[IMG:L]Actors who become directors get all the attention: Clint Eastwood went from tough guy to auteur in Hollywood’s eye when he stepped behind the camera. Warren Beatty, Robert Redford and Kevin Costner all became Oscar bait, and even Mel Gibson weathered his recent publicity storm by releasing another acclaimed work of cinema. And now the ladies are getting their turn: Sarah Polley may be getting more attention for directing than she ever did acting.
A star on the indie film circuit, beginning with Atom Egoyan‘s films Exotica and The Sweet Hereafter, Polley had some success in mainstream movies like Go and Dawn of the Dead, but was never a household name. Continuing to work in small films like Guinevere, My Life Without Me and Don’t Come Knocking, Polley put acting on hold to direct the drama Away From Her.
Based on Alice Munro‘s short story “The Bear Came Over the Mountain,” the film shows what happens when Grant (Gordon Pinsent) has to put his wife Fiona (Julie Christie) into a home for Alzheimer’s patients. Required to leave her for 30 days without visiting, presumably so that she can adjust, he returns a month later to find her attached to another patient with little connection to her husband.
Hollywood.com: You probably started this before it came out, but did The Notebook impact you for addressing Alzheimer’s in a mainstream movie?
Sarah Polley: I don’t know. It was certainly a good reference point to have that that was a film that people connected to and was accessible to people. And at the same time this was always going to be extremely different than that film. I think that this was much more about them as they are in their ’70s as opposed to who they were when they were young. In terms of the way Alice Munro wrote the short story, these very vibrant, very rich characters who are full of sexuality and edge and darkness as well as being lovely people whereas I felt like The Notebook had that quality which I think a lot of films have when they deal with people in their ’60s and ’70s, that people become very sweet and sexless and everything becomes okay and nothing happened in between them getting together and having this perfect life later. There were no betrayals, there were no failures, which isn’t in my experience of the world a very honest portrait of a marriage.
HW: At 28, how did you connect so well with people of your grandparents’ generation?
SP: I don’t know. It’s funny because that’s the only thing that’s occurred to me since I’ve made the film, that it’s strange to make a film about people so much older. I think I’ve always had friends at really different ages. I have friends who are a lot younger than me and friends who are a lot older than me. So Julie was one of my close friends and so was Olympia [Dukakis] and I feel like I do have a certain amount of access to people who are living that part of life. I don’t claim to understand it at the age of 28 but it’s not something that feels like it’s from a foreign country either.
HW: How did you address bringing humor into the film? It’s very sensitively handled.
SP: I thought it was important because I feel like the thing that kind of alienates me from films is when they feel like they’re at the center of the world or that whatever tragedy or emotional story is going on in the film, the world has stopped for it. I feel like Oliver Stone‘s the most guilty person for that. It’s like nothing in the world is happening except what’s going on in his movies, even if it’s about football. And it’s really important for me when I see any work of art that someone has a sense that the world can be very indifferent and the world can keep laughing and people keep having moments of joy even in the middle of the worst kinds of tragedy. So I thought that the audience would needs moments to release the emotion that was building up, and also a sense that yeah, life does actually go on and that’s part of what’s really tragic and really funny about the world.
HW: When she watches the news and says, “How could they forget Vietnam,” was that from the short story or perhaps a comment on the war?
SP: It’s not in the short story and I felt it was important to again, make it not just this claustrophobic story about memory between two people but to broaden it and give it a sense of time and place. And it also was a moment for Grant to have that confusion that I think a lot of caregivers have when someone’s able to remember something else other than the person they love so vividly.
HW: You have been politically active before. Can a work of art change people’s minds or expose people to ideas?
SP: I think it’s essential. I think it’s one of the purposes of any kind of art form is to be engaging in a dialogue with the world and about the world. I don’t think this is a particularly political film, although I do love the idea of one day being able to make political films.
HW: You had your husband, David Wharnsby, edit the film. Was it hard not to bring the work home?
SP: It was an amazing process and we learned a ton about each other and about how to communicate and about how to fight because one thing we kind of didn’t ever do in our relationship was fight. It was actually really valuable to learn how to argue because it was just new for us and really bizarre. But it was amazing because it was the kind of disagreement you just can’t walk away from. You do have to say what you think because something has to get done and you’re going to have to live with it for a long time. And we found that what we would do is we would argue in the editing room and make up at night which was a really nice juxtaposition. We would actually work out what we would go in with the next day at home. It was crazy, totally crazy.
HW: Like in a lot of the movies you acted in, there’s a lot of stillness in Away From Her. Do you instinctively get the importance of that, or did you learn it?
SP: Well, I think learning about film and falling in love with film through Atom‘s films was really informative to me. And he is somebody who really relishes stillness and really is comfortable with it and patient with it and focuses on it. So I think that that is kind of in my blood a little bit from working on his films and I think it’s generally what I like the most as an audience is when you see a great actor in stillness. I think those are the moments I remember the most in films. I think it’s very much in the short story as well and allowing them the space and the time to have those stillnesses was important.
HW: How long has directing been part of the plan for you?
SP: I never thought I wanted to direct. When I was 20 I had an idea for a short film and it was really simple and basic and cheap and I thought why not try and make this. In the process of making that short film, I think I figured out it’s what I wanted to do but I really did figure it out by doing it. It was never something I thought I wanted to do.
HW: Having gotten to work with both male and female directors, do you notice a difference in the women?
SP: I can never figure out or articulate what the difference is between male filmmakers and female filmmakers both in their approach and in the final product, but it’s certainly been great for me to work. Like the female filmmakers I’ve worked with, I’ve had amazing experiences with. Like Audrey Wells and Isabel Coixet and Katherine Bigelow. It’s been I think a real asset as a young female filmmaker to have those role models. I think that’s part of the problem for young women is that there aren’t enough role models, people for us to look at who have had successful careers in the film industry. So I think I was really at an advantage in having people to look at and how they managed to pull this off.
HW: What do you want to direct next?
SP: I don’t know. I have no idea at this point to be honest with you. I’m kind of not closed to anything. My sense is this was an idyllic experience and I loved making a film on this scale at this budget level in that environment. So I’m not anxious to make anything a lot bigger or in a different environment than I made this one but I’m not really closed to anything at this point.
HW: Are you anxious to direct again before you act?
SP: I’m acting this year in the summer and then I’m also at the same time developing two screenplays, so I think I’ll take this year to act and kind of process this experience and then hopefully begin trying to make another film next year. I’m working on the HBO miniseries about John Adams with Paul Giamatti and Laura Linney. And then I’m also doing a movie called Mr. Nobody with Jaco van Dormael who did Toto the Hero.
