Director Darren Aronofsky shone the spotlight on his seventh-grade English teacher by asking her to read a poem in front of a star-studded audience at the New York premiere of his new movie Noah.
The Black Swan filmmaker gave a small role in the biblical epic to Vera Fried, the teacher he credits with inspiring his creative career, and she is seen onscreen playing a one-eyed crone opposite the movie's star Russell Crowe.
Aronofsky invited her to walk the red carpet when the film was screened in New York on Wednesday night, and he asked her to read a poem about Noah to the audience at the Ziegfeld Theatre in Manhattan as he introduced the movie, according to New York Post gossip column Page Six.
The poem she read was written by Aronofsky when he was under her tuition at school.
Fried told reporters at the event that she failed to remember the director when he first got in touch with her after so many years.
"I had no idea. I taught 2000 kids! I Googled him. He wrote in his email, 'I never became a real writer, just a filmmaker.'
"He's the master of understatement... (On set) everyone said, 'You're the person who put us to work.' I felt like I put more people to work than (Barack) Obama that year."
* Noah is in Australian cinemas now.
