Why director Sarah Polley is a national treasure
5 things to know about the actress, writer, director, producer and political activist's trailblazing career.
Sarah Polley is a woman of many titles. She first found her success acting in children's series, but has become known and respected for her truthful storytelling behind the camera.
Polley's movies — Away From Her, Take This Waltz (both on CBC Gem), and the autobiographical Stories We Tell — deal with the complexity of long-term relationships, memory and truth. Most recently, she executive produced and directed some episodes of CBC digital original comedy series, Hey Lady!, which is available to stream on CBC Gem.
Sarah plays film the way Mozart played the piano.- Margaret Atwood
Sarah Polley was the child-star rebel to look up to.
Polley started acting at age 4. She was labelled as "Canada's Sweetheart" after her lead role in the TV adaptation of Lucy Maud Montgomery's Road to Avonlea, which aired on the Disney Channel in the U.S, and was a Canadian-TV mainstay from 1990 to 1996.
The 'sweetheart' label didn't last long. At age 12, she got in trouble with Disney for wearing a peace sign on a red carpet to protest the Gulf War. At 14, she dropped out of school, moved out of her family house and focused on left-wing political activism. Riot police knocked out some of her teeth during a protest against Ontario's conservative government, according to The Canadian Encyclopedia.
In a 1996 clip from a Canadian teen talk show called Jonovision, 17-year-old Sarah, distances these acts from being another 'celebrity do-gooder': "If it was to promote my career, I'd pick something a little bit more fashionable, like AIDS. I think it's great celebrities in Hollywood stand up for things like that, but no one really stands up for anything controversial, like really challenging the system that creates this growing disparity between the rich and the poor."
She turned down Hollywood to embrace Canadian indie.
In 1999, 19-year-old Polley starred in Guinevere, produced by Harvey Weinstein's Miramax. In 2017, she wrote a New York Times article about her experience titled "The Men you Meet Making Movies". She says Harvey Weinstein once suggested they have a "close relationship" in order to advance her career, but she turned him down.
Polley says in The New York Times article: "I've grown up in this industry, surrounded by predatory behavior, and the idea of making people care about it seemed as distant an ambition as pulling the sun out of the sky."
Polley was on the cover of Vanity Fair's Hollywood issue, along with Kate Hudson, Julia Stiles, and Reese Witherspoon. But shortly after her experience with Weinstein, She started writing and directing short films, mostly taking projects within the Canadian indie scene. In 2000, she turned down the role of Penny Lane in Almost Famous.
"I had no idea, until then, how little respect I had been shown as an actor." said Polley in the NYT.
Polley made her first film in her 20's, and it's about Alzheimer's
Her first film Away From Her (2008) garnered Oscar nominations for best adapted screenplay and best actress. An adaptation of an Alice Munro short story "The Bear Came Over the Mountain", which Polley first read in The New Yorker, the film follows a retired married couple, Grant (Gordon Pinsent) and Fiona (Julie Christie), who live comfortably in a house in the country. Their contentment is permanently disrupted when Fiona's memory starts to deteriorate, and she insists upon going to a rest home — a choice that only causes Grant more pain. Though plagued by the notion that Fiona may be tormenting him for past misdeeds, he forges ahead, resolved to ensure his wife's comfort even as it causes him anguish.
Polley said in an interview with George Stroumboulopoulos, that Canada was the perfect place to direct a film because "there's so much more creative control in this country."
Polley made a documentary about her own life and relationships
The drama in her own life demanded to be told in Polley's documentary Stories We Tell (Watch on NFB).
Polley bravely explored the discovery of her biological father, and the conflicting stories around it told by her family members.
Her films usually expand on this theme, showing empathy for the complexity of relationships and infidelity. In Take This Waltz (which is available to stream for free on CBC Gem), Margot (Michelle Williams) explodes her happy marriage to Lou (Seth Rogen) when she develops an infatuation with the handsome stranger who lives across the road from her house in downtown Toronto.
Sarah Polley first approached Margaret Atwood for the screen rights to her novel "Alias Grace" when she was just 17.
Polley told CBC that as a teenager, it was "one of the most fascinating books" she had ever read. Twenty years later, Polley directed the TV adaptation of Alias Grace, which went to TIFF and is available to stream on CBC Gem.
The series portrays a dark reality of women's rights in Canada during the 1800's.
Margaret Atwood herself says, "It gave me horrible nightmares, I have to say. It's very powerful," Atwood told CBC News.
Polley's career has been an epic journey, and hopefully for those watching, it's just the beginning.