Photo:Steve Eichner/Variety via Getty, Jon Kopaloff/FilmMagic
Steve Eichner/Variety via Getty, Jon Kopaloff/FilmMagic
Rita Wilsontakes a page out ofNora Ephron’s cookbook each year.
At the event, Wilson told PEOPLE that when it comes to her family’s Thanksgiving meal, she cooks “the entire thing” — and revealed that she got one of her signature dishes from theWhen Harry Met Sallycreator, whodied in 2012at 71.
“It’s always the same and I love it. It’s family. I cook the entire thing … It’s just really nice to have the time off and be together,” she says, adding that one of her most beloved dishes is “a Nora Ephron recipe.”
The dish? “Orange praline yams," Wilson reveals.
“Not sweet potatoes — yams,” she clarifies. “They’re a different thing.”
At the L.A. event, which centered on emerging women filmmakers, theSleepless in Seattleactress (who is married to Ephron museTom Hanks) also revealed that the legendary screenwriter was — “without a doubt" — her biggest female supporter.
“She saw in me that I was an actress who could do comedy. She saw in me that I could write,” Wilson says, adding that Ephron “said amazing things.”
“She came to my very first music performance ever and she said, ‘You keep doing this,’” Wilson continues. “And she wasn’t like a saccharine sweet, like, ‘Oh, you go, girl, honey.’ She was like, ‘No, you’re doing this and you can do this.’”
Rita Wilson and Nora Ephron in 1997.Ron Galella, Ltd./Ron Galella Collection via Getty
Ron Galella, Ltd./Ron Galella Collection via Getty
In a 2021 interview withVariety, the actress revealed how significant Ephron was to her career and that the journalist and filmmaker was a mentor for her.
When asked about the crowning moment of her career, Wilson said, “I think Nora Ephron casting me inSleepless, and then afterwards inMixed Nuts. And then again in plays that she did.”
“Nora was the first time I ever had a mentor, someone who could say, “Here’s how you do it. I think you have something and let’s work together,’” she told the outlet, adding that Ephron “did this numerous times during our friendship.”
Wilson continued, “My mom was Greek. My dad was Bulgarian. They were immigrants. I was a first-generation American. Nobody was in the business. I never had someone who said, ‘Here’s how you do this,’ until Nora.”
In the heartfelt tribute, Wilson wrote that Ephron was “a one of a kind woman, and an extraordinary talent.”
“We all know that,” she said. “She was also a one of a kind friend. An extraordinary friend.”
The actress also shared details of the rom-com icon’s philosophies about food — and how they influenced her own: “She believed good food made for happier casts and crews. She was right," Wilson wrote.
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“Nora celebrated life to an insatiable degree, yet without any of the manic energy one associates with people who have ‘insatiable appetites’ for life,” she continued. “She had a calm and elegant way of savoring every moment.”
Wilson also wrote that the filmmaker’s dinner parties were “a recipe for joy: part salon, part celebration, part Nora’s own cooking, part ready-made dishes.”
source: people.com
