Tag Archives: Kim Knode

Closet Poet

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By Kim Knode
“My mom always called me a closet poet!” says popular, prominent award-winning author, April Wayland. She chuckles. Clearly, the lady preoccupied with climbing the corporate ladder yesterday is out of the closet today. Wayland piles a potpourri of her poetry and picture books (published by prestigious houses such as Knopf and Scholastic) on her kitchen table.

She plops comfortably on to squeaky snow-white plastic cushions arranged against a wall painted Tweety Bird yellow. With a sigh and then a smile, the renowned celebrity of the children’s literature world recalls her former career. As a Fortune 500 (company) marketing manager Wayland remembers attending meetings about million dollar budgets. (Although promotions in pay and position came quickly, Wayland was best known for the marching duck doodles attached to the meeting memorandums.)

She confesses, “Going into the corporate world was kind of like rebellion in my family. My dad was a farmer. My mother (a concert pianist) was horrified!”
Wayland laughs. “For a while it was exciting to wear a suit and carry a briefcase. It was like dressing up in a costume! But I was a square peg in a round hole,” she says. But she was determined to beat the odd kid on the block feeling. In 1984, Wayland sought out scintillating role models in the corporate system. One stellar senior suggested, “Keep work in perspective. And keep a colorful life outside.”

To enliven her after work life, Wayland turned to a UCLA Extension catalogue. On a whim, she enrolled in a children’s writing course. The class became the highlight and happiness of her week. “I couldn’t wait for Monday nights,” she exclaims. “I found myself.”

Albeit her appetite for big business was waning, Wayland persevered. She stoically continued to wade and march through mires of documents on her desk. She recalls, “My husband and I were calling each other on speaker phones from our offices on Sundays!”

Without a trace of pride, Wayland says, “I got the work done. I do well on deadlines.” She adds, “I was also eating three bowls of cereal for breakfast so I didn’t have to go out the door.”

In 1985, Wayland awakened to an epiphany. “I was sacrificing my body and spirit. I was thirsty for something they (the corporate world) couldn’t address.” Wayland asserts that she was willing to risk living “without fancy, frilly benefits.” Shaking off “the golden handcuffs” took top priority on her to-do list.

Wayland’s sunny demeanor slides away for a few seconds. “Tax season is the worst time to do it. But I told my husband (an accountant) that I was willing to give up our Brentwood home and live in a tent on beach if that’s what it took to be happy.”

His reaction? “He was in shock. But he didn’t say no,” says Wayland looking down to right an askew place mat. Four months after Wayland’s departure from the steel jungle of downtown LA, To Rabbittown, her first picture book, was accepted for publication. “And I’ve had a book published every three years – since 1988,” states Wayland.

Her word savvy certainly has won over the hearts of publishers and readers of children’s literature. Publishers Weekly says, “Wayland succeeds in making reading and writing poetry more accessible to teens.” Newbery award-winning writer Sid Fleischman simply declares her works, “Dazzling!”The beloved poetess/author says, “When I carve out writing work time today, it’s not a sacrifice. It’s a pleasure!” The tan author cups her cheeks in her palms. A shadow of concern crosses her face. “But I don’t want to mislead people,” she says. “I put an awful lot on my husband Gary. It’s his expertise in his field that carried us.”

Wayland asserts, “I can’t make a living on my own.” But she does contribute. “The way a picture book author makes money these days is to speak and teach. So, two weeks in the spring when it’s tax season, I go to Europe!” She chortles. “I go abroad to teach at military schools and American schools. I take my son (born in 1989.) It’s so much fun!”

In the autumn, Wayland offers Writing the Children’s Picture Book through UCLA Extension. Like the grape blossom which matures into a bold Bordeaux, Wayland is now a Wayshower for aspiring writers. A fitting role, perhaps, for a former UCLA Extension pupil whose poetry homework turned into The Night Horse. (“The book went out of print faster than you could sneeze!” says Wayland.)

“At first, I was sooo afraid to teach,” she whispers. Thankfully, a fellow author/professor pal prodded the fledgling instructor into remembering that each individual stamps his or her own work – writing and teaching – with his or her own style. Wayland scribbled a mantra for herself. “I am a snowflake. People are coming to me for my snowflakeness.” Apparently, Wayland’s “snowflakeness” is appreciated. One UCLA student, after a class, announced, “I feel invigorated. I not only learned about writing. I learned about life!”

