My Life Without Me director Isabel Coixet has described Sarah Polley as a down to earth heavenly creature. After talking with Sarah for almost an hour about zombies, death and Canada I found that she is right. Unlike many young actresses she has this inner light and charm that just draws you in to discover that even though she is a brilliant actress she is also a great person. Like her character Ann you believe that Sarah could mop the floor and write beautiful poetry at the same time. She's like an angel that you can play pool with.
My Life Without Me is the story of Anne, a young woman who makes a radical change in her life when she learns that she has only a few months to live. Unexpectedly, she discovers an appetite for life that drives her to live her last days with a sensual and furious intensity she never knew she possessed. She makes a long list of things to do before she passes. Make love with another man, find another wife and mother for her family and make audio tapes for her kids.
Sarah Polley first came to light in America in Terry Gilliam's The Adventures of Baron Munchausen and first got her real break as part of the incestual family in Atom Egoyan's The Sweet Hereafter. Since then she has only appeared in independent films such as David Cronenberg's eXistenZ and Guinevere. But she makes the time to have a life, be politically active and have fun.
Check out the website for My Life Without Me.
Daniel Robert Epstein: Sarah as a Canadian you're obviously you're very into working in Canada. Is that the scripts that come to you or is it partly because of national pride?
Sarah Polley: When I got the script for My Life Without Me it wasn't set in Canada. I think that decision came later. So it was based on the script.
DRE: What was it like working with Debbie Harry as your mother?
SP: It was amazing. She's an amazing actor and also one of the most normal people I've ever met. I'm a fan of her music and it's really strange that someone who is an icon can also seem like your next door neighbor. There is nothing about her that indicates that she's had this crazy life.
DRE: I would imagine Amanda Plummer isn't exactly normal.
SP: She's not normal but she is wonderful, crazy, quirky and fantastic. When it comes to working with her as an actor, its really easy. This movie was like the acting Olympics. Everyday I was working with an amazing actor that I've respected for a long time. None of them had any crap or ego. It sort of set me up for disappointment with every other film I've done since [laughs].
DRE: You have many two person scenes. Did you prepare with each person differently?
SP: Yeah each coupling felt different. [writer/director] Isabel [Coixet] had very specific ideas about each relationship so it was easy to clarify things and not make one relationship run into another.
DRE: Why did you want to play this character?
SP: I found the script incredibly moving and then I saw Isabel's other films. To know that someone had written something so rich then was also amazing visually is rare. I remember when I saw her movie Things I Never Told You [with Lili Taylor, released in 1996] and I could really tell the relationship between a director and an actor by watching that film. You could tell there was a lot of trust there and I loved Lili's performance.
My Life Without Me is the part of a lifetime and that doesn't happen too often. Also I don't think it happens very often that you find a character that you can respect that much without her becoming inhuman. It also takes someone from outside North America to be able to make a movie about a woman who is a janitor who lives in a trailer with two kids and not make fun of her. I think there is a really sad trend in North American films where we deal with anyone below the poverty line as white trash. To me it's a huge step forward to have this really human film about someone living in this environment and not be condescending.
DRE: After working with people like Atom Egoyan and David Cronenberg you have this big Goth following.
SP: That's weird.
DRE: Have you met many of those fans?
SP: Not really. I live a pretty quiet life in Toronto. It's a city where people don't give a shit what you do. It's all equal so people don't care whether you are garbage man or a filmmaker.
DRE: How do they perceive you in Canada?
SP: I think it's a complicated relationship because when I was little I was on that sugary sweet horrible kid's show called Road to Avonlea. So a lot of people watched the show growing up. On the one hand they wanted me to stay that way but then I got political which isn't frowned upon there. Sometimes I think people just want me to shut up.
I get to work with a lot of filmmakers I want but we don't have this culture of building up icons. I am on magazines when I am promoting a film but otherwise I have an anonymous life.
DRE: What made you leave home at age 14?
SP: It was practical because my dad lived in a little town outside Toronto. I was going to school in Toronto and I wanted to be closer. I was given a lot of independence at an early age.
