Arkin Arkin gets Life

At last night's AARP The Magazine's 2007 Movies for Grownups Awards, "Little Miss Sunshine" co-directors Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris talked about ... well, getting older.
"We made our first feature film well into our lives and careers so it's nice to be honored at this point," said Faris. "And I will be qualifying for the Movies for Grownups director award very soon," added Dayton, who turns 50 in July.

Both praised their Oscar-nominated star Alan Arkin, who received a Lifetime Achievement Award from his "The Russians are Coming,The Russians are Coming" co-star Eva Marie Saint at last night's star-studded dinner at the Bel Air Hotel.

Dayton recalled that when the cast heard that Arkin was going to do the film, everyone flipped out. Toni Collette said, "This project is charmed." And Paul Dano, who had planned to stay in character and not talk on the set until his character did, simply could not sit next to Arkin without speaking to the iconic actor. "You may have gotten a Lifetime Achievement Award tonight, but you have a lifetime of work ahead of you," Faris told Arkin.

When Arkin, who teaches seminars in creativity, heard he was nominated by AARP, he said, "I thought I'm a fraud. I've done nothing to deserve this. The only thing I have done in my career is to periodically get out of the way sufficiently so that something creative can take place using me as a vehicle. And that's possible for every human being on the planet."

I don't know about that, but it would be be a better world if there were more actors as talented and humble as Arkin. Click here to read more about the 2007 AARP Movies for Grownups Awards and the complete list of winners.

Photo Credit: "Little Miss Sunshine" directors and one of their two Oscar-nominated actors. The older one.
Stefanie Keenan Photography
Photo Credits: Alan Arkin and his wife at the AARP The Magazine's 2007 Movies for Grownups Awards
M. Tran/FilmMagic

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