E-mail a friendDiane Ladd
airdate July 10, 2006
In the industry for 47 years, Diane Ladd is one of the busiest people in Hollywood. The three-time Oscar nominee has numerous stage, film and TV credits. She's also a partner in Exxcell Entertainment, which produces documentaries and features. Ladd made her directing/writing debut with Showtime's Mrs. Munck. In order to pursue an acting career, the Mississippi native turned down a scholarship to study law. She recently added 'author' to her list of titles with her memoir, Spiraling Through the School of Life.
Diane Ladd
Tavis:I am pleased to welcome Diane Ladd to this program. The three-time Academy Award-nominated actress has starred in a number of notable films, including 'Alice doesn't Live Here Anymore,' 'Wild At Heart,' and of course, 'Rambling Rose.' She made history for that film, when both she and her daughter, fine actress Laura Dern, received Oscar nods for their roles.
Her latest project is a new memoir called 'Spiraling Through The School Of Life, A Mental, Physical, And Spiritual Discovery.' I know I ain't got enough time to do justice to this with that title. But Diane Ladd, (laughs) it's an honor to have you on the program.
Diane Ladd: Thank you. My privilege and pleasure.
Tavis: Your son-in-law's one of my favorites.
Ladd: That's what you just told me, he was a guest.
Tavis: Ben Harper's been here a couple times, yeah.
Ladd: Well, he's my favorite, too.
Tavis: Yeah. (laughs) And the grandbabies are doing well?
Ladd: Oh, yeah. They sure are. I got one four and a half, and one almost two. Little boy, and a little girl.
Tavis: I don't wanna hurt Laura's feelings, (laughs) so Laura's doing well, also?
Ladd: She is. (laughs) She is.
Tavis: Okay. This title got me initially, as I suspect you knew it would, which is why you named it this. 'Spiraling Through Life.' Not traveling, not journeying, not walking, not running. Spiraling.
Ladd: Right.
Tavis: Why spiraling?
Ladd: Well, every time I even dare to think that God might be finished with me for a minute, I find myself just going splat, right back down. And I fool myself as I'm going down, 'cause I don't go straight, (laughs) I go, like, in a spiral. It's like, what happened? What happened here? Then I pick myself up like Dumbo, and start all over again. Spiral up. But spiraling, in all religions, a spiral is a symbol of our growth.
Like Kabbalah. I'm not Jewish, but I've studied the Kabbalah, the Tree Of Life is a spiral. And all of science represents all energy and life itself by the spiral. And I actually, when my father died, in our home state, Mississippi...
Tavis: Yes, M-I, crooked letter, crooked letter I...
Ladd: Crooked letter, crooked letter I, humpback, humpback...
Tavis: Crooked letter, crooked letter I, humpback, humpback, no, you got it, you got it.
Ladd: Oh, I'm used to, you got it. Oh.
Tavis: Wanna do it again?
Ladd: Yeah.
Tavis: M-I, crooked letter, crooked letter I, crooked letter, crooked letter I, humpback, humpback I.
Ladd: M-I, crooked letter, crooked letter I, crooked letter, crooked letter I, humpback, humpback I.
Tavis: I love it. (laughs) There you go. You can't (unintelligible) Mississippi, anyhow. All right, I'm sorry, go ahead. I interrupted you. Yeah.
Ladd: Well, the day that he went on his way, I was very, very shook up. And I, after his funeral, went to the beach, and I'm running down the ocean by myself, and talking to the universe, and crying. And I finally threw myself on the sand, crying. I'm asking the universe for a symbol. An answer. And as I turned to my left, staring me there in my face was the most exquisite nautilus shell I've ever seen in my whole life.
And the nautilus is the oldest living thing on the planet. And it is a spiral. So, I picked it up and I took it home, and I put it on my desk, where I write. And I've almost finished another book. And this book, many doctors asked me, because I've lectured a lot with them, you've got to write this book and share what you lecture about. So I stopped writing the other book because potentially, I thought that this which they said I had to share could help my fellow human being.
So I thought I'd take six months. Tavis, it took me four years.
Tavis: To do this, right.
Ladd: To do this book, to finish it. So there was the shell, and I called it 'Spiraling Through The School Of Life.'
Tavis: What's the value in knowing or accepting that our life spirals as opposed to the other alternatives of how we move that I suggested earlier? What's the value of knowing that life spirals?
Ladd: You know what I think it is? I'll tell you what I think it is.
Tavis: Mm hmm.
Ladd: It's like suppose you have that scotch tonight that you're not supposed to have, or that candy bar. Or you said that curse word today. Or you lost your temper and got emotional. What you say is okay. I'm still can be a winner. God isn't through with me. And spiraling is like a motion, and all energy's motion. And spiraling, instead of going straight (makes noise), gives you kind of a chance at a second breath. (laughs)
Tavis: Mm hmm.
Ladd: And I think that's what we're given in the universe. I'm not trying to be facetious. I really think we are given that second chance every other minute of our life. Constantly.
Tavis: How did you come to be such a person of faith?