DRE: Do you think audiences will have trouble feeling sorry for Ann because she decides that since she is dying to have sex with someone else besides her husband?
SP: I don't think you're supposed to feel sorry for her. She doesn't feel sorry for herself and that's what makes her an interesting character. That's also what makes the movie bearable and even watchable because it's not someone who wallows in self pity. I think it becomes about living and doing things she hasn't done.
DRE: Do you think you're character feels any guilt?
SP: Isabel and I talked about that it a bit. I think there is one fleeting moment of guilt but she is going to die in two months. I think she's someone who might be faithful to her husband for the rest of her life. This is something she does because she is going to die. Everything she does is for her kids and husband. I think it's important that she does something for herself. She's not a saint.
DRE: Ann is very practical so she makes a list of things to do. Could you be that practical?
SP: I doubt it. I think that Ann is a lot stronger and braver than I would be. A question I always get is what would my list be. I never made one because every time I would try to compare what I would do in this situation I came into a conflict with the character of Ann. It ended up being a very useless thing to do. I couldn't think how I would feel in this situation but, how would she feel because we're completely different people. The last moment in the film when I am watching the new woman play with the kids, that's supposed to be the most peaceful moment for Ann where she maybe has achieved what she wanted to. The hardest thing in the movie to do was to listen to a new family without me. I couldn't handle that so I just followed the script. It makes me realize that I'm not as strong as the person I'm playing.
DRE: Your mother passed away when you were only 11. Did use you experience that for this role?
SP: You never know what in life influences what you do and who you become. I'm sure with this film there is a huge connection and it's probably why I wanted to play the part. I very rarely aggressively go after movies. I can always think of actors who can do something better than I can. I pursued this a lot because I have this personal connection to the material.
DRE: Did your mother leave anything for you?
SP: It was a very difference experience of dying than Ann has. I don't think my mother was ever allowed to admit she was going to die because everyone around her was so determined for her to live. She didn't have two months to organize what she wanted to get done. I think that was really kind of great about doing this film because I was able to act out a really different experience of dying than I had witnessed.
DRE: I read quite a few interviews with you where you said in general actors take themselves too seriously. Are you serious when working?
SP: I still think you can be serious when working but still leave a lot of space for other people to act. Some actors don't leave that space. You can work really hard but still have a lot of fun doing it and not try to impose that on the people who just want to work. I really resent when people need that space and everyone needs to be in a certain mood. Although I see how easy it can become to demand that. Certainly there is the temptation and focus put on you that you can imagine it is all about you.
DRE: Do you treat it like a job?
SP: Pretty much. Ultimately things affect you and certainly this film would be an extreme example. I feel like it affected a certain way I live but I can't put a finger on exactly what. But it lent a certain gravity and maybe made me enjoy things more. That is rare for me though. I don't usually take things home.
DRE: How was it playing the scene where you are told you are going to die?
SP: It wasn't difficult because I've known Julian Richings, who played the doctor, for a while and I really trust him. He's so generous that it was interesting and fascinating the different ways the scene could go.
DRE: I was reading that when you were a teenager you were a bit of a political activist and a bit of an anarchist yourself. You got a couple of teeth knocked out by a cop. What happened with that?
SP: Well I'm still politically active but more issue oriented. But when I was 16 to 18 that was my whole life until I did The Sweet Hereafter. I was working on stuff surrounding the welfare cuts and the arts cuts in Ontario. Now every year or so I get really involved for a few months but I try to balance my life more because you can get really dogmatic and stupid if that's all you do. You need to be experiencing the world as well as trying to change it.
DRE: I didn't realize that the cops in Canada get violent enough to knock people's teeth out.
SP: That was the first time in a long while that something like that happened. That was the beginning of an era of police violence in Canada that has continued. But it was a strange thing at the time.
DRE: What issues are you involved with right now?
SP: At the moment nothing but the last thing was an organization that's trying to protect public health care in Ontario. They're trying to open up little private cancer care clinics and encroach on the public care system. Once you do that under NAFTA any private caretaker from the US can come and compete. You open the door to having a two tiered system. In my lifetime public health care has worked amazingly in Canada. In the last 7 or 8 years they've made cuts to try to manufacture a crisis so they can say we need private health care. It's been terrifying to watch that happen. I don't think I realized how lucky we were until I had a friend who broke her leg in Florida and she is still $20,000 in debt.
