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March 16, 2007
A titanic success story
Old boys' networks never stopped Lansing.
BAILA LAZARUS
Sherry Lansing seems to know no bounds. From being a small-time
actor and model to a behind-the-scenes script reader to heading
a major motion picture studio to running a charitable foundation,
Lansing keeps filling her life with one challenge after another.
And this year, the 63-year-old Lansing capped it off by being honored
with the Academy Awards' Jean Hersholt Award, given to an "individual
in the motion picture industry whose humanitarian efforts have brought
credit to the industry."
So when Lansing took to the stage for the Unique Lives and Experiences
series at the Orpheum March 6, she had plenty to talk about and
plenty of lessons to share. She described how she grew up in a household
where her mother believed happiness was achieved by getting married
and having children.
"I lived in a world where beauty had more value than intellect,"
Lansing told the full house. "Where I didn't think I could
have an interesting and fulfilling career."
In rebellion against her expected maternal path, Lansing became
a "voracious student," turning into the gawky nerd who
spent her time in the library and got turned down for the prom.
In university, she pursued English, math, education and theatre,
though she was still "programmed to assume that I was never
going to work," and she ended up becoming engaged to a student
in medical school.
"You can't do better, especially for a Jewish mother,"
she said. Her father suggested she quit college and take a lab technician's
course in order to help her husband at work.
"It just didn't seem right, to adjust my life to complement
my husband's," Lansing said. "I tried desperately to be
a good wife ... and fit in with other doctors' wives. I was bored.
I wanted more."
In her mid-20s, after getting divorced, she took an entry-level
position as a script reader with MGM and started rising through
the ranks in Hollywood, working for Columbia Pictures as vice-president,
creative affairs, and then, at 20th Century Fox in 1980, becoming
the first female head of a major movie studio. She was only 35.
In 1992, she became chair of Paramount Pictures' film division,
producing such blockbusters as Forrest Gump, Braveheart
and Titanic, the highest grossing film of all time.
Her experience in film brought her behind the scenes for The
China Syndrome, Kramer vs. Kramer, Taps, 9
to 5 and Chariots of Fire, but eventually she wanted
to produce her own movies and joined with Stanley Jaffe in 1982
to create Jaffe/Lansing. Together, they produced Fatal Attraction
and The Accused.
"It's about believing in yourself, being persistent and not
letting anyone take your dreams away," she said of what she
learned through her business, adding that, all along, her instinct
and her integrity remained front and centre.
When Brian de Palma told her he thought Michael Douglas was wrong
for Fatal Attraction, he gave her an ultimatum: If he was
going to direct, Douglas had to go. However, Lansing had promised
the part to Douglas, and stood by her word. Luckily for Paramount,
de Palma was wrong, and the movie went on to be the second highest
grossing film of 1987. The film was nominated for six Oscars.
"We lost every single award, but it was one of the happiest
days of my life," said Lansing.
Commenting on how life in Hollywood and in the film business can
warp one's perspectives, Lansing described how, as an avid traveller,
she has experienced living in some of the poorest areas of the world.
"The movie business can cause you to lose your values,"
she said. "But living in a tent, a life without options, it
gave me perspective and allowed me to endure setbacks and disappointments."
Surprisingly, she said that when it came to those setbacks, such
as hitting glass ceilings at work, she felt she was her own worst
enemy.
"I realized I was a passive participant in my setbacks,"
she said. "I believed I was worth less dollars ... It took
me a very long time to think of myself as worthy of deserving more."
Her search for self-esteem was her longest battle, she said. "The
one philosophy I follow [is] enjoy the process, enjoy the path."
Once that path became less enjoyable for Lansing, because her work
in the film business was becoming repetitive, she decided she didn't
want the last chapter of her life to be spent behind a desk. In
2005, she created the Sherry Lansing Foundation to raise awareness
and funds for cancer research. Now remarried with two stepchildren,
she's busier than ever, she says, but "excited to get up every
day."
"That's what the [last] chapter is about," she said. "Giving
back."
Baila Lazarus is a freelance writer, photographer and
illustrator living in Vancouver. Her work can be seen at www.orchiddesigns.net.
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