Sarah Polley

I was perusing this mention of Sarah Polley at 24 Frames and was surprised by the mention that she is in the upcoming sci-fi thriller 'Splice'. I hadn't realized it was her.

It's not so much that she stars in the movie (along with Adrien Brody), it's that she is famously picky about the roles she takes. This made me wonder about my assessment of 'Splice' as being B-movie schlock -- something I usually tend to watch a few minutes at a time on disc.

I remembered reading a NYT story about Polley and how she is so conscientious. A quick search yielded the 2007 article:

“Baron Munchausen,” she said, “really defined me in terms of never really wanting to be on huge films ever, and really focusing on independent films. There’s a real fear in me of never wanting to be in an unsafe environment again.”

'Wariness' director Doug Liman calls it:

Doug Liman, a good friend of Ms. Polley’s who directed her in “Go,” is a victim of her wariness. “I’ve offered Sarah a part in everything I’ve made since ‘Go,’ including the female lead in ‘The Bourne Identity,’ and she keeps turning me down,” he said. “She has a tremendous amount of ambivalence about this profession, but that makes her a better actress.

and

Ms. Polley ... won the part of Penny Lane ... in “Almost Famous,” Cameron Crowe’s rock ’n’ roll crowd pleaser. The part of a flighty, used groupie seems about as far from Ms. Polley, politically and in person, as possible. After weeks of rehearsal, she began to feel as if she’d made a huge mistake.

“The part didn’t fit me. Every day, it felt less and less like something I could pull off,” she recalled. “You just knew when you read the script that whoever played that part was going to have a certain kind of life, and it wasn’t one I was ready for.” She walked away, and Kate Hudson became Penny Lane, earning an Oscar nomination and a permanent place in the tabloids.

Okay, fine. She doesn't want to be in huge films. So much so she turned down roles in the six movies Liman has done since 'Go' including a lead in 'Bourne', and quit a major role even after weeks of rehearsal because it didn't fit her. That's sticking to your guns.

Not only is Polley picky about her roles, she is a more than capable director, winning several awards and nominations for 'Away From Her' based on a short story by Alice Munro "The Bear Came over the Mountain".

So, what is it about the script for 'Splice' that snagged an actor/director as judicious as Polley? I'm looking forward to finding out. 'Splice' opens June 4.