Bruce Dern takes a bow at the Cannes Film Festival with a new documentary on his life

CANNES, France (AP) — When Bruce Dern was leaving the Actors Studio to try to make it in Los Angeles, Elia Kazan and Lee Strasberg warned him that he wasn’t going to be landing leading man parts. He was going to be “the fifth cowboy to the right.”

“They said: Just make sure you’re the most honest, unique fifth cowboy right that anyone’s ever seen,” Dern recalls.

Dern had to play the long game. But for the actor, an avid marathon runner who used to jog from his Malibu home to set, acting has always been an endurance sport.

Dern, who turns 90 next month, came to the Cannes Film Festival this week to take a well-deserved bow.

“Dernsie: The Amazing Life of Bruce Dern,” a documentary about his long-distance career, premiered on Thursday at the festival.

“I see a journey, a long uninterrupted journey,” Dern said in an interview alongside his daughter, Laura. “A bunch of folks got together and said: ‘Bruce Dern could play.’ That’s all I wanted.”

Cannes, like most things for Dern, holds plenty of stories. He first came here, he says, with Alfred Hitchcock for “Marnie.” In 2013, he won best actor in Cannes for one of his few leading performances, in “Nebraska,” directed by Alexander Payne.

Along the way, Laura Dern has often been there. As a child, Hitchcock gave her a mini director’s chair to sit in. On “Nebraska,” Laura — who starred in Payne’s first feature, “Citizen Ruth” — for a week rode in the trailing van with Payne. She’s currently in the south of France to shoot the fourth season of “The White Lotus,” but she was eager to join for her dad’s moment in Cannes and help him down the red carpet.

“What I loved about witnessing dad’s career is when I was a little kid, people would come up to me and say, ‘Boy, do I love to hate your dad,’” she said. “That was a common quote, which meant they had fallen in love with this character even though he shot John Wayne or the various things he was up to.”

“Blew up the Super Bowl,” says her father, grinning.

Dern has done some terrible things on screen. He’s hit Barbara Stanwyck (“The Big Valley”). He’s lynched Clint Eastwood (“Hang ’Em High”). He killed John Wayne (“The Cowboys”), an offense some never forgave him for.

In 1977’s “Black Sunday,” Dern played a disturbed Vietnam veteran pilot who tries to blow up the Super Bowl with a blimp full of explosives. Such exploits, and the live-wire intensity that Dern brought to them, made him idolized by filmmakers like Quentin Tarantino. In the documentary, he calls Dern “one of the finest and most entertaining examples of great American acting.”

That unpredictability also makes Dern a hold-onto-your-seat interview. He has stories to tell, and likes telling them. Tangents come like haymakers. That made for a particular challenge for “Dernsie” director Mike Mendez. He and Dern began just talking over breakfasts at IHOP. For the documentary, he tried to recreate that experience while vainly attempting to keep Dern on subject.

“I would try,” sighs Mendez. “But as anybody who’s ever spoken to him or interviewed him, he’s like a wild bull. You can feed him a question and his mind is just going to go wherever it’s going to go.”

Talking in Cannes, Dern’s free-flowing topics included Hitchcock’s treatment of Tippi Hedren, his friendship with Jack Nicholson (“He was ahead of us all”), what Stanwyck said to him after slapping him (“She said, ‘I’m not going to even ask you if I hurt you’”), a jogging route to Santa Barbara and a near word-for-word recital of the climactic scene of “Nebraska.”

But a through line to “Dernsie” is its title’s meaning. Throughout his career, Dern was known for his off-the-cuff improvisations that jolted scenes into life. The term he credits to Nicholson, who liked a finger snap Dern added during the making of Nicholson’s 1971 film, “Drive, He Said.”

“He said, ‘I want to say something. That little snap of the fingers that he just did? He’s been doing that s--- for 10 years and no one ever gave him a chance to film that. That’s a Dernsie,” Dern says.

During a scene with Brad Pitt in “Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood,” Dern added a line — “You did something today that really touched me. You came to see me” — that he says came out of how he felt to be a part of the movie.

“And afterward Brad had tears in his eyes and picked me up like a little baby and carried me around the set,” says Dern, laughing.

“I don’t rehearse it,’ he explains. “Once the switch is on, you’re going. The Dernsies, I don’t know what they’re going to be. I take from everything that’s going on around, even if it has nothing to do with it.”

These aren’t just the reminiscences of a retired actor, either. Dern still very much has the mindset of a working actor. He plans to keep going until he drops. It’s an attitude that Laura’s mother, Diane Ladd, who died last year, also shared.

“We read so much about longevity,” she says. “Now the studies are showing that a purpose driven life, more than a Mediterranean diet, more than all the different things people debate, is in fact the greatest act of longevity. My parents both said to me that they would act until they go. My dad is determined to be a lifelong artist.”

Aside from this accolade for “Nebraska” in Cannes, Dern has been nominated twice for an Academy Award. He co-starred in “The Trip,” “The Great Gatsby,” “Coming Home,” “The ’Burbs” and “The Hateful Eight.” He’s amassed more than 150 credits.

Not bad for “the fifth cowboy from the right.”

