicated so try to stay with me but Laura Albert created a fake enigmatic author by the name of JT Leroy who indentified as transgender and then Savannah Knoop spent six years pretending to be JT Leroy before being unmasked in 2006 that the literary artist did not in fact exist. Stewart is set to play Knoop while Dern will play Albert, who also posed as the made-up friend of JT named Speedie.

            Yes, it’s a bit hard to follow but it seems like a tremendous project and undertaking for Justin Kelly (I Am Michael, King Cobra) who has previously worked on other projects with similar subject manner. If you need more explaining on the story before the narrative feature is released, see the documentary, Author: The JT Leroy Story which breaks down the life of Laura Albert and the affect all of this had on the literary world.

            Dern currently stars on Big Little Lies and has a starring role in the film, Wilson, which will be released on March 24^th. Dern is also set to have a long in the highly-anticipated sequel, Star Wars: The Last Jedi which will be released on December 15^th.