In 2011, I was watching the Oscars (it used to be such an event) and when they mentioned Melissa Leo’s nomination, they said, “Not since Sally Kirkland has an actor taken out their own ads for their awards campaign.”
My friend Sally was a fighter, a survivor, a Build It Yourselfer, but I didn’t know her yet. That night, I set out on a mission to make a short film with her in it, and we were going to get nominated for an Academy Award. Sally had already won a Golden Globe and had been nominated for an Oscar alongside Meryl Streep, Glenn Close, Holly Hunter and Cher (spoiler: Cher won). Exactly one week later, I handed her an envelope full of cash, and in the same living room, we filmed our short “African Chelsea” and crossed our fingers. The LA Times wrote about the long shot:
Roske said his DIY Oscar campaign was inspired in part by the 1987 promotional effort by actress Sally Kirkland for her performance in the film “Anna,” which resulted in a lead actress nomination alongside Meryl Streep, Glenn Close, Holly Hunter and Cher. Not coincidently, Kirkland plays the mother in “African Chelsea.”
“That performance [in ‘Anna’] wouldn’t have been seen by many people at all without that campaign,” Kirkland said.
After we appeared on an incredibly generous segment with Rick Chambers on KTLA (thank you Rick), we all went back to the Silver Spoon to sit under the poster for “Anna” and toast a great appearance. Sally raised her glass of white wine and said, “Brent – you made me relevant again!” But the truth was the exact opposite.
Sally is the one who shared her spotlight with others freely.
She and I would go to screenings together and talk shit about people and laugh. For the 2016 Oscars, she asked if I wanted to take her to the “Night of 100 Stars” party, but cautioned that we “couldn’t take that piece of shit truck you’re driving” (the roller coaster of Hollywood goes up and it goes down sometimes too). So the day of the party, I bought a $500 Mercedes that wouldn’t pass California smog, and we took it to the party and had a great time.
That night we saw Richard Dreyfuss, whom I knew a little bit, but with Sally’s encouragement, Richard endorsed my jaunt into politics. For years, Sally and I tried to get money to make a movie called “Alice Stands Up.” It was going to put her back on top and really show off her comic side. We took every meeting. We chatted people up at lunch. We acted out scenes in her condo, with photos of her entangled with De Niro and dancing with Redford looming. But we just couldn’t get that plane off the ground, and it’s the project I still most want to get produced. But without Sally… I just don’t know.
“I knew I had to get nominated or I was going to leave the business.”
Sally stood in the rain to get the role of “Anna.” She knew it was her last chance to really make it in the movies, and once it came out, she put everything she had into making it as big as she could.
“I went to the SAG credit union and took out a loan for $10,000 and spent it all on ads,” Sally told me. “I saw Rex Reed in an elevator at the Cannes festival and made him – literally dragged him – to a screening of ‘Anna’ and he wrote that ‘Sally chewed the scenery like a piece of steak’ and I used his quote and everyone else’s I could find and it worked and I got nominated.”
She loved telling me this story, and I loved hearing it. She beamed when she boasted that she “never had to find a real job” because of that Oscar nomination. Sally ushered in the era of “Content Creators” by not being afraid to turn the spotlight on herself. But her kindness and her generosity of spirit were anything but boastful.
She was great and she was awesome and she was my friend.
Have fun in Heaven, Sally – I know you will.