Bruce Dern poses for photographers at the photo call for the film 'Dernsie: The Amazing Life of Bruce Dern' at the 79th international film festival, Cannes, southern France, Wednesday, May 20, 2026. (AP Photo/John Locher)

Bruce Dern poses for photographers at the photo call for the film 'Dernsie: The Amazing Life of Bruce Dern' at the 79th international film festival, Cannes, southern France, Wednesday, May 20, 2026. (AP Photo/John Locher)

Jaya Harper, from left, Laura Dern, Bruce Dern, and Ellery Harper pose for photographers upon arrival at the premiere of the film 'De Gaulle: Tilting Iron' at the 79th international film festival, Cannes, southern France, Wednesday, May 20, 2026. (AP Photo/John Locher)

Bruce Dern poses for portrait photographs for the film 'Dernsie: The Amazing Life of Bruce Dern' at the 79th international film festival, Cannes, southern France, Thursday, May 21, 2026. (Photo by Scott A Garfitt/Invision/AP)

Bruce Dern poses for photographers at the photo call for the film 'Dernsie: The Amazing Life of Bruce Dern' at the 79th international film festival, Cannes, southern France, Wednesday, May 20, 2026. (AP Photo/John Locher)

The PWHL filled its final two expansion team general manager openings with three-time U.S. Olympian Meghan Duggan taking over in Hamilton, Ontario, and Troy Ryan leaving the Toronto Sceptres to take on the dual role of coach and GM in San Jose.

The hirings were announced Friday and complete the league’s round of GM additions for each of its four new franchises, which will begin play next season.

The 38-year-old Duggan spent the past five years in a player development role in the NHL with the New Jersey Devils. She brings high-profile name recognition and experience to the PWHL’s fifth Canadian-based franchise.

She had already been working with the PWHL as a special consultant for the hockey operations department. Before her retirement in 2020, Duggan was a founding member of the PWHPA, which was made up of a group of players who helped establish the PWHL three years ago.

“Meghan has been an effective leader at every stage of her career, and she is a rising star in the front office ranks,” said PWHL executive VP of hockey operations Jayna Hefford, who oversaw the hiring process.

Ryan, meantime, leaves Toronto after coaching the team in its first three seasons to become the PWHL’s first to handle both coaching and GM duties. The move continues an offseason of transition for Ryan. He previously said he’s stepping down after a six-year stint as head coach the Canadian national women’s team.

The 54-year-old Ryan coached Canada to a gold medal at the 2022 Beijing Olympics, and won silver at the Milan Cortina Games in February.

“Expansion creates a rare opportunity to shape everything with intention, from the standards and culture, to the people and connection to the community,” Ryan said. “We want to build a team that plays with purpose, represents the Bay Area with pride, and helps continue to grow women’s hockey on the West Coast.”

The four new franchises grow the PWHL to 12 teams for next season, doubling the league’s size since it began play in 2024. The league also added teams in Detroit and Las Vegas.

Among Duggan and Ryan’s immediate responsibilities are hiring their staff, including a coach in Hamilton, while also filling out their rosters. The league’s expansion signing process is set to begin in two weeks, followed by the draft on June 17.

Duggan is from Danvers, Massachusetts, and won Olympic silver medals in 2010 and 2014 before winning gold in at the 2018 Pyeongchang Games, with her serving as team captain. She also won seven gold medals and one silver in eight world championship appearances.

Despite her U.S. roots, Duggan has Canadian connections. She’s married to former Team Canada rival Gillian Apps, who is from the Toronto area, about an hour’s drive east of Hamilton.

“This league represents the future of women’s professional sports. And the opportunity to help build a team, culture, and identity from the ground up is a privilege,” Duggan said. “Hamilton is a passionate sports city with a rich hockey tradition, and my goal is to create an environment where players can thrive and compete for a championship.”

Duggan played at Wisconsin, where she won the 2011 Patty Kazmaier Memorial Award as women’s college hockey’s MVP following her senior season with the Badgers.

Ryan brings a wealth of hockey front office and coaching experience to the PWHL’s first team in California. He was the PWHL’s first coach of the year in 2024, and has a career record of 52-32-10.

Under Ryan, the Sceptres lost in the semifinal round of the playoffs in their first two seasons, and finished fifth this year after being eliminated on the final day of the regular season. In Toronto, he worked with GM Gina Kingsbury, who held the same role with Team Canada.

Ryan is credited for helping turn around a Canadian national team program that hit its low in winning bronze at the 2019 world championships. In the five following world tournament appearances under Ryan, Canada won three gold medals and two silvers.

Ryan is from Nova Scotia, and worked in several GM and coaching jobs in the men’s Junior A Maritime Hockey League. He then made the switch in becoming head coach of the Dalhousie University women’s team from 2020-23.

AP women’s hockey: https://apnews.com/hub/womens-hockey

FILE - Toronto Sceptres head coach Troy Ryan directs his team as they play the Minnesota Frost in the first period of a PWHL hockey playoff game, May 11, 2025, in St. Paul, Minn. (AP Photo/Bruce Kluckhohn, File)

FILE - Meghan Duggan listens to a question from the media, March 3, 2018, in Annapolis, Md. (AP Photo/Nick Wass, File)