From Maine to Hollywood and Home: Vero Beach's Xaque Gruber Premieres Sallywood
- Vero Minute
- Nov 17
- 3 min read
Updated: Nov 18
Local filmmaker Xaque Gruber's passion project premiered at Majestic Theatre here in Vero Beach yesterday, just days after his idol's passing. The film is earning national accolades, including acclaim from RogerEbert.com (link here) and The New York Times.
Some stories are so perfectly timed you have to wonder if someone is pulling strings from above.
At nine years old in rural Maine, Xaque Gruber popped a videocassette of "Anna" the 1987 Oscar nominated, Golden Globe-winning film starring Sally Kirkland into his VCR. Young Gruber was transfixed. He was, as he later reflected, "surely the only nine-year-old Maine boy who was obsessed with Sally Kirkland in 'Anna.'"
That childhood obsession would chart the course of his entire life.
Fate Takes the Wheel
In 2002, at age 28, Gruber drove to Los Angeles with dreams of making it in Hollywood. Walking into a diner, he spotted Kirkland's photo on the wall. She was a regular. He discovered she had an art gallery, attended her opening, and introduced himself to his lifelong idol.
Before he'd even officially landed the job as her assistant, Kirkland gave him his first task: write her obituary.
"Don't say Sally died," she instructed him. "Say Sally passed into spirit." Gruber recalls sleeping on her art gallery floor that first night (long story) after being hired on the spot by Kirkland—who didn't even know his name yet. It was the beginning of a long friendship that would define both their lives.
Bittersweet Reality of Fame
Sally Kirkland amassed 275 film and TV credits over sixty years, yet struggled financially—a harsh Hollywood truth captured in "Sallywood." When she first read Gruber's script, Kirkland responded: "Oh, you wrote me as the world's biggest narcissist, and I can't wait to play myself this way!"
After moving to Vero Beach in 2015, Gruber wrote the screenplay that became Sallywood, telling his own story: the starstruck assistant trying to help his aging idol reclaim the red carpet.
The film features Jennifer Tilly and Eric Roberts, with Kirkland playing herself in what would become her final starring role.
A Perfect Goodbye
Then came the timing that feels almost too perfect to be coincidence. Sally Kirkland passed away at 84, last Wednesday, just days before Sallywood was released. Gruber worried: "it would be terrible if she passed before the movie came out." A dear friend replied: "I hate to say it, but this could be her last gift to you."
Gruber had written an obituary for Kirkland as her assistant all those years ago. Last week, that same obituary was used in real life. As he reflected yesterday at the Majestic 11 screening: "The universe and God work in such mysterious ways. It feels so crazy, weirdly fitting, that she passes as the movie comes out."
From a VCR tape in rural Maine to the bright lights of Hollywood, and finally home to Vero Beach—Xaque Gruber's story reminds us that sometimes, the most unbelievable stories are the true ones. And sometimes, if you're very lucky, you get to give your hero one last bow.
Reviewers called it "ultimately Sally's epitaph. And what a beautiful thing to have at the end of her life."
Sallywood is available on Amazon Video here (Rent/buy: $4.99/$7.99).
It all Started at the Vero Beach Film Festival
Sallywood launched at the Vero Beach Film Festival (founded in 2016 by Jerusha Stewart and Susan Keller Horn).
In celebration of a decade of stories finding their audience here, Vero Beach Film Festival Executive Director David Yakir, is marking the anniversary by launching a new program -- the Producer’s Pass giving full access to every film, event, wine tasting, awards ceremony, and lounge for as low as $292 here (for a limited time with early purchase).
And if you'd like to be part of it all by volunteering, click here.
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