Gems, garnets garnered by Wayland pupils include the art of the one-minute journal. The purpose? The writer discovered that the time restriction of sixty seconds to describe a day produces a “distillation and selectivity” of words. Poetry results from the exercise. Penning poetry is Wayland’s forte. Girl Coming in for a Landing is her latest work and is a collection of verses for adolescents. Accolades and accelerating sales are trailing the “novel in poems for teens.” The American Library Association (ALA) nominated Girl Coming in for a Landing as one of the Best Books for Young Adults. The poetry novel also landed on ALA’s 2003 Quick Picks for Reluctant Readers List. In addition, Wayland is the winner of the Myra Cohen Livingston Award for Poetry. The poetess is also the titleholder of the Lee Bennet Hopkins Honor Award for Children’s Poetry.

Looks like the closet poet (in a sleeveless t-shirt covered with clouds) has piloted herself into a heavenly life. “You bet!” says Wayland. “I have my health and love. So everything else is whipped cream!”

Due out for promotion next is Wayland’s Braces, Bras, Belly Rings – Body Poems. What future projects are you planning? If you need more information about coming out of the closet with your poetry, visit www.aprilwayland.com.
Kim Knode’s interview articles focusing on artists, celebrities and dance champions have been published in various print and on-line publications.

Drunk on Tango in Argentina

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By Kim Knode

Award-winning filmmaker, Adam Boucher declares, “I like to make documentaries like Tango: The Obsession as a discovery process which I can share with the audience.” Apparently audiences take pleasure in exploring subjects such as tango in Argentina together with Boucher. After a showing at the Smithsonian Institute in 1999, the Argentine Embassy was moved to declare Boucher’s documentary, “a significant film.” (Also, in the April of 2001, a representative from Jungle Films reports that recently a request for two thousand video versions of the film came in from Germany.)

The 1999 Marin County Film Festival also acknowledged the significance of the “Tango” and awarded Boucher first place. In the same year, at an Orlando, Florida film festival, despite the sold-out performances, Tango: The Obsession took second place. (The opinion poll after each screening may have influenced the ranking.)

The thirty-something director shifts his slight five-foot nine frame in a black easy chair as he starts to tell me about Orlando. (Outside, the twilight shadows fall on the streets of Santa Monica.) Inside my brightly lit office, I can see Boucher slightly blush. He grins and his green eyes flash as he confesses; “I got in an argument with a guy in the audience about tango.”

Boucher strikes me as a sweet, mild-mannered man. (He chose Argentine tango as a topic for his first film because he wanted to learn about the dance that “made my mom’s life happier and better.”  Boucher also dedicated the movie to his mother.) So I am momentarily surprised by a streak of the confrontational in Boucher. But then I remember that everyone has an opinion about the Argentine dance. (Not one dancer that Boucher interviews in Tango: The Obsession is neutral on the subject.)

Carlos Copello of The Tango Lesson (film) and Forever Tango (stage) fame compares tango to a drug.  In Boucher’s documentary, the Nureyev of tango mimes a drug addict shooting up. “It’s like you start to give yourself tango injections – continuous tango injections,” he says.

Despite the best efforts of his teacher, Boucher did not get addicted to the Argentine dance.  His  instructor?  Ten-year old, Geraldine Rejas, (featured in the film) started lessons at age four.

“Why did you choose a child?” I ask.

“She picked me,” he replies. “Geraldine was a good teacher. And there wasn’t the sexual tension of being in the arms of a woman.” He explains that tango with contemporaries is a little intimidating. “I mean what usually takes two or three dates (in North America)…You’re doing on the dance floor!”

Seduction and sexual tension is a part of the tango.  However, Boucher and his movie embrace a larger truth about the scintillating dance. “It is like a meditation,” says the documentary filmmaker. “There is no talking. And you can almost hear each other’s heart beat.” Boucher takes a sip of water and continues, “I experienced many of my ‘moments’ (of epiphany) dancing to “La Mariposa” – “The Butterfly” by Osvaldo Pugliese.”

“I get transformed because I get absorbed in what I’m doing. I don’t think about this or that. I just think about what I’m doing,” is how Margarita in Tango answers Boucher’s questions about the impact of the Latin dance on her life.