DRE: What was it like doing The Sweet Hereafter?
SP: I was so young then, 18. I'm really comfortable in sadness so I don't get depressed doing stuff like that. I actually find it invigorating. It was an amazing experience. Atom is a filmmaker who I really respect and I felt like I had his trust.
DRE: Why do you like working in sadness so much?
SP: I'm just comfortable in it. Maybe it's because my first real acting experience was The Sweet Hereafter playing a really damaged character.
DRE: What was it like working with David Cronenberg?
SP: Really amazing. He's a normal person who you can't imagine making these crazy films. He seems like a banker sometimes.
DRE: I read that many explosions went off close to your head during the filming of The Adventures of Baron Munchausen [released in 1988]. Then you said you would never do a big budget movie again but now you are starring the remake of Dawn of the Dead.
SP: I really loved the first Dawn of the Dead and I'm a huge zombie fan. It's really the only way I can imagine going mainstream is if there is a zombie in the movie, even just one. Every movie should have a fucking zombie. The original is also a smart metaphor for consumerism and is still relevant today. I also did the movie because I was scared to do it. Even though I wanted to do it I almost felt I should only do independent film. As soon as I heard myself thinking that way I thought I should do it because I want to.
DRE: Where did you shoot it?
SP: Toronto.
DRE: Not Pittsburgh?
SP: Unfortunately not.
DRE: What are your favorite zombie films?
SP: The Romero movies are great. White Zombie too.
DRE: Do you feel like you missed out on a childhood at all because you started acting at an early age?
SP: I missed out on a traditional childhood but I had something else that got me to what I am doing today. I can't say I regret it but I certainly wouldn't let my child act at an early age.
by Daniel Robert Epstein
My Life Without Me is the story of Anne, a young woman who makes a radical change in her life when she learns that she has only a few months to live. Unexpectedly, she discovers an appetite for life that drives her to live her last days with a sensual and furious intensity she never knew she possessed. She makes a long list of things to do before she passes. Make love with another man, find another wife and mother for her family and make audio tapes for her kids.
Sarah Polley first came to light in America in Terry Gilliam's The Adventures of Baron Munchausen and first got her real break as part of the incestual family in Atom Egoyan's The Sweet Hereafter. Since then she has only appeared in independent films such as David Cronenberg's eXistenZ and Guinevere. But she makes the time to have a life, be politically active and have fun.
Check out the website for My Life Without Me.
Daniel Robert Epstein: Sarah as a Canadian you're obviously you're very into working in Canada. Is that the scripts that come to you or is it partly because of national pride?
Sarah Polley: When I got the script for My Life Without Me it wasn't set in Canada. I think that decision came later. So it was based on the script.
DRE: What was it like working with Debbie Harry as your mother?
SP: It was amazing. She's an amazing actor and also one of the most normal people I've ever met. I'm a fan of her music and it's really strange that someone who is an icon can also seem like your next door neighbor. There is nothing about her that indicates that she's had this crazy life.
DRE: I would imagine Amanda Plummer isn't exactly normal.
SP: She's not normal but she is wonderful, crazy, quirky and fantastic. When it comes to working with her as an actor, its really easy. This movie was like the acting Olympics. Everyday I was working with an amazing actor that I've respected for a long time. None of them had any crap or ego. It sort of set me up for disappointment with every other film I've done since [laughs].
DRE: You have many two person scenes. Did you prepare with each person differently?
SP: Yeah each coupling felt different. [writer/director] Isabel [Coixet] had very specific ideas about each relationship so it was easy to clarify things and not make one relationship run into another.
DRE: Why did you want to play this character?
SP: I found the script incredibly moving and then I saw Isabel's other films. To know that someone had written something so rich then was also amazing visually is rare. I remember when I saw her movie Things I Never Told You [with Lili Taylor, released in 1996] and I could really tell the relationship between a director and an actor by watching that film. You could tell there was a lot of trust there and I loved Lili's performance.
