Reese Witherspoon reacts to Nicole Kidman forgetting her real first name as ‘Vanity Fair’ reunites the friends and co-stars five years after the season 2 finale of ‘Big Little Lies.’ Reese explains why she refers to Laura Dern as simply ‘Dern,’ saying it���s because the two share the same first name. Reese isn’t the only star with an attachment to her real name – Anne Hathaway and Emma Stone have opened up about preferring to be called something other than their stage names.