‘Mary Oliver: Saved by the Beauty of the World’ includes poetry readings and interviews with Oprah Winfrey, Stephen Colbert, Maria Shriver and John Waters
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NEED TO KNOW
- A new documentary about Mary Oliver and her enduring legacy as one of America’s most celebrated poets includes interviews and poetry recitations from Steve Buscemi, Oprah Winfrey, Stephen Colbert, Maria Shriver, Helena Bonham Carter and John Waters
- Oliver died in 2019 at age 83
- Mary Oliver: Saved by the Beauty of the World is available to stream Aug. 25 on pbs.org/americanmasters, the American Masters YouTube channel and the PBS app
For decades, Steve Buscemi’s instantly recognizable voice has been a Hollywood mainstay, most notably in indie films. Now he’s using that voice to bring poetry to life.
The Fargo star, 68, recites Mary Oliver’s poem “The Last Time Percy Came Back” in the new American Masters documentary Mary Oliver: Saved by the Beauty of the World. The film chronicles Oliver’s early years as a writer, the people and places that shaped her work and the celebrated poetry that eventually earned her widespread recognition.
Featuring interviews with Maria Shriver, John Waters and former U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón, the documentary also includes poetry readings by Oprah Winfrey, Stephen Colbert, Helena Bonham Carter and Lucy Dacus, offering a portrait of Oliver’s enduring influence and literary legacy.
Buscemi’s involvement came about through an unexpected sighting.
“Mary’s biographer, Lindsay Whalen, told me that she saw Steve Buscemi at one of Mary’s readings in New York, which is what prompted me to reach out to this iconic actor and director,” Sasha Waters, the film’s director and producer, tells PEOPLE. “Documentary filmmakers rarely have the chance to work with actors, so it was a real honor to include Buscemi, who, like Oliver herself, is a truly original voice of a generation.”
Born in 1935, Oliver became one of America’s most celebrated poets, earning both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. Much of her writing centered on the natural world, drawing heavily from the landscapes and daily walks she took in her adopted hometown of Provincetown, Mass. She died of lymphoma in 2019, leaving behind more than 25 books, the majority of them collections of poetry.
“The mission of American Masters,” executive producer Michael Kantor tells PEOPLE, “could be drawn from the Mary Oliver poem ‘Sometimes’, in which she offers these Instructions for living a life: ‘Pay attention/Be astonished/Tell about it.’ ”
Credit: NW Orchard, LLC courtesy of the Library of Congress
Oliver’s influence extends well beyond the people featured in the documentary. Sophia Bush, who narrated Wild and Precious: A Celebration of Mary Oliver — an original audio collection featuring readings, personal stories and reflections on Oliver’s work — told PEOPLE in 2023 that she is “so moved by her work.”
“That’s part of why Mary’s work touches people in the way that it does. You can go to her for a meditation on life. You can go to her to put words to grief that you haven’t been able to previously. You can go to her for spirituality,” Bush said.
She added, “When you dive into it, [poetry] really invokes intersection and dreaming and a greater capacity for thought. Perhaps that is the reason I love Mary so much.”
Mary Oliver: Saved by the Beauty of the World is available to stream Aug. 25 at 9 p.m. ET on pbs.org/americanmasters, the American Masters YouTube channel and the PBS app.
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