As beloved as Betty White was by her fans, she might've adored them even more.
The legendary actress died on December 31, about three weeks shy of her 100th birthday.
As has been announced, a documentary on the late star entitled “Betty White: A Celebration" will be released nationwide as a one-night-only movie theater event on White's birthday, January 17.
The film’s producer/co-director, Steve Boettcher, recently spoke to Entertainment Tonight about a touching video message the "Golden Girls" star made for her fans on December 20.
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"She did a short little video for us…" Boettcher told the outlet. "It was kind of a tribute to her fans that were going to be with her at the event. It's kind of a shout-out to her fans that she did 10 days before she passed away."
Of course with her passing, some last minute changes were made to the film that, as ET reported, will change “the focus a bit from its original incarnation as a birthday celebration into a tribute to White's incomparable life and career.”
The video message to her fans is expected to be a part of the upcoming documentary.
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Boettcher said of the clip, "She looked amazing [in it], she loved getting 'glammed up,' as she calls it, in her hair, makeup, she was just striking and beautiful. She was smiling and really she wanted to thank her fans sincerely, from the bottom of her heart, for all the support over the years."
Before she passed, White told ET she was looking forward to the film event as a virtual party.
"Who doesn’t love a party?!?” she said in a press release for the film, from just last week. “This one is gonna be GREAT!”
The movie will take a look at her long and successful career featuring new interviews with White herself; behind-the-scenes clips of her work; funny moments from her hit sitcoms “The Golden Girls,” “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” and “Hot in Cleveland;” bits from her 2010 hosting gig on “Saturday Night Live;" a lost episode from White's very first sitcom; nods to her animal activism, and much more.
White had a legion of famous fans too, and they’ll make appearances in the film, including Ryan Reynolds, Tina Fey, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Clint Eastwood, Morgan Freeman, Jay Leno, Carol Burnett, Craig Ferguson, Jimmy Kimmel, Valerie Bertinelli, James Corden, Wendy Malick, and Jennifer Love Hewitt, and many others.
Boettcher made a connection between White’s personal relationship to her fans, and the more intimate, at-home experience of television, where – after an early start as a Hollywood ingenue – White really went on to make her name.
"I think Betty had this feeling, the sense that sometimes movie stars on the big screen are unapproachable,” said the producer. “But with Betty, and her career, it happened on the small screen, on the television screen, and she felt she was invited into people's homes every week. Whether it was ‘The Mary Tyler Moore Show,’ or ‘Password’ or ‘Hot in Cleveland,’ or ‘Golden Girls,’ she was invited in people's living rooms. She felt that as a special privilege kind of, like almost your favorite aunt coming over, your favorite grandmother coming over. So I think Betty really embraced that and cherished that relationship."
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"I think just that she was happy and the eternal optimist," Boettcher surmised. "You'll see that in the movie… that she has this unbelievable look at life and view of life, and that it just rains through her entire career and her personal life. [She was] just the eternal optimist."
“Betty White: A Celebration” was directed by Boettcher and Mike Trinklein, and will play in almost 900 movie theaters nationwide on Monday, January 17 at 1:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m.
Tickets can be purchased online at Fathom Events or at participating theater box offices.
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