At twenty-nine, Sarah Polley is in a funny position as the writer-director of Away from Her. She's a first-time filmmaker who, as a child actress, has been involved in moviemaking for most of her life, and an actress who, as a director, will probably get to see her lead actress, Julie Christie, take home an Academy Award for a performance that she guided her through, after dragging her kicking and screaming out of semi-retirement. Speaking to John Horn of the Los Angeles Times, Polley makes it clear that, if she has an edge over most new directors, it's because she's spent enough time on film sets to know just how little she knows. Polley, who calls herself "the least-prepared person who has ever been nominated for an Academy Award," says, "I've spent a lifetime working with disorganized first-time filmmakers who don't get the support of their crew because they feel they are wasting their time. And I knew how badly I needed their support. You know as an actor so acutely what destroys morale, what creates complaints, and that can be good and bad, because when you're directing you can become hyper-aware of that. I think that what a lot of first-time filmmakers don't realize is that they are the least experienced person on that set. Everybody else has been doing their job for years, so the whole act of playing the filmmaker, playing the person in command, is a charade. So the best you can do is work your ass off and admit what you don't know and ask for help when you need it."
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