Part Two of an Interview with Sara Voorhees, Film Critic and Novelist - Page 3

Sara: That's easy: Katherine Hepburn.  Alas, too late. She was the model for every woman who ever dared to be more than What Was Expected.  I also have never spoken to Jack Nicholson, although I had an interesting encounter with him before the Oscars a few years ago. The ceremony was still at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion that year, and when an actor came to the theater to rehearse his/her segment for the Oscars, he was given a big fruit basket in gratitude - the kind that come piled high with fruit and wrapped in yellow cellophane. I was going through the back door of the theater to get my credentials at the same moment Nicholson was going out the door, carrying his basket of fruit. I can only imagine what was on his mind, but he burst through the door and caught me right in the eye with a banana that was jutting through the cellophane. Our conversation consisted entirely of expletives. 

Scott: Is it weird to be the one interviewed instead of the one doing the interviewing? 

Sara: Very. It's a lot harder to be on this side of the equation.  I had a wonderful interview once with Oprah in Santa Fe, and she told me that since she was eighteen, she's been on camera more than she hasn't.  It was a slight exaggeration, but her point is clear: she's more comfortable in front of a camera than she is behind it.  I was amazed by that.  I have never been comfortable in front of a camera. When I do live TV I stutter and stammer, unless I have a script.  I've done the Oscars and Cannes and live shots from movie theaters around the country.  I am always a wreck, before and after. And during.  I've never gotten over that.  I used to stand in the long line of journalists at the Oscars and listen to other people — David Moss from Cleveland and Scott Patrick from Denver — talking to the camera as if it were their pal, and just be amazed.  It's a gift.

Scott: What is your favorite film and why?  

Sara:  I may be too fickle to answer that question.  And the range of movies I love is impossibly broad. This month I loved Blades of Glory — a movie with no redeeming social or intellectual value.  It was total silliness and I laughed myself sick.  I was also completely blown away by the German film The Lives of Others, which won the Oscar for best foreign film this year. It's a movie that made me realize how lucky we are — so far — in America, to have a Constitution that protects us from our baser instincts, and how hard it would be, in a world where your neighbor could be your worst enemy, to put yourself on the line for a principle you believe in. How can a person have a favorite movie when the choices are so varied?  However, I can tell you the movie that had the greatest impact on me... and that remains the same to this day... was a film with Sophia Loren and Charleton Heston called El Cid. I saw it at an age when I was just beginning to question the true meaning of courage and loyalty... of what it meant to love another human being, of what motivated war, and the power of forgiveness.  It molded a lot of my most important ideas about life in general.

Article Author: Scott Butki

Scott Butki was a newspaper reporter for more than 10 years before making a career change into education.

He is an in-house media critic, a recovering Tetris addict and a proud uncle.

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