Actress Sally Kirkland Inspired Maine Writer’s Magical Venture

By Ted Cohen

The film Sallywood, based on a Maine writer’s true story, owed its success to a legendary actress for which the movie was named and in which she acted as herself.

Sally Kirkland, 84, who died Nov. 11, inspired Xaque Gruber, a rural writer from the Pine Tree State, to pursue his dreams of making it big.

Coincidentally, Buffalo 8 released the film on digital platforms Nov. 14, just days after Kirkland passed away - and a year to the month after the movie original debuted in Los Angeles theaters.

The popular actress appeared in more than 250 film and television productions during her 60-year career.

Sallywood was based on the story of a 20-something writer from rural Maine - Gruber - inspired by Kirkland’s performance in the sleeper hit, Anna, which won Kirkland a 1988 Golden Globe and Oscar nomination.

In the film, “Zack,” the Maine character - and main character - takes the leap to pursue his ambitions of a Hollywood career.

After driving across the country, in a chance encounter he meets his lifelong idol the week he arrived - Sally Kirkland.

Sally hires him on the spot to be her assistant, where he quickly learns her career is a shambles.

He dedicates himself to finding a way to land her back on the red carpet where she belongs.

Gruber, who ended up writing and directing the indie film, became good friends with his idol, Kirkland, according to Deadline.com.

“When I met Sally, I had a fantasy that she lived in a mansion with a butler and a big chandelier, and none of that turned out to be the case,” Gruber told Deadline. “Then, I learned that she actually didn’t have much in the way of family, was not married. I was alone in Hollywood, and we were these two misfits who find each other and complete each other.”

Ironically or not one of the original female Gothic novelists was actually named Sally Wood, who was born in York, Maine in 1759.

Born Sarah Wood, writing as Sally Wood, she lived more than nine decades, authoring four novels and one collection of tales.

A facsimile edition of one of her books, Tales of the Night, was published in 1982 as part of the sesquicentennial observances of what was then Westbrook College in Portland, Maine.

Renowned as Maine's first novelist, she died in 1855.