Tributes pour in for legendary Canadian actress Catherine O’Hara following her death at age 71

‘She’s what you aim for’

Hello, I’m a web writer for CBC Radio’s As It Happens.

When Canadian comedian Aurora Brown was growing up in Thunder Bay, Ont., she’d watch Catherine O’Hara on SCTV on Saturdays, mesmerized.

“She’s what you aim for,” Brown told As It Happens host Nil Kӧksal. “Impeccable. Perfect. The highest bar there is.”

Brown later followed O’Hara’s footsteps by honing her craft at Second City, where O’Hara’s portrait hung on the wall. In 2017, she met O’Hara, who complimented her work on Baroness Von Sketch.

“I was so tongue-tied,” Brown said.

Brown said what inspired her most about O’Hara was her “total commitment to whatever she was doing.”

“Seeing somebody show the way like this is how committed you can be to the part, and this is how silly you can be at the same time, and this is how transcendent that can be?” she said.

“It’s what everybody aspires to.”