Ladd: Well, first of all, I was raised Catholic. As I said, I've studied Kabbalah. My father was Baptist. I've, down south, been around many religions all my life. I had a tragedy in my life. When my first child died in a tragic accident, I was very young, married to actor Bruce Dern. At two years old, she was in a tragic accident. I've talked about this 20 times, and yet (unintelligible).
No matter how spiritual you are, whenever you lose someone, there's a breaking of that umbilical cord that's very hard to get over. And you can go 40 years and be talking about somebody you loved and lost, and (makes noise) all of a sudden. Laura and I were talking about my mother the other day, who died three years ago, and we both started sobbing like babies.
Just for a second, I got emotional. Maybe it's 'cause it's with somebody from my home state, and I feel very relaxed. There's a root, a connection here. But anyhow, after her death, I wanted to get pregnant right away. And I'm praying and I'm begging. And every cell in my body's screaming and crying to get pregnant again. And within three months, I did it. I was pregnant. And I said, you see? God took away, and he gave back.
Sorry. Wrong. Rewrite. Another test coming down the pike. It was a tubular pregnancy, and I almost died from peritonitis. And after that, not one, but five top doctors in this country said, I am sorry, Diane Ladd, you will never have another child. And Tavis, I said, I will. And I went to the library. There were no health books. There was no book like this spiraling book.
There was no alternative doctors for me to find. There were no health food stores. I was alone. Now, I'll deviate and retrieve. I'd had a grandmother named Aunt Prudie, who was called the mother of south Mississippi. And she had been a midwife, and became a medical doctor, and she studied with the Cherokee Indians. And she cured diphtheria, typhoids fever before the drug cures by studying herbology and the healing arts with the Cherokee Indians.
She delivered 3,000 babies. One time, she was thrown in a snowstorm, broke her leg, then went and delivered the baby, then had her leg set. So she was quite a little (unintelligible)...
Tavis: (laughs) Aunt Prudie was serious.
Ladd: Aunt Prudie was serious. And maybe I've got some of her DNA. I hope so. So I spent two and a half years of the next two and a half years every single day in a library studying about the human body. And after those two and a half years, I put myself on a program. Special foods with avocado, special bee pollens. And with the help of my husband, (laughs) I shortly thereafter went to see the doctor and said, make a pregnancy test.
Now, he had lost a child, too, and he couldn't stand telling me that I couldn't have a child anymore. And he said, Diane, I have, he got angry. He said, I've told you that you can't get pregnant again. It's impossible. You've got to go home and cry. (laughs) And I looked at him and said Doctor, oh, I've cried. Oh, have I cried. I said, now you go make that test.
And Tavis, the rabbit died. (laughs) And when Laura Elizabeth Dern was born, they took her and one of those doctors came down to see this for himself, after they brought my treasure into life, I was on that operating table for four solid hours while they removed 16 major adhesions intertwined around the female organs. And I heard him say my God, my God, this is impossible.
This child could not have gotten through. This is a miracle. I was passed out. I wasn't knocked out, I was passed out. And my head (laughs) rose up off the table, while they were in there fooling around, and I said, that's right, it's a miracle. It's a hell of a lot of hard work. (laughs) They said I scared them to death. But this is not just, I share that tragedy to inspire women.
If you want a child, fight for it. Or adopt. There's a saying that those who raise their own children work with God. Those who raise another child live with God. And so, I inspire them. But there's the love story of how I met my wonderful soul mate eight years ago, a love story. There's parenting chapters, how not to be angry. I have, as I said, worked in hospitals for 30 years doing healing, medical intuitive, psychotherapy work, and I'm an ordained minister.
So I make a joke. I can entertain you, and if that makes you sick, I can heal you. (laughs) And if that doesn't work, by God, Tavis, I could bury you. (laughs) So I'm a really good (unintelligible) .
Tavis: You know what? On that note, I can't do no better than that. I got 30 seconds, literally. That story, which I did not know until going through this text about the birth of Laura, that means, right quick, that when the two of you were nominated in '92 together for 'Rambling Rose,' that had to be the absolute most special...
Ladd: You have no idea. When I was on that stage, and people like Jack Nicholson and them all sitting down there, whom I've worked with, and I looked over and saw my daughter, whom at first I'd said, don't be an actress, no. Until I saw the talent. I looked out at all those people, and I thought, my God, they have no idea what this means, to see this treasure with me on this stage.
And it's like spirals. It's another spiral. So I'm sharing this in this book, and doctors are buying this book and giving it to their patients. And Dean Ornish, Dr. Dean Ornish, said this little book might change your life, and may even help save it.
Tavis: Indeed it is.
Ladd: And Stephen King endorsed it, and Whoopie Goldberg endorsed it, Della Reese endorsed it.
Tavis: And I'm endorsing it.
Ladd: And Tavis is endorsing it. (laughs)
Tavis: (laughs) Diane Ladd's book is 'Spiraling Through The School Of Life, A Mental, Physical, And Spiritual Discovery.' I told you I couldn't do justice to it in 15 minutes, but I'm honored to have you here.
Ladd: You can get it at Barnes, Borders, and Amazon.com. (laughs)
Tavis: She knows how to do this.
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