Red carpet gatherings can be a chaotic swirl of mass humanity, camera equipment of all shapes and sizes, and attention-grabbing celebrities. Previous experiences in such situations have proven to be a struggle to gain the talent’s attention — and even more challenging to hold it past a simple quick question.
So, it was quite a change of pace at the Starz Denver International Film Festival when Roger Donaldson walked down the carpet at the premiere of his latest movie, The World’s Fastest Indian.
Not expecting more than a quick, blurry photograph, I did have two questions in my back pocket, just in case. I was able to reel him in by commenting on how The Bounty is one of my favorite movies and, after that, realizing I actually had his attention, there was such an adrenaline rush to talk to the director of movies like No Way Out, Thirteen Days, and Species that some common sensibilities were lost in the flurry of activity.
One obvious question was to ask if Donaldson owned any Indians himself. He replied, “I used to,” and then, well, he didn’t walk away. He stayed put, ready for the next round. The obvious follow up question would be, “OK, what happened to it?” But I was unprepared to actually converse intelligently with the man, in the heat of the TV lights, and my “improv” skills were thrown out the window in order to belt out the next question in my limited arsenal.
I went on autopilot in an effort to cram in as much as possible in a limited time span and in the process found Donaldson to be extremely well spoken and a genuinely good man.
However, while taking my seat at the new Ellie Caulkins Opera House, it was time to pull out the self-criticism for failing to ask that painfully obvious follow up.
Thankfully, redemption was in the offing when Donaldson showed up at the after party at Mile High Station.
What happened to his classic Indian motorcycle?
Donaldson sold it back in the ’60s in order to buy a Honda 900.