The swarthy, middle-aged Margarita matter-of-factly states in the film: “I was taught to dance by my mom’s brother.” (When she was six and seven years of age, she practiced her steps with a broomstick.)

Another lady in her forties, Boucher interviews in Tango: The Obsession whispers that daughters from good homes were not permitted to attend the late night tangos. So the younger girls picked up steps from older cousins. And then practiced with one another at home.

Besides the class restrictions to enter the milongas (dance salons), in tango’s earlier days in Argentina, only adults were allowed in. One man with a huge smile and gaps between his teeth sips espresso and elaborates on the details of his youth with delight into Boucher’s camera. He speaks of sneaking in with other little boys to watch Argentina’s experts twist, tangle and turn with ladies in stiletto heels. “We would hide and then do what they did.” (His initial tango training also started at home with older relatives.)

Thanks to his dancing mother’s connections to Copello, Boucher was granted entrance and access into the authentic (no-tourists-type) Argentine tango clubs.  However, all the credit goes to Boucher for his ability to create intimate conversations on camera while delving into the heart of the tango dancer.

He tells me he spent hours “hanging out” with lovers of tango to gain their trust. (In and out of the dance halls, time was spent munching media lunas (a half moon croissant) and downing “watered down versions of Italian espresso.”) He says, “In Argentina, it is common to share espresso with a fellow tanguero. In fact, they drink one after another.” Boucher states, “I am not particularly a coffee man. However, friends are treated like family. And quality time like drinking a coffee together is cherished.”  The filmmaker smiles and says, “So under those conditions how could someone not love coffee?”

Boucher may also have needed the extra boost from the caffeine. It is evident that the director did hours of homework on the history of the dance. Countless frames of black and white footage and sepia tone prints illustrate the emergence of tango. In addition, interviews with historians illuminate the beginnings of Argentine tango.  (Boucher’s clips with the so-called intellectuals of society – the historians – also take on the tone of a friendly chat on a street corner.)

One of the attention-grabbing moments of Tango: The Obsession was the proclamation that Italian immigrants were instrumental in the development of the dance.  Photos of the European men arriving in Argentina – a land of opportunity – exemplify some of the strains of melancholy, which filtered into the tango.

Tango: The Obsession demonstrates that Italians were not the only ones who needed a dance to deal with the blues. The early blacks of South America, the solitary gaucho, the stressed out citizen living in a high-tech society are all featured in the film.  Boucher’s probing camera lens provides insight (with his interviews and photographs) into why tango becomes an obsession. He gives us a glimpse into the lives of tango dancers who answer the call to touch and hear each other’s heart beat.

To order the film in VHS or PAL format or simply to learn more about Tango: The Obsession:
On the web: go to http://www.tangovideos.com/ or Amazon.com. You can also directly contact the distributor, Jungle Films: Jungle Films 11271 Ventura Boulevard, PMB512 Studio City, CA 91604 Tel: 818-771-8668 Fax: 818-753-8305

Kim Knode’s interview articles focusing on artists, celebrities and dance champions have been published in various print and on-line publications.

Lynne Taylor-Corbett – the-vu from the top of the castle

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A July 2000 Interview with SWING Choreographer/Director, Lynne Taylor-Corbett
By Kim Knode

Seated among the rows of celebrity caricature portraits at the renowned Sardis Restaurant in New York City, two-time Tony nominated, SWING Choreographer/Director, Lynne Taylor-Corbett explains, “like a baseball player getting out of the ghetto, dance was my way out.” She began her journey to Broadway with jetes and plies in a neighborhood ballet school and “dreamed that I would be here someday.” With a smile of contentment she continues, “As a screenwriter friend of mine said to me, ‘You’ve stepped into a small room at the top of the castle.’”

Talking to Taylor-Corbett, I see that the climb up the castle stairwell was not always easy. But there were signposts along the way signaling a close approach to a chamber reserved only for entrance by the royal, privileged and extremely talented.

One such indication came with acceptance into the Alvin Ailey Dance Company as the only Caucasian in the troupe. Taylor-Corbett says of her experience, “I learned so much about movement and about honesty and acting.”

I comment that her love of dance is very apparent. “I have a tremendous sense of texture of movement. My heart came from dance. I was a dancer first.”

