On May 18, five-time Emmy winner added another accolade to her résumé: hometown hero. The star of Max’s Emmy-winning comedy returned to her Washington roots at a special career-retrospective event and award presentation hosted by the Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF), which marked 50 years this spring. Held inside the famed SIFF Downtown Cinema, the event featured Smart winning ’s Trailblazer Award, after which she sat down for a colorful, career-spanning chat about her breakthrough roles and professional turning points — from her theater roots to and, more recently, her ascension to the throne of Peak TV royalty.
For Smart, the Trailblazer Award, which is given to Hollywood figures whose work has broken down barriers for women and other marginalized groups, accented a career that’s become as diverse as it is impressive. And with her close-knit Seattle family among the 600 fans in attendance, Smart revisited the gamut of her professional highlights with an earthy, hilarious candor that proved that a Northwest girl can make it (really) big, but never forget where she’s from. My dad was a public school teacher and also sold encyclopedias, painted houses and taught night school, and my mother was a homemaker.
I loved climbing trees, scaring my sister with snakes ...
the usual. I also loved sewing. And, as my brother who is here today can attest, I was always the ham in the family.
Then, in high school, I was the cheerleader going out with the bad boy. ( ) .
