PORT TOWNSEND — Dyan Cannon’s path to this weekend’s Port Townsend Film Festival was a simple one.
“They called me,” she said from her Hollywood home earlier this week. “I said yes.”
Cannon is the special guest for the three-day, 11th annual festival.
“This is a special part of the country for me,” Cannon said.
“I have never been to Port Townsend,” she told the Peninsula Daily News, “and I am looking forward to meeting all the filmmakers and participating in all the discussions.”
Cannon, 73, a native Northwesterner, has a full schedule today, on the first day of the celebration of the celluloid arts, which includes the screening of 94 films at venues all over Port Townsend.
The Academy Award nominee and Golden Globe recipient is scheduled to visit with Port Townsend High School and Jefferson Community School students this morning, as is traditional for festival guests.
She will participating in a private luncheon presentation with the oldest living World War II internee, Fumiko Hayashida.
Cannon will make her first public appearance at today’s 4 p.m. opening ceremonies on Taylor Street, outside of the Rose Theatre.
On Saturday, Cannon will be interviewed at 2 p.m., again on Taylor Street near the Rose.
That evening, she will watch her best-known film, “Bob & Ted & Carol & Alice” — for which she received Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations for best actress for her portrayal of Alice Henderson — at “A Special Evening With Dyan Cannon,” at 6 p.m. at the Uptown Theatre, 1120 Lawrence St., and discuss the film with the audience.
She will also be a special guest for the live nationwide broadcast of National Public Radio’s “West Coast Live” at 10 a.m. Saturday at the Upstage Theatre and Restaurant, 923 Washington St.
There are bound to be Cannon sightings around town and stories that could be told for years, like how last year’s special guest, Cloris Leachman, took over the stage at Sirens and regaled the room with old show tunes.
As the highest-visibility celebrity at the event, Cannon will be the center of attention, something she is accustomed to after 50 years in show business.
“In Hollywood, no one pays attention to you, unless you are Lindsay Lohan,” she said.
“She lives in the same building I do, but gets the wrong kind of attention.”
Cannon was born and raised nearby, in Tacoma and West Seattle.
She is close friends with 2006 festival guest Elliott Gould, who played her husband in “Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice.”
Gould enjoyed his experience and suggested Cannon as a guest in a conversation with festival executive director Janette Force earlier this year.
The ads for the 1969 “Bob & Ted & Carol & Alice” urged moviegoers to “consider the possibilities” of a mate-swapping evening.
Cannon said her decision to appear in the movie was one of favoring art over commerce.
She had the choice to do the film or sign up for a four-picture studio deal with no indication of what the four films would be.
She chose to do the movie, against her agent’s advice.
“It was great fun,” she said of making that movie.
“We had no idea it was going to be so controversial.”
One of the benefits of doing the movie was her friendship with Gould, she said.
Many of her movies have led to the development of close relationships, she said, mentioning Al Pacino, Sean Connery and Julie Christie as friends.
After “Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice,” she appeared opposite Warren Beatty, Christie and James Mason in “Heaven Can Wait” in 1979.
That performance earned her a Golden Globe Award and a second Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress.
She had a recurring role as Judge Jennifer “Whipper” Cone on the television show “Ally McBeal,” beginning with the hit series’ second episode in 1997 and continuing to 2000.
She has had several other awards, including an Academy Award nomination, with Vince Cannon, for the best live-action short film in 1976 for “Number One,” which she produced, directed, wrote and edited.
Cannon said she has always chosen her roles carefully, but that the rules have shifted — and not for the better.
“Things have changed. I remember that TV could only show married people using two separate beds,” she said,
“It’s really over the top, and it’s tough for people to see so much violence on TV. That is right in your face.
“I think that is why a lot of kids have so many problems, because what they see on TV is so intense.”
Choices today can be more difficult, she said.
“I turn down movies all the time,” she said. “I turned down one in Ireland recently where the characters were eating other people.
“They did that in ‘Silence of the Lambs,’ which was a good movie, but that kind of thing isn’t for me. It doesn’t attract me.”
Her next project, “Women Without Men,” is under development for the Showtime network.
Others involved in the project include Penny Marshall and Lorraine Bracco.
“Women over 40 have a tough time in this industry,” Cannon said.
“I am attracted to this project because the topic is taken seriously.”
But as a woman over 40, Cannon has remained active in her field.
“Generally speaking, life is good,” she said.
“I am so blessed to have worked with great people my whole life. It’s been a wonderful experience.
“And I am so looking forward to coming up to Port Townsend.”
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Jefferson County Reporter Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or charlie.bermant@peninsuladailynews.com.
