Laura Dern didn't flinch when a questioner, in heavily accented English, suggested "Inland Empire" seemed almost impenetrable at times.

Laura Dern

If a director such as David Lynch or, before his November death, Robert Altman asked an actor to jump or run, the only question would be how high or for how long, she said.

"We have few true visionaries and, in the case of David, very few surrealists," especially in this country, Dern told reporters at the Spirit Awards in Santa Monica in late February. "So he has a very specific and unique vision, and you go for it."

Dern went for it in "Blue Velvet," in "Wild at Heart" and, most recently, in "Inland Empire," opening Friday at the Regent Square Theater in Edgewood. It meant working without a script, although not a safety net.

"Unlike the other movies I've done with David, there was not a script. We started with a monologue, and he wrote as we went along, so it took a great deal of trust, and I felt very lucky that we had a built-in relationship to fall back on.

"I didn't know where I was going for quite a long time [in 'Inland'], and I was playing all three leads in the movie and sort of learning about each character as I went along, so it was a very unusual process," she said. Dern plays an actress who lands a dream movie role that proves to be anything but.

The New York Times called her turn dazzling and fearless, while Rolling Stone said she delivers a "monumental performance that holds the line of humanism even as reality and illusion blur ..."

Dern, tall, blond and wearing a shoulder-baring red dress, and an absent Lynch were being honored with a Special Distinction Award for their collaborative work.

Lynch was in Paris, preparing for "The Air Is On Fire," an exhibition devoted to his art at the Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain. Open to the public until May 27, it showcases paintings, drawings, photographs, video and sound, and Lynch had been installing the show the day of Film Independent's Spirit Awards.

The 40-year-old Dern, daughter of Bruce Dern and Diane Ladd, has come a long way since she played the sensible girlfriend of the young man (Kyle MacLachlan) who finds a human ear at the beginning of "Blue Velvet," the 1986 critics' favorite about the dark side of small-town America. Dern and Nicolas Cage, as lovers on the lam, were among the stars of Lynch's 1990 "Wild at Heart."

"I started with David when I was 17, and I had only been playing leads in films for a few years at that point and, as comfortable as I was on movie sets, I felt young and sort of waiting for the boss to let me know what to do and where to stand a little bit.

"And through the course of a deep friendship, as well as feeling your roots as a professional over years of doing what you do, you learn to talk back a little while still collaborating, which makes it more fun."

As for whether Dern shares Lynch's artistic vision, she said she doesn't know.

"I hope I share his vision and can help be a facilitator to it, like any collaborator for a filmmaker, like the set designer, like the cinematographer, like the actors. ... David's is so unique you're on a ride, and you hope you're bringing everything he wants to it, and he expects boldness and bravery from you, and you hope you bring some of that."

Lynch shot the almost three-hour "Inland Empire" on consumer-grade digital video, and he's a convert to the new technology.

Asked what advice the 61-year-old director might have for Web-savvy filmmakers, she said, "The message that I know David would share, that I would concur with, would be: Stay true to your voice, make your movie."

Don't wait until you get to Hollywood or get someone's approval or land a certain actor. "Just make it. And that actually is possible now."