An email interview with Sarah Wilson

Joi: I've been stalking you on google. You're all over the google, spread out like a ... and I've read articles, columns, shows you've hosted (anyone reading this, please google Sarah Wilson). Soon after the stalking I started wondering if you liked your name. I have a MASSIVE name fetish and I think 90% of people I've met on twitter have become friends because they have nice names. (Exaggerating here maybe just 80%). My favourite name in the world is Bardia Housman (he's a real person, you could google him, if I may add he's a set of good names as his wife is Beatriz Pena and his baby Olivia Housman, their names match in terms of greatness which is an incredible find, when you think of it). 

a little off tangent there... so anyway, I'm glad you are Sarah with an H or you're just cheesecake. And Wilson is a good name too, reminds me of strong, bouncing, balls. Do you like your name?

Sarah: I guess I do. It's sturdy and reliable and no-fuss and I rarely have to spell it out over the phone, which is a good thing when you're an impatient person. I don’t like fuss or pretension. Sarah Wilson is a bit like the navy-blue Subaru of names.

Joi: I've seen you use Sasscatoon in an email address and somewhere else, are you from Canada?

Sarah: Nope. Nor am I used to flavour Dr Pepper. My family call me Sass, Sasscatoon and, mostly, Sassafras. Sometimes people who’ve just met me pick up on the nickname. I quite like when they do. Efforts to become more familiar and to reach out to other humans always please me. I think it's important to reward anyone who does reach out.

Joi: Who is Gary Patel? (btw I have evidence).

Sarah: I think he's a foreign exchange student who got done for posing as a dentist.

Joi: Could be or maybe not at all. I believe Gary is what you call your vagina (I gave it a last name) and you've just given it a crim record.

Joi: What do you often think about before the cameras start rolling?

Sarah: I have a phrase that goes around in my head when I'm about to do something big and a bit scary and a bit lonely, "This is serious Mum". It started when I was a kid and I think I started saying it before TISM. Somehow it reminds me of all the times life has been vast and boundary-less and confronting and I've been alone... and all the times I've managed to get through it, regardless. It calms me down.

Then I don't think anything at all and I concentrate on connecting with the person I'm meant to be talking to (a contestant, or to a producer, or to the camera). You have to stop the head stuff and drop your energy into your heart space to do this. Television work can be pretty boring and not always intellectually stimulating. But it can be emotionally fun when you focus on the human connection inherent in it. It's hard to do and I often forget to do it. Meditating while I'm getting my makeup done helps.

Joi: I'm sorry you have that sushi sounding disease, do you like sushi?
Sarah: Hashimotos? Don't be sorry...it's been a gift. Sushi is, as they say in Greece, etsi ki etsi. I prefer saganaki. And miso. And kiftethes. Is this a question geared at learning what I love eating? OK, then. I also love avocado, coconut cream, pork belly, broccoli, silverbeet (with macadamia oil, salt and pepper)…

Joi: About 6 years ago I found out I was gluten intolerant. There are way worse things to have of course, but finding out you can't eat most food out there is frustrating. Though, I've come to terms with it and I can pretty much eat anywhere as long as its cardboard I mean gluten free. Its made me aware of the direct relation between sticking something in my mouth and feeling like shit or feeling bloody good for the rest of the day. Its bizarre when you think of the things we stick in our mouths. I mean ok you may engage in fellatio with a boyfriend but a stranger/one night stand who's hygiene habits could be anything but hygienic? What do you do when you find yourself licking a urinal? Isn't it almost morbidly funny that its sometimes ok to lick a urinal but finding a strand of hair in food is disgusting. (there's a question in here somewhere, I'm fine with any one you pick).

Sarah: I've eaten horsemeat risotto. And once ate off oysters. I dashed to the bathroom and threw up. Then came back to the restaurant table and ate another six oysters. I have few food boundaries, except gluten and sugar. And marzipan.

Joi: What would a 15 year old Sarah be thinking about right now?

Sarah: That's a wonderful question. She'd be fretting, probably. I was an insomniac at 15. And I worried that I was getting life very wrong. I was also into maths. I loved the certainty of it. I would do Lewis Carrol logic puzzles for fun. I'd also be wondering, "when will a great boy notice me". Not much has changed. Just my perspective and knowing.

Joi: Its time to talk about boys.

Joi: Would you date spaghetti if it was missing meatballs?

Sarah: Nope. I like the richness of the meatballs. I don't eat fodder for the sake of putting something in my gut. I seek the full meal.

