Confident Enough

When she grows up, 10-year-old Sarah Polley “may become an author,” but for now she’s content with being a movie star.

“I think I’ll just play it by ear,” says the young actress who currently is seen romping through “The Adventures of Baron Munchausen.”

Polley comes across as 10-going-on-thirtysomething. She sounds as confident as Sally Salt, her character in “Baron Munchausen.” “Well, I am pretty confident,” she admits matter-of-factly, “but not quite as much as Sally.”

When she’s not working, Polley attends the fifth grade at the Claude Watson School for the Arts in Toronto, her hometown. But she prefers school on location where she has a tutor.

“On ‘Baron Munchausen,’ I had a tutor for 6 1/2 months. We went to Rome and all around Spain. We shot outdoors and I had to run through the streets dodging explosives. It was very exciting. And once an explosive blew up in my face by accident. I wasn’t hurt or anything but it was scary because I couldn’t hear for about 45 minutes.”

The incident in no way dampened her enthusiasm for acting, however. “I really do like it,” she admits. “Next I want to do more stage acting even though I get stage fright. I would like to play Shakespeare, the role of Rosalind, the one who dresses like a boy. I think it’s ‘As You Like It.’ My Dad has the Shakespeare books. We like to read them. He’s really a beautiful writer.”

Sarah has been around the theater all her life. Her mother and father, Diane and Michael Polley, are both theatrical actors in Canada. When Sarah, the youngest of their five children, showed an early interest in acting they encouraged her. She now has six films to her credit and scores of television shows.