My Life Without Me is the part of a lifetime and that doesn't happen too often. Also I don't think it happens very often that you find a character that you can respect that much without her becoming inhuman. It also takes someone from outside North America to be able to make a movie about a woman who is a janitor who lives in a trailer with two kids and not make fun of her. I think there is a really sad trend in North American films where we deal with anyone below the poverty line as white trash. To me it's a huge step forward to have this really human film about someone living in this environment and not be condescending.
DRE: After working with people like Atom Egoyan and David Cronenberg you have this big Goth following.
SP: That's weird.
DRE: Have you met many of those fans?
SP: Not really. I live a pretty quiet life in Toronto. It's a city where people don't give a shit what you do. It's all equal so people don't care whether you are garbage man or a filmmaker.
DRE: How do they perceive you in Canada?
SP: I think it's a complicated relationship because when I was little I was on that sugary sweet horrible kid's show called Road to Avonlea. So a lot of people watched the show growing up. On the one hand they wanted me to stay that way but then I got political which isn't frowned upon there. Sometimes I think people just want me to shut up.
I get to work with a lot of filmmakers I want but we don't have this culture of building up icons. I am on magazines when I am promoting a film but otherwise I have an anonymous life.
DRE: What made you leave home at age 14?
SP: It was practical because my dad lived in a little town outside Toronto. I was going to school in Toronto and I wanted to be closer. I was given a lot of independence at an early age.
DRE: Do you think audiences will have trouble feeling sorry for Ann because she decides that since she is dying to have sex with someone else besides her husband?
SP: I don't think you're supposed to feel sorry for her. She doesn't feel sorry for herself and that's what makes her an interesting character. That's also what makes the movie bearable and even watchable because it's not someone who wallows in self pity. I think it becomes about living and doing things she hasn't done.
DRE: Do you think you're character feels any guilt?
SP: Isabel and I talked about that it a bit. I think there is one fleeting moment of guilt but she is going to die in two months. I think she's someone who might be faithful to her husband for the rest of her life. This is something she does because she is going to die. Everything she does is for her kids and husband. I think it's important that she does something for herself. She's not a saint.
DRE: Ann is very practical so she makes a list of things to do. Could you be that practical?
SP: I doubt it. I think that Ann is a lot stronger and braver than I would be. A question I always get is what would my list be. I never made one because every time I would try to compare what I would do in this situation I came into a conflict with the character of Ann. It ended up being a very useless thing to do. I couldn't think how I would feel in this situation but, how would she feel because we're completely different people. The last moment in the film when I am watching the new woman play with the kids, that's supposed to be the most peaceful moment for Ann where she maybe has achieved what she wanted to. The hardest thing in the movie to do was to listen to a new family without me. I couldn't handle that so I just followed the script. It makes me realize that I'm not as strong as the person I'm playing.
DRE: Your mother passed away when you were only 11. Did use you experience that for this role?
SP: You never know what in life influences what you do and who you become. I'm sure with this film there is a huge connection and it's probably why I wanted to play the part. I very rarely aggressively go after movies. I can always think of actors who can do something better than I can. I pursued this a lot because I have this personal connection to the material.
DRE: Did your mother leave anything for you?
SP: It was a very difference experience of dying than Ann has. I don't think my mother was ever allowed to admit she was going to die because everyone around her was so determined for her to live. She didn't have two months to organize what she wanted to get done. I think that was really kind of great about doing this film because I was able to act out a really different experience of dying than I had witnessed.
DRE: I read quite a few interviews with you where you said in general actors take themselves too seriously. Are you serious when working?
SP: I still think you can be serious when working but still leave a lot of space for other people to act. Some actors don't leave that space. You can work really hard but still have a lot of fun doing it and not try to impose that on the people who just want to work. I really resent when people need that space and everyone needs to be in a certain mood. Although I see how easy it can become to demand that. Certainly there is the temptation and focus put on you that you can imagine it is all about you.
DRE: Do you treat it like a job?