Then why did she trade in roses from the audience to receiving flowers from the cast? The renowned choreographer chuckles as she recalls that, “I was at the School of the American Ballet for one summer with the heir apparent, Colleen Neary, of the New York City Ballet, I wanted terribly much to be a ballet dancer and was not suited.”

The solstice of that summer awakened Taylor-Corbett to the startling fact that, “I was not New York City Ballet material! I figured I could see myself on either side of her (Neary.) And that I can (still) make a contribution to this form.” She lifts her white china coffee cup off the starched Sardi’s linen and takes a sip, and then says, “Later on, at the Pacific Northwest Ballet, Colleen was in a ballet of mine. I had the pleasure of telling her that story.”

The choreographer continues, “You know, I’ve worked with some very well known dancers. These folks are just amazing.” Along with directing the elite of the dance world – American Ballet Theater and New York City Ballet – Taylor-Corbett’s resume boasts of creating choreography for super stars in the music scene like Natalie Cole and George Michael. Her choice of profession has also allowed her to “travel the world” from Asia (with jazz maestro, Pat Methany) to Africa (with the Alvin Ailey Company.)

Thanks to the reputation Taylor-Corbett has established for herself over the years, telephone calls come in from coast to coast, asking for her dance expertise for Broadway musicals and Hollywood movies. Her credits from the Great White Way include SWING, TITANIC and CHESS. Films made by the masters of tinsel town such as FOOTLOOSE and BLUE HEAVEN crown her with the title of choreographer.

Taylor-Corbett looks down for a moment into her coffee cup and confesses that there are, “stresses” in each of the mediums “that wear you down after a while.” The choreographer/director sites the “huge economic pressures of Broadway.” She continues, “Choreographers have no royalties. Sometimes it’s so thankless because we don’t have a union…My colleagues who created FOOTLOOSE are very wealthy from that movie.”

So is choreography still her great joy and passion? “I think my great joy has morphed. Dancing was my great joy. And then being a choreographer was my great joy. And now creating projects like SWING – sort of total use of body and mind as it were – is my great joy and the next place to go…My father was a writer. And I think that for me to work with the song and the dance and the music and the acting at the same time is just wonderful.”

Taylor-Corbett’s dramaturgical skills are evident in SWING. For example, “Boogie Woogie Country” spotlights the West Coast Swing champions in her cast. “I took chunks of their four-minute competition routine. And I built a context for their number since it is a Broadway show and people need threads of stories and characters-Robert (Royston) arrives overdressed like urban cowboy, feels self-conscious, and puts on this magic hat, which then enables him to be this boffo dancer!”

Along with the thrills of riding the roller coaster on the Great White Way, Taylor-Corbett admits that at times SWING proved to be a “rocky ride because the show was so complex in terms of the human dynamics. In trying to amalgam people from different, disparate backgrounds into a family I learned a lot about leadership and endurance.” Despite the difficulties of staging a show with many specialty numbers, the choreographer/director describes SWING as a “Giant party with a wonderful plethora of styles and joy including a bungee number with Swing in the air!”

I ask her about the road tour of SWING. Taylor-Corbett grimaces and says, “Well, that is indeed the problem I’m grappling with right now. I can’t cannibalize the Broadway Company. So I look for extraordinarily diverse dancers because the right kind of trained dancer can assimilate the style with the right teachers.” She admits that, “It is a four week learning curve and then another four weeks to become really comfortable in its style.” However, Taylor-Corbett remains optimistic. “We’ll be just fine,” she says. “Rod McCune (SWING’s Dance Captain) has literally assimilated all the styles and can teach them.” She also credits the champions who have shared their secrets of executing their specialties with fellow cast members.

Now that two Tony nominations are attached to her name for directing and choreographing SWING, I ask Taylor-Corbett if she has forsaken her traditional ballet training and converted to the ways of Swing? She laughs a hearty laugh and replies, “I’m going to tell a funny story because Ryan Francois (U.S. Open Swing Champion, Assistant Choreographer to the film, SWING KIDS) is in the room. When I was in London, I wanted to meet Ryan and (his wife and dance partner) Jenny Thomas. I’d never seen them in person, only on film. So we went out to a club and Ryan invited me to dance.” Taylor-Corbett laughs again at the memory and recalls, “I’m sure I was just the funniest thing that anyone ever saw. I’m sure it was just like an apache.” She sobers up and earnestly states, “To do a real lead-follow is a great art form that I respect very much but cannot personally do.” She pauses and grins again. “But that was really, quite a wild five minutes. And very exhilarating, I must say.”