Joi: I absolutely despise the idea of being on a date and have never been on one. I'd always 'go out for a movie or a thing' with someone who is a friend, someone I've known for a bit (who's spaghetti I like). The whole idea of meeting a near stranger and small talk on a date does my head in, its almost like being caught in cheese without any holes. What are your thoughts on the whole dating thing? Some people love it and I can see why, I gas (deliberate typo).

Sarah: I think dating hit Australia in the last 5-10 years. Before that we did just, um, hang out and then hang out some more. So, unless you’ve been single in the last decade, dating probably skipped you. My view: I don’t feel awkward in situations which are clearly awkward (which set-up dates are). I quite like the sport of breaking through the awkwardness and acknowledging the awkwardness in each other. It’s a good test – can the other person acknowledge it and laugh at it, too.

Joi: I love your take on awkwardness and look forward to meeting you next week.

Joi: What do you wish guys would know about you on a date, right away, to save a whole bunch of time? 

Sarah: That I have two sides – my city/makeup/tv side and my dusty/desperate to connect in a real way/ no-fuss side. And that I’m simply after a bloke with a plan – a guy who knows where he wants to head in life and is sturdy and knows he’d have fun taking care of me.

Joi: Is it difficult being so hot? Were you always hot or did you have like an ugly duckling period? eg lopsided bum, massive nose, snake bean lips, little udders etc

Sarah: I don’t think I’m hot. Of course anyone presented with that question would say that, and then tell the story of how they were the dorky kid who didn’t even kiss a guy until she was 21. In my case it’s truly true! But then I won’t protesteth too much….

But I’ll add one thing, a lot of the photos out there are of me in makeup. And I happen to have features that respond well to makeup.

Joi: Do you have superhero fantasies? (I think we've stopped talking about boys now, maybe)

Sarah: No. I’ve always been too pragmatic for that. But I do have a visceral urge to be able to fly. My dreams often involve me breast-stroking through air. They’re soooo frustrating and exhausting. To be able to glide would be nice.

Joi: What's a ritual that you'd like to have?

Sarah: to remember friend’s birthdays and write them cards.

Joi: You're ridiculously busy, I have more questions. What thrills you to bits? and which bits get thrilled the most?

Sarah: I love heights and jumping from them – bungey jumping and sky diving etc. My stomach gets thrilled. It screams out freely.

I love falling in love. Sometimes the smell of flowers, or salt spray, reminds me of this feeling. I feel it at the base of my spine.

Joi:  3 questions you'd like me to ask you?

Sarah:

•       would I send my kids to private or public schools?
•       would I love to eat dinner with Russell Brand?
•       do you really think every meal can be improved with frozen peas?

Joi: A few months ago you sent me an email, I received it at night and it made me stop for a bit (by that I mean stop tweeting). From memory you said hello and that you liked oodlies. There was just something in the way you said it that made me think 'email stranger' kinda understands me. A huge part of why I oodlie is to connect with people. I'm very skittish in person and have been an introvert since birth (my mum has some hilarious introverted baby stories including chomping down on her finger back when I couldn't speak, so she'd take me down to the basement when visitors arrived). I've struggled with this for years, mainly trying to understand why such a normal thing as talking to people bothered me so much. I used to think it was wrong and I had to change but I don't think I have to change anymore. 

Most people who meet me never think I'm 'shy' or introverted and are almost adamant I'm making it up as I don't fit the mould of a stereotypical introvert. Some people just get their energy from within, whilst others get theirs externally - my recharge battery is somewhere between my head and my crotch (well I just don't see legs as being rechargey, I swear I didn't say that just to say crotch). 

Your email somehow made me feel like you understood that, even though you didn’t say much and I have no idea how I came to that conclusion but I did. And it made my inside by the heart bits happy.

Thanks for your email, you wonderful, weird, kind, quirky, hot assed, stranger who's on TV with the TV people. (I still haven't watched you on TV as I can't work anything that isn't an iphone or a Mac). One day I will and I'm pretty sure I'd say these exact words 'omfg that's Sarah from my email on the TV'.

Sarah: Reading this made me feel that THIS is what life is about. Sharing THIS kind of information. I used to ride mountain bikes to feel this kind of full flight lightness. Letting the throttle out, is what I call it.  I’m an extrovert who gets exhausted and has to retreat. Actually, I’m a particular extrovert. I derive my energy from others and the external world when It’s enriching. When it’s not, I get sapped. It’s taken me years to know this.  So it means I can come across all or nothing. On or distracted and frazzled.

Thank you for your big-hearted questions. I’ve enjoyed answering them.

(…and then Joi ruined a beautiful moment by saying ‘letting the throttle out’ LOL. I pictured a penis. like immediately)

Joi: What's your dynamo?

Sarah: sunlight and a certain look in someone’s eye. I search for it and when I see it, I know it and I know I’m alive.