She's Got Eyes Of The Bluest Skies, As If They Thought Of Rain

--"Sweet Child O' Mine", Guns N' Roses

Her name was Sarah. She was Canadian. And she had the lightest blue eyes I have ever seen in my life. She had such light blue eyes that I honestly thought they were transparent at first. I know what you're thinking. I must be talking about Miss Polley (again), but in that assumption you would be mistaken.

Nope, the particular Canadian actress I'm speaking about is one Sarah Sawatsky.

I've liked a lot of actresses over the years. I've developed many a fanboy crush on all types of performers. However, for some reason, it's been the Canadians that I remember the most. I mean--Sarah Polley, obviously. But I've liked just about every young female performer from Avonlea at one time or another. Gema Zamprogna, Tara Meyer, Heather Brown--I can name them all and I can tell you exactly when I was most under the spell during my run through watching the episodes hundreds of times. Being a Canadians, along with drumming and playing basketball, seems to be one of those inexplicable facets of being that I seem drawn to. I can't explain why. Just knowing someone is Canadian ups their "score," as it were, with me.

I remember the first time I saw Sarah Sawatsky. I was watching a little-known show--even then--called Bordertown. It was an alright show dealing with a small town in the 1800's that had the unique case of being half on U.S. soil and half on Canadian soil. This required both a sheriff and a mounted policeman (?) to stay vigilant over its confines. There i was, watching the show, when a beguiling actress with eyes the color of blown glass came onto the scene. I did what I always do, ask myself who this lovely sight was and why hadn't I known about her before. I watched the rest of the episode with renewed interest.

From that point on I followed her career as best as I could. I tracked down the movie she did with Miss Zamprogna, The Challengers. I even went so far as to ascertain whether I could get my hands on some of the Canadian programs she had guest-starred on without much luck. Each new nugget of news that she might have been in this or been seen in that brought a smile to my heart as I loved watching her act. She was naturally easy to watch and didn't seem overly cloying or cutesy.


I'd hate to look into those eyes and see an ounce of pain

The shame of it all is that she never had the career that Sarah Polley has. Not many actresses do. I'm not saying the Miss Sawatsky is of the same caliber as Sarah Polley is, but she definitely deserved to have a much longer career than she did. She was a bright star, at least to my eyes, that faded far too quickly. I would have loved to have been discussing her next movie role or her performance in a recent film in much the same manner as I do for Sarah.

The other shame of it all is I kind of let her light dim too. After new roles became scarce and after they stopped showing re-runs of Bordertown on television I stopped thinking about Sarah Sawatsky. Out of sight, out of mind, right? I admit it; I can be as fickle a fan as everybody else. Without a daily, or even monthly, presence to put her name and those eyes front and center, it was rather an easy task for me to forget all about her. It's the natural selection process in the entertainment industry. You either stand out or you fade back into the crowd. Sadly, aside from those eyes, there was very little to suggest she was ever going to stand out all that much.

Yet sometimes I reflect back onto my initial impression of her, how she had something indelible which pulled me into her world. I begin to question whether or not she ever lost that initial blush of genius or if I, as part of her audience, just lost the ability to see it. There's only so much I can watch in a day or a week. Maybe after watching enough of the same humdrum programs I used to watch I became jaded. Maybe I stopped wanting to see how difficult it is to be on camera and to make a televsion show good, if not great. Maybe when I put Bordertown against genius like Avonlea , and Sarah up against SARAH, it was inevitable it and she would pale in comparison. Perhaps that's why I lost interest in her and why my enamoration of her soon dried up like so much water.

I think it was rather unfair of me to make those kinds of comparisons. She had something unique in her own right. Simply because I had a favorite performer already doesn't mean that should take away the accolades I had for this girl. Sometimes I believe I was too quick to dismiss her contributions to film and television as being minimal.

I could have had more faith in her. In fact, I should have had more faith in her. Maybe if more people thought like that and, instead of assigning praise after the fact, could give credit to where credit is due she would still be on the air today. And I could once more gaze upon the loveliest eyes this side this side of Toronto.

Yours Swimmingly,
mojo shivers