Anxious to stomp their feet on the boards of Broadway, aspiring choreographers often approach Taylor-Corbett for advice. “I say I will tell you what I did, but I will promise you it’s a different world than the one that you are competing in…I always encourage people to diversify. I really made it my business to learn about the whole industry. When I was a young choreographer because I could do commercials and I could do concert work, I was able to hang in there.” Taylor-Corbett falls silent for a moment and then continues. “I think everything teaches you. A hamburger commercial teaches you something about the way a shot is set-up or an effective way to make something go across the screen,”

When Manhattan investors were not banking on Taylor-Corbett for their Broadway success, she turned to television. Commercials with the likes of Dana Carvey advertising American Express cards and Ray Charles singing the praises of Suntory beverages feature Taylor-Corbett’s fancy footwork. Even SESAME STREET has been honored by a visit and routine worked out especially for the resident Muppets by Taylor-Corbett.

With the exception of jobs like hatcheck girl for a Mafia club (“they were very nice to me”) as a newcomer to New York, Taylor-Corbett has never had to escape the clutches of corporate life like one of the characters in SWING who runs around trying to discard his briefcase for a little dance fun. Her dance card is always penciled in with choreography and directing work. In a field that promotes a Darwinian survival of the fittest, Taylor-Corbett sites her greatest accomplishment (besides rearing her International Relations Honor student son) as creative continuity. “Working in the field all these years…I can’t think of one moment on an opera house stage that I could say exceeded the knowledge that I was going to be able to be what I wanted to be in this field.”

I thank Lynne Taylor-Corbett for her time and she rises to go to her next appointment – an audition for dancers for the road show of SWING. With her dancer’s posture accentuated by a deep burgundy tunic that reaches to the ground, the wonderful choreographer/director makes a regal exit from Sardis. As I watch her go through the door, I scribble in my notes: Lynne Taylor-Corbett really has danced her way to a very special room at the top of the castle.
All Rights Reserved Copyright Kim Knode July 2000
Kim Knode’s interview articles focusing on artists, celebrities and dance champions have been published in various print and on-line publications.

The Sally Kirkland vu from the land of the silver screen

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By Kim Knode
Los Angeles, July 2000
Published August 2000

In preparation for my interview with Sally Kirkland, I asked Ron Howard; the director of her recent film, EDtv, to describe the Academy Award nominated actress. Howard observed that, “Sally marches to the beat of her own drummer. There are no half way measures with her.” Howard, the filmmaker famous for such heartfelt films like Splash, Cocoon and Apollo 13, quickly added, “Sally’s heart is in the right place.”

When I told Sally’s EDtv screen husband, Martin Landau about Howard’s comment, he agreed and added, “Sally Kirkland has a heart so big that I’m amazed it fits into her chest. She’s motivated by good things. ” Landau should know, since the Oscar winning actor has starred in three films with Sally. “Her work is larger than life, but she brings a reality into each role. Sally always had a freedom to be naked emotionally.”

As I arrive for our interview at Sally’s hideaway bungalow in Malibu, I see the actress coming up the beach toward me, toweling off the salt water from her swim. Statuesque five foot nine Sally looks striking in a 1950s suit with broad navy and white stripes. She greets me with a warm smile, then brushes strands of blond hair away with the back of her hand and invites me in out of the wind.

While I set up my tape recorder, Sally cuts and nibbles an orange for a fruit salad. She tells me to make myself comfortable and I look around the small living room. On a shelf stuffed with books, I notice titles like, Leonard Maltin’s Movie and Video Guide and Autobiography of a Yogi. I’m reminded of Sally’s web site, where I learned that Paramahansa Yogananda’s book launched the performer’s quest for spiritual perfection and understanding. As a student of and instructor for Hatha yoga master, Swami Satchidananda, Sally has entered extended periods of silence, celibacy and strict diets.

