The Toronto International Film Festival–Jack White
Whenever I go to a press conference at the Toronto International Film Festival, I get excited. I’m going to see a star! I might ask one of them a question! There could be eye contact!!!
However, I have to say that this point of view is pretty rare. Everybody else there looks like they’re killing time in the waiting room at the dentist. In short, they look like they’re at work.
The cameramen who line the back of the room, appear to be thinking about hockey pools and chicken wings, and the rest of the press, all nattily attired and typing away on their phones, are making party plans for later in the night. Didn’t they know that Jack White was going to be in the room? Jack White! One of the three coolest people on the planet! (The other two in this group are Nick Cave and Tom Waits)
There was a murmur of interest rippling through the room when a very attractive woman walked it. Beautiful, but in a modest way, it was clear that she was “somebody.” On her arm was a pinched, 50 year-old woman, who spoke animatedly, trying to draw as much attention as possible to her connection to the beauty, ( who turned out to be Jack White’s wife, the model Karen Elson—who smiled at me. Big time.) However, once she sat down, the press returned to their indifferent posture, waiting for White to appear.
In a thin, almost raspy voice, Jack White spoke of his upcoming concert film The White Stripes Under Great White Northern Lights. With the pale, anemic face of a vampire, he smiled out at the assembled press like a mischievous, little boy. There was something entirely innocent about him, like it was Johnny Depp portraying Jack White rather than Jack White himself. Dressed all in black, he spoke thoughtfully and intelligently, with an appealing dose of natural humility. He was immediately likeable, an entirely genuine presence.
What I liked most about him was evident attentiveness to the world around him. He was a participant, and not some elite who had chosen to hover above it. He spoke with tenderness and sincerity about Meg White, his painfully shy band mate, and all the people he’d met on their cross Canada tour, and you could just see that he cared about things. He spoke of the myriad projects he was involved in—one being an album with a bunch of bus drivers in Tennessee—and it was evident that his creative energy was staggering. This was a man who wanted to do things, who needed to say yes and see what happens, realizing that inspiration and beauty spring from all sources.
Listening to him I was reminded of Dave Eggers, another artist for whom I have tremendous admiration. I am providing the link to an interview Eggers did with the Harvard Advocate, in which he talks of his philosophy of engagement with the world, of growing up, essentially, and I highly recommend it.
http://www.armchairnews.com/freelance/eggers.html
