By Bonita Wilborn
Actress Sandra Ellis Lafferty, who grew up in DeKalb County, was presented with a “Walk of Fame Star” on Sunday, February 27, 2022. Lafferty’s star will be the second Walk of Fame Star placed on the sidewalk in front of the DeKalb Theater. Country Music stars “Alabama” received the first star in 2018.
In an invitation-only event, Main Street President Randy Posey presented the star to Lafferty. Like the iconic Hollywood Walk of Fame, Lafferty made imprints of her hands in cement to be added later to the sidewalk in front of the DeKalb Theater along with the large gold star bearing her name.
In a 2018 “People of Alabama” video, Lafferty explained, “Some people may recognize me. They don’t know who I am, but they recognize me because I’ve been in so many movies.
In “Hunger Games” (2012 and 2013), I was the one who gave Jennifer (Katniss) the Mockingjay pin. They’ve been small roles primarily, but I call them pivotal roles.”
Lafferty continued, “I saw every movie I possibly could at the DeKalb Theatre in Fort Payne, Alabama. Those were in my head for so long. I wanted to be on that screen. I did my first film when I was 50, so yes, I’m what most people call a late bloomer, but I was trying to bloom that whole time and looking forward to it.”
Lafferty recalled, “I was getting leading roles and guest-starring roles in TV and film when I decided I was going to come back and be with my mom.
When I was driving back from L.A., I got a call from my agent who said, ‘I want you to audition for a movie about Johnny Cash.’ That was certainly one of the most exciting things that had happened up until that point.”
Lafferty did audition for the movie and got the role of Maybelle Carter in Walk The Line (2005), the movie about the life of Johnny Cash, one of the roles she is best known for.
“You know, I don’t think you put a label on it as a child,’ Lafferty said, “but it was always there in me. I was always writing scenarios in my mind. My whole life was just imagining things, and I always played a character.
I’d like to be recognized for the talent part of it, but meanwhile, I guess I’m satisfied to be able to work.
Lafferty, who didn’t begin her acting career until after she turned 50 years old, shares Internet Movie Database (IMDb) credits with A-list celebrities like Joaquin Phoenix, Hugh Jackman, Ben Kingsley, Robert Redford, Rosario Dawson, Jake Gyllenhaal, Michael Keaton, Jennifer Lawrence, Ryan Reynolds, Emma Thompson, Nick Nolte, Reese Witherspoon, and many others.
Lafferty owns more than 74 acting roles to her credit. Other of those roles include the Hugh Jackman thriller “Prisoners” (2013), “Self/Less” (2015) with Ryan Reynolds, and “A Walk in the Woods” (2015) opposite Robert Redford and Emma Thompson, guest roles on TV shows as diverse as “The Wayans Bros”, “Baywatch”, “NYPD Blue”, “Melrose Place”, “Boy Meets World”, “The Vampire Diaries”, “One Tree Hill”, and others.
More recently, she appeared on the TV series “Containment” and an episode of last year’s TV miniseries “Dopesick.”
In 2019 Lafferty served as Grand Marshal of the Fort Payne Christmas Parade. Also locally, she was a guest artist for the Northeast Alabama Community College’s production of “Driving Miss Daisy”, and she volunteers at the Mentone Arts and Cultural Center, where she has served as artistic director mentoring high school theater students. Those are just a few of the things she has done locally.
She’s also performed pieces from her one-woman shows “An Ordinary Woman” and “Granny Dollar” at events alongside her brother, author Jerry Ellis, who celebrated in 2021 the 30th anniversary of his Pulitzer and a National Book Award-nominated nonfiction book “Walking the Trail: One Man’s Journey Along the Cherokee Trail of Tears”.
She was named best actress for a season by the Denver drama critics when she was a member of the Denver Center Theatre Company. She also was named best actress by Westword magazine.
In the early 2000s, Sandra returned to Alabama to help care for her mother. With the movie industry expanding its Hollywood roots to the East Coast, the move accelerated her career with key roles in blockbuster films. Lafferty has completed the projects “Hellbilly Hollow”, “Starbright”, and appears as the title character is the forthcoming short film “Linda Gets Justice”.