From acting to directing: Sarah Polley's career shift at TIFF
Women Talking is Polley’s latest film to debut at the Toronto International Film Festival
"I can't picture myself being an actress when I grow up," Sarah Polley told host Denise Rudnicki on CBC's Midday in 1989, when she was 10. "I want to win Wimbledon. That's my ambition."
Polley's tennis objective didn't pan out, but she was right that acting wasn't in her future. Instead, she grew up to become a film director.
Polley's latest effort, Women Talking, is based on a Miriam Toews novel of the same name. And like 2006's Away from Her, Polley's feature film directing debut, it's scheduled to premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival.
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Polley has been to TIFF before, of course. Within the CBC archives, we spotted a teenaged Polley in 1997 stock footage as she arrived at a festival screening of Atom Egoyan's The Sweet Hereafter, which she appeared in.
"Sarah, what do you think of all the attention, all the papers and all the media here?" asked an unidentified person.
"Kind of creepy," Polley replied. "I don't know [why]. I'm just not used to it."
Two years later, Polley told reporter Mike Wise about her "weird relationship" with the Canadian Film Centre barbecue held annually during the festival.
'I sort of resent the word "career" in my life'
"I always remember it as this really great, casual affair," she said. "And then I get here, and it's absolutely the opposite of that."
Polley had had "a very busy year," said Wise. He said she'd starred in the movie Go and appeared in two features at the festival, and was promoting her own short film at the festival.
But Polley was clear on what she wasn't seeking within the film industry: an acting career.
"I sort of resent the word 'career' in my life," she said with a laugh. "When you think of something as a career, you start doing things that you don't really want to do because you think they'll be useful somehow."
A shift to directing
In 2006, Polley was back at TIFF — this time as a director. Her first feature-length movie, Away from Her, was adapted from the Alice Munro short story The Bear Came Over the Mountain.
"I thought I would have a much better grasp of how to speak to actors because I was an actor myself," she told CBC reporter Sandra Abma. "But it really was a first time for me. It really felt like I didn't know anything and I was kind of learning from scratch."
Abma noted that Polley, who was 27 at the time, was "happier" moving to an offscreen role in film.
"One of my worst fears is being famous," Polley explained. "It's a kind of visceral fear with me, the feeling of people knowing who you are, and you don't know who they are, and the kind of power imbalance in that relationship."
Personal storytelling
In 2012, Polley was at TIFF in yet another role: documentarian. Polley told the CBC's Deana Sumanac about her film, Stories We Tell, in October 2012.
"It was something so personal to me, and I wanted it to be told in the words of the people I loved," Polley said.
Sumanac said Stories We Tell, which she described as "a Canadian star's gift to her fans," explores "a Polley family secret."
Polley's latest film, Women Talking, makes its TIFF debut on Sept. 8, 2022.