I compliment Sally on the healthy lunch she is preparing. She looks up from her fruit salad and says that her favorite meal is a dish of broccoli, yams and brown rice. But she confesses, “If I’m being a bad girl, I’ll go have flan – Peau de Creme at the Cafe Boheme. And I’ll have Pink Dot deliver cheesecake.” The performer leans in close, almost kissing my microphone to say, “You listeners out there, I’m very sick the next day. Basically, I can’t handle sugar and I don’t drink – my parents died of drinking.”

While Sally gathers up pillows to comfortably position herself in front of my microphone, I notice Polaroids scotch-taped on the wall showing the actress with stars like Jenna Elfman, Woody Harrelson, Matthew McCounaughey and others at a recent EDtv cast and crew party. Out of place among all the glamour, a plaque reads, “Memories are the souvenirs our hearts collect through the years.”

I begin the interview by asking about the fact that she is Kirkland junior to her mother, Sally Kirkland senior. Sally laughs, “The Sally junior was just a frustration when in that moment they were looking for a name, and they couldn’t come up with one. Personally, I think she named me because of her byline. She was in a man’s world as a woman with a byline. She was at Vogue for ten years. And the first woman to ever be made a Senior Editor of Life by Henry Luce. She was handing me the legacy — you too have the opportunity to be a career woman. Now if I had choice, I would have said, hey let’s give me another name!”

Did her dad have any say? “My father was a blue blood from mainline Philadelphia. (Her great grandfather was the mayor for thirty-seven years.) But my father broke tradition by marrying a working woman and allowing the woman to wear the pants…”

A resigned smile clouds her suntanned face. “It was terrifying to sit and eat breakfast because my mother was always surrounded with women like Veruschka and Jean Shrimpton from England. My mother had bones like Calista Flockhart. All my childhood she was telling me I was too heavy and my father telling me, ‘Don’t listen to her. She’s too thin.’”

Did young Sally have ambitions for an office on Madison Avenue like mother? “I knew I wasn’t going to be a fashion editor because she’d already done that with my name. I tried to be a designer and Christian Dior helped me with that. He scribbled, ‘Keep it up, little Sally – you’re good’ on my different dress designs.”

“My mainline Philadelphia grandfather didn’t approve of acting school. So it was decided that I could go to art school. I could be a painter but I couldn’t be an actor.”

The patrician family saw The Art Students League in Manhattan as the better choice for a young lady. At seventeen, Sally Kirkland exhibited her paintings in the Village. She chuckles, “I couldn’t make any money at it to speak of so I was a hat check girl at The Bitter End and a waitress at Figaro’s.”

“And then I was a go-go dancer at the Peppermint Lounge. I think the Mafia owned the Peppermint Lounge. They would come in and throw money at my feet. And you would see their guns in their holsters. That was pretty exciting, you know, for an uptown debutante to go from prep school to twisting in front of these cowboys – these gangsters.” She laughs and adds, “In fact, the first movie I ever did was Hey Let’s Twist with Joey Dee and the Starlighters.”

When did Sally rebel against the family’s admonitions about acting? “I was seventeen. I started at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. The next year I studied with Uta Hagen (the German acting coach whose famous students include Geraldine Page, Jason Robards and Jack Lemmon.)

Were there other teachers who encouraged Sally as a young girl? “I was lucky to have David O. Selznick as a mentor when I was a teenager. He said to me – and I hope this doesn’t sound like an ego statement: ‘You remind me of Ingrid Bergman, Katherine Hepburn and Bette Davis because you’re so strong. You’re going to scare a lot of men. You have to be patient and wait until you’re middle-aged. Then they will allow you to be a star as a strong middle aged woman. But they won’t allow you to be a strong five foot nine ingenue.’ ” Sally’s voice rises with passion, “Those were his words. And I thought, oh God please don’t project that on to me ’cause I’d like to work and I’m eighteen!”

Sally smiles with satisfaction. “I was off-Broadway like almost immediately. My first paid job was Helena in A Midsummer’s Night Dream for Joseph Papp. He was the producer of the New York Shakespeare Festival. At the Circle-In-The Square Theatre, I played Jackie Kennedy in Fitz and Biscuit with Sam Waterston. Jackie came to Fitz and loved it. She had tears in her eyes. My first starring role off-Broadway was in a play called The Love Nest with James Earl Jones. I also starred with him in Best of the Best.”

