The gospel of Sarah Polley: 'I think you're really lucky if you get to do work you love'
The Canadian film icon opens up about what really matters to her
This weekend, Sarah Polleys's wonderful documentary Stories We Tell continues 11 straight Saturdays of classic Canadian on the CBC. But before the big show, Polley herself will sit down for a rare interview on the latest episode of The Filmmakers, CBC Arts' new film talk show. And in the above video, we're offering up a little tease...
"I think there's an assumption in our society that everyone secretly wants to be famous, and if they don't want to be famous, they're lying," Polley says in the clip, a highlight of a longer discussion about fame you'll see Saturday night. "And certainly among my friends in high school, that was the deal. I definitely grew up with a group of people who really wanted to be in the media or in film. So I was like a big bullshit artist because obviously that's what I wanted."
Eventually, though, Polley came to realize that for some people, it's their worst nightmare to have that kind of attention — and that she might be one of them. So she altered her idea of what she really wanted.
"I think I do have ambition but it's very much in the moment," she says. "I'll be very ambitious for a project I'll start. I'll be very ambitious for that thing to go well. But there's no overall life plan. There's no goal. There's a sense of wanting to do things that matter...To have time and presence for relationships. But there's not some sense of, 'Here's where I want to be in 10 years in my career.'"
Polley's philosophy seems to be working out thus far, as you'll be reminded of when you see Stories We Tell on Saturday night — and again when her latest project, the CBC TV series Alias Grace, debuts this September.
Watch The Filmmakers on Saturday nights at 8:30pm (9pm NT) on CBC Television or stream it online at cbc.ca/watch, with a classic Canadian film following at 9pm (9:30 NT).