By MICHAEL SMITH Movie Critic on May 8, 2009, at 5:43 PM Updated on 5/08 at 5:43 PM
I SEE MOVIES FOR FREE
A pair of Tulsa icons come together Thursday night as 'The Outsiders' kicks off a special double-feature event at the Admiral ...
There's a reason that the Eagles were the opening-night act for both Tulsa's BOK Center and the Ford Center in Oklahoma City: ...
'As I Lay Dying,' a film based on the William Faulkner novel and featuring James Franco and Tulsa native Tim Blake Nelson, ...
My first conversation with actor/writer/director Tim Blake Nelson took place last week, and he quickly established himself as a very fine fellow: He loves his mother and appreciates her responsibility in shaping his life.
It's rarely possible to wedge every comment into a story from any interview I conduct, and the following words by Tim didn't make it into my recent article.
But there's always room in the blogosphere, and his comments about his mother, Ruth Kaiser Nelson, seemed most appropriate on this Mother's Day weekend.
Remember, this Tulsan is the woman who suggested that he give an acting career a real opportunity to succeed.
"My mother has been so passionately and profoundly supportive of the risky route I chose to take, and I'm incredibly grateful to her. None of what's happened to me would have happened to me without my mother….What's particularly extraordinary about my mother is a recognition that you've got one life, and you need to live it vigorously. My mother has always worked really hard and enjoyed herself passionately when she was not working. This is manifested right now in the fact that she works long hours in the office at the Tulsa Housing Authority and in her many other pursuits. But she has also taken time to travel all over the world. She has stayed in remote villages in India and Indonesia that I would be afraid to stay in, in her 70s. So when I was in college, my mother just wanted to make sure that the opportunity, at that time in life, when chances could be taken without traumatic costs to a wife or children, that I take those chances. Because certainly when I had children and a wife, I wasn't going to be in a position to experiment with all sorts of different careers, because then you are impacting others, and my mother has raised us, if anything, to be responsible to those around us who depend on us. So I think that really it was a life philosophy that encouraged her to give us the advice, and to simply say, `You're 20 years old, now is the time, so go and explore.'"
Happy Mother's Day, from Tim Blake Nelson
Only active print or digital subscribers of the Tulsa World are allowed to post comments on stories posted to Tulsaworld.com. After you fill out the form below and click submit, your comment will be published instantly online along with your screen name.
By clicking "Submit" you are agreeing to our terms and conditions.