I question her about her time at one of the most prestigious acting schools in the world, The Actors Studio. “By the time I was eighteen, I was trying to get into the Actors Studio. Lee Strasberg (the founder) warned me, ‘I think you have to be older to do this kind of work because it is so intense.” Sally takes a dramatic pause. “I threatened to kill myself if he wouldn’t let me in.”

Apparently the threat worked. “Dustin Hoffman got in the same year I got in and Al Pacino was also in my class. I ended up bringing Bobby De Niro to Shelley Winters and the Actors Studio because he was formerly dating my roommate. He took me to see Brian De Palma’s student film, Greetings that he starred in. I wanted someone to spar with so I encouraged our friendship in 1967 and we ended up working together for a long time. Bob was incredibly shy and sensitive and sort of insecure about social graces. He told me I made it easier for him to be out in the social world. We became very close friends”

Does Sally stay in touch with De Niro? “Well we got to have a reunion when I was hosting the Diversity Awards two years ago and he was presenting an award to Joe Pesci. Bob acknowledged the work I was doing. I’m a presenter or the host every year. Diversity gives awards to actors, directors, and writers who are of ethnic or diverse background”

Winning the Diversity Pinnacle Award this year was exhilarating for the actress. The Multicultural Motion Picture Association honored Sally for her mentoring efforts as well as her choice of roles, which have gone beyond the median range of most Hollywood actors.

I mention that diversity has been the name of the game in Sally’s career. She’s played everything from a character in Oliver Stone’s JFK to The Women Who Loved Elvis with Roseanne. The actress declares, “The most diverse thing I ever did was Heat Wave with James Earl Jones and Cicely Tyson. I was the only white woman in an all black cast.” But when all is said and done, Sally is most proud of her Oscar nominated portrayal of the aging Czechoslovakian actress, Anna.

Her eyes dance with excitement as she explains, “At the time of the Oscar announcements, I was shooting High Stakes with Kathy Bates. I went up to change wardrobe and heard Shirley MacLaine announce the Best Actress nomination on the TV and I couldn’t stop screaming. I went into ecstasy”

I remark on the serendipity of the Foreign Press presenting Sally with a Golden Globe for playing Anna, a Czech immigrant. Have journalists from abroad been kinder than American reporters? “Yeah. They’ve been constantly supportive of me. But I’d like to add that the likes of Sheila Benson and Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times have been supportive too… The Foreign Press did give me a Golden Globe nomination for The Haunted – a true story about a woman who went through four years of paranormal experiences in Pennsylvania”

“I think I’m more European in personality. My attitude is always one of sensuality, aggressive enthusiasm and kind of outrageousness in my expression. I suppose if I wanted to be the girl next door, I could have. I think America is a little too confused by someone who appears to be sexual and spiritual at the same time”

There are exceptions. Sally states, “Ron Howard is not threatened at all by me.” I ask her about her experiences working on the set of EDtv. “Just great! And Ron Howard is the saint of all directors!”

And how was it playing the mother of heartthrob Matthew McCounaughey? “Awesome. When I saw him in A Time To Kill, I said to myself, I’m going to play his mother! You know how you can get a hit of something?”

Sally’s psychic powers were seen from January 1998 to June 1999 in the reoccurring role of Tracey in Days of Our Lives. “I loved playing Tracey because she’s an environmentalist. She uses solar and wind power. She’s very into truth.”

She adds, “Now, I’m reoccurring on Felicity as her art professor, Annie Sherman. I’ve also been shooting a movie, Swimming Lessons for Lifetime Television playing Gail O’Grady’s mother. Tomorrow I’m flying to Toronto to start shooting Wish You Were Dead (a feature film) with Mary Steenbergen”

How does Sally keep bringing truth and reality to the disparate characters she plays?

“Mostly listening to John-Roger spiritual seminar tapes – he’s the founder of MSIA – the Movement of Spiritual Inner Awareness. And I listen to Bob Dylan music on my Walkman. Sally gestures toward a pile of literature brought from the city house to her ocean getaway. On top is a pink paperback by John-Roger entitled Forgiveness: The Key to the Kingdom”

“I believe in such a thing as a need for a spiritual master and I love the ecumenical path of MSIA. The path is one of soul transcendence. It’s a path that says out of God comes all creation. And it’s a path that says not one soul is lost. It’s a path that talks about taking care of yourself so you can take care of others. Keeping the temple pure and clean has been important for me.” The actress laughs. I ask why. She reminds me, “Just before you came, I was swimming. And before that I was doing my yoga”

