There are some people so talented it doesn’t seem possible anyone could be that good at anything. There are also some people so good it doesn’t seem possible anyone that wonderful can be real. Catherine O’Hara was the rarest of rare: she was both. One of the most beloved performers in Hollywood was also one of its best. At this year’s Actor Awards, Seth Rogen told everyone why. He gave a moving acceptance speech on behalf of the late star when he accepted her award for Best Actress in a Comedy Series. His tribute included the best lesson we should all take from Catherine O’Hara’s incredible career: you can be both kind and gifted.
Rogen had the sad honor of representing his late The Studio co-star and actor after he performance on the show earned O’Hara a posthumous win at this year’s Actor Awards. (Formerly known as the SAG-AFTRA Awards.) During the speech he talked about how O’Hara knew how talented she was and how she always wanted to live up to those talents. “She could destroy and she wanted to destroy every day on set,” he said.
But the best testament to O’Hara was not that she was enormously talented as a performer. It’s that her prodigious abilities and drive didn’t prevent her from also being a good person. “She really showed that you can be a genius and be kind,” said Rogen. “And one of those things does not have to come at the expense of the other in any way, shape, or form.”
Those words echoed something he said in 2015’s Steve Jobs where he played Steve Wozniak. After an intense argument, Wozniak told Jobs, “It’s not binary. You can be decent and gifted at the same time.” No one captured that better than Catherine O’Hara.