SP: Pretty much. Ultimately things affect you and certainly this film would be an extreme example. I feel like it affected a certain way I live but I can't put a finger on exactly what. But it lent a certain gravity and maybe made me enjoy things more. That is rare for me though. I don't usually take things home.
DRE: How was it playing the scene where you are told you are going to die?
SP: It wasn't difficult because I've known Julian Richings, who played the doctor, for a while and I really trust him. He's so generous that it was interesting and fascinating the different ways the scene could go.
DRE: I was reading that when you were a teenager you were a bit of a political activist and a bit of an anarchist yourself. You got a couple of teeth knocked out by a cop. What happened with that?
SP: Well I'm still politically active but more issue oriented. But when I was 16 to 18 that was my whole life until I did The Sweet Hereafter. I was working on stuff surrounding the welfare cuts and the arts cuts in Ontario. Now every year or so I get really involved for a few months but I try to balance my life more because you can get really dogmatic and stupid if that's all you do. You need to be experiencing the world as well as trying to change it.
DRE: I didn't realize that the cops in Canada get violent enough to knock people's teeth out.
SP: That was the first time in a long while that something like that happened. That was the beginning of an era of police violence in Canada that has continued. But it was a strange thing at the time.
DRE: What issues are you involved with right now?
SP: At the moment nothing but the last thing was an organization that's trying to protect public health care in Ontario. They're trying to open up little private cancer care clinics and encroach on the public care system. Once you do that under NAFTA any private caretaker from the US can come and compete. You open the door to having a two tiered system. In my lifetime public health care has worked amazingly in Canada. In the last 7 or 8 years they've made cuts to try to manufacture a crisis so they can say we need private health care. It's been terrifying to watch that happen. I don't think I realized how lucky we were until I had a friend who broke her leg in Florida and she is still $20,000 in debt.
DRE: What was it like doing The Sweet Hereafter?
SP: I was so young then, 18. I'm really comfortable in sadness so I don't get depressed doing stuff like that. I actually find it invigorating. It was an amazing experience. Atom is a filmmaker who I really respect and I felt like I had his trust.
DRE: Why do you like working in sadness so much?
SP: I'm just comfortable in it. Maybe it's because my first real acting experience was The Sweet Hereafter playing a really damaged character.
DRE: What was it like working with David Cronenberg?
SP: Really amazing. He's a normal person who you can't imagine making these crazy films. He seems like a banker sometimes.
DRE: I read that many explosions went off close to your head during the filming of The Adventures of Baron Munchausen [released in 1988]. Then you said you would never do a big budget movie again but now you are starring the remake of Dawn of the Dead.
SP: I really loved the first Dawn of the Dead and I'm a huge zombie fan. It's really the only way I can imagine going mainstream is if there is a zombie in the movie, even just one. Every movie should have a fucking zombie. The original is also a smart metaphor for consumerism and is still relevant today. I also did the movie because I was scared to do it. Even though I wanted to do it I almost felt I should only do independent film. As soon as I heard myself thinking that way I thought I should do it because I want to.
DRE: Where did you shoot it?
SP: Toronto.
DRE: Not Pittsburgh?
SP: Unfortunately not.
DRE: What are your favorite zombie films?
SP: The Romero movies are great. White Zombie too.
DRE: Do you feel like you missed out on a childhood at all because you started acting at an early age?
SP: I missed out on a traditional childhood but I had something else that got me to what I am doing today. I can't say I regret it but I certainly wouldn't let my child act at an early age.
by Daniel Robert Epstein
VIEW 13 of 13 COMMENTS
otaku:
It's more of a bit role but I definitely liked her in "Last Night". Not to mention "Dawn of the Dead".
westley:
For those interested, Sarah Polley's debut feature as a director, Away from Her, has been circulating through film festivals for most of the year (I saw it in Sarasota a few months ago), and is pretty terrific filmmaking. It's set for a September 11th UK dvd release, but there is no announcement on the US dvd yet. I am guessing Lions Gate is going to hold it back so they can give the film some type of limited theater release briefly this fall because the film has a chance for several Oscar nominations, especially for Julie Christie (I'm sure they will ignore Gordon Pinsent, who is as good in the film, if not better).