The John Roger tapes and Dylan recordings are her ritual preparation for a scene. “They’re both men that I love. If I’m not listening to them on tape, I’m remembering moments with them, when they have inspired me to be more authentically me. You know – sensory work”

The teacher in Sally comes out as she describes sensory work. “It’s from Lee Strasberg – method acting – you bring yourself to a place where you do an emotional recall. Or you smell what you smelled, see what you saw, hear what you heard, feel what you felt…Streisand, who hired me three times – thank you Barbara – wanted to learn how to cry on cue ’cause she had some singing scenes to her father coming up in Yentl. So I took her through the exercises with her father”

My eyes wander to her collection of music tapes, I catch sight of Dylan’s, Down in the Groove, I once again ask about her relationship with the musician. She hesitates. I suspect that she wants to keep in Dylan’s good graces by not revealing too much. Sally sighs. “I came to meet Bob through a guy named Fred Hellerman who was one of the Weavers – Pete Seeger and the Weavers. I met Bob backstage when he was performing at Carnegie Hall with Joan Baez. We re-met in 1975 and we’ve been close friends ever since.” Then the actress clams up. She won’t reveal anything else.

Does Sally desire marriage? She confesses, “Having been married and divorced twice I do hope to get married again. We’ll see what God has in store.” What kind of man? “Someone pretty powerful and isn’t going to be, um, what’s the word? Yeah, intimidated.” Like John-Roger and Bob Dylan? Sally gives me a look as if to communicate this is my last sentence about Dylan. “I will say this John-Roger and Bob Dylan have been the loves of my life. John-Roger continues to inspire me to dedicate my life to service and humanity. And I learned from Bob, the importance of getting rid of segregation and the importance of, “knock, knock, knocking on Heaven’s door. The part of me that is an activist is because of him. I’ve loved him forever”

Sally’s activism has recently found its expression in The Kirkland Institute for Implant Survival Syndrome. KIISS provides support and research for women dealing with breast implant complications. Problems with her own implants led Sally to have them removed in 1998. “Next to my self-imposed hell through drugs in 1966 – I’m proud to say I’ve been clean since 1975 – one of the severest depressions I encountered was when I thought I had tried everything to get rid of the crippling pain caused by the implants. From 1989 to 1995, I had multiple surgeries related to silicon ruptures. In 1995, I had the silicon taken out and saline put in.” However due to complications with saline, the celebrity had another string of surgeries. As if reliving the moment of relief, Sally says, “Finally, in August 1998 when finally all the implants were out, I felt one hundred percent healthy”

Days after her breast reduction, Sally went on The Howard Stern Show. “I know millions of people listen to him and so I got out key points, like Dow Corning in the sixties had been developing the silicon as a potential cockroach insecticide and riot patrol fluid.” The actress is grateful too for the controversial TV host’s invite to his show. “Thanks to Howard, my web site immediately received twenty-two thousand hits. And I’ve been able to help women and their concerned husbands ever since. Yeah Howard!”

What does Sally think about other stars going under the knife? “I would say be careful. I ‘ve had my day in court with plastic surgery. I just saw Cher’s album cover. She looks sensational. If it works for Cher, it works for her…There are so many terrific people that have hit fifty. I mean look at the way Raquel looks”

How does Sally hold her own in youth conscious Hollywood? “I go to the YMCA, I swim and I do Hatha yoga. And I keep my eyes on the vegetables. And meditation every day since 1969 has reminded me the value of keeping my heart open and doing service in the world.”

The sky outside is painted in pink and dark blue twilight colors. I take my cue from nature and my tape recorder, which tell me that hours of dialogue have flown by. As I pack up to leave; I remember seeing on Sally’s web page a list of service projects Sally has participated in such as feeding the homeless and care-taking AIDS patients. I mention that the list is almost as long as her film credits. She adds that, “I’m also excited about the fact that Governor Gray Davis appointed me to the Board of the California Alliance for the Arts Education”

“My life is not about acting. It’s about expressing my vision of life. No matter what, everyone deserves a fair shot”

Kim Knode’s interview articles focusing on artists, celebrities and dance champions have been published in various print and on-line publications. See more of Kim’s work at www.kimknode.com