Recently, Sherman Alexie visited BookCourt to read from his collection of new and selected stories, Blasphemy. After the reading, Alexie took questions from the audience and I was fortunate enough to get in the last question, which transgressed into a sort of “first date” conversation. We chatted about a few of Alexie’s favorite recent films and his guilty pleasures.

Freddie Moore: What’s your favorite movie?

Sherman Alexie: What is my favorite movie?

Or a few if you can’t decide on one.

What are we, on a date? [Laughter.] [To audience member:] She’s trying to date me, Glendon! What’s your favorite — that’s a date question. What’s your name?

Freddie.

Freddie?

Yeah.

Oh, that’s awesome. I could date somebody named Freddie. A girl named Freddie — that’s a title of a good story. That’s like a middle reader, that’s like a chapter book club: “The Freddie Factor.” [Laughter.]

Anyway, my favorite movies. You know, I’m a fanboy. I love so much stuff, and one of the best perks about this job is that I get free stuff almost every day. Almost every day, boxes of free books and movies. Every movie that’s going to play in the next year [whispers] I’ve already seen.

My favorite movie recently: I loved Gravity as long as nobody was talking. It could have been the greatest movie ever if there was no dialogue whatsoever.

… I’ve been making so many jokes, I want to make sure this [isn’t taken that way] — 12 Years a Slave: Oh, I don’t even know how to describe it. I have never wanted leave a movie, but leave it because it was too intense. I mean, there are issues with it … but damn, scared me.

You know, depending on who asks me, I usually say something like The Bicycle Thief, like if we were on a date. In reality, it’s Aliens. [Laughter.]

You know what movie — this is really embarrassing, I can do all the choreography — Pitch Perfect. [Sings:] “Everybody look to the left, everybody look to the right.” [Changes tone:] “It’s not about the money, money, money.” I mean, it’s not a great movie, but it’s one of those things — it’s like Grease. Grease is a bad movie. It’s actually a really bad movie, but it so resonates. And Pitch Perfect just kills me. I have two movies on my iPad, and it’s Aliens and Pitch Perfect. [Laughter.] I’m not sure what that says about me.

Freddie Moore is a Brooklyn-based writer. Her full name is Winifred, and her writing has appeared in unFold, The Paris Review Daily and The Huffington Post. As a former co-president of SUNY Purchase’s Cheese Club, she’s a big-time foodie who knows her cheese.

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