Wow, that’s a dramatic picture of the legendary critic with no jaw after having surgery in 2002 to remove a cancerous thyroid and a couple others afterward that have also left him unable to speak. In a new post Ebert addresses why he did the Esquire article titled ‘Roger Eberts Last Words‘ and how he felt when he saw the photo:

Christy Lemire wrote me: “So, everyone seems pretty moved by the Esquire piece on you, but I’m wondering what you thought about it. It’s so intimate, personal.”

Yeah, it was, wasn’t it? It was also well written, I thought. When I turned to it in the magazine, I got a jolt from the full-page photograph of my jaw drooping. Not a lovely sight. But then I am not a lovely sight, and in a moment I thought, well, what the hell. It’s just as well it’s out there. That’s how I look, after all.

It was an inexplicable instinct that led me to agree when Chris Jones contacted me requesting an interview. The idea of Esquire appealed to me. I did a bunch of interviews for them in the 1970s, when it was the crucible of the New Journalism.

What goes around, comes around. I’d read some of Chris’s stuff. He’s good. You sense the person there. He’s not holding his subjects at arm’s length. I knew I’d have to play fair. I’ve done interviews for years. This was no time to get sensitive and ask for photo approval, or an advance look at the piece. I’d been the goose, and now it was my turn to be the gander. I’ve never known what that means, geese-wise.

That’s all you can really ask: For Chaz to be able to read the article and say it was about me. It was. By and large, it was a faithful account of what happened over the course of two days and evenings. The errors were few, small and understandable.

I knew going in that a lot of the article would be about my surgeries and their aftermath. Let’s face it. Esquire wouldn’t have assigned an article if I were still in good health. Their cover line was the hook: Roger Ebert’s Last Words. A good head. Whoever wrote that knew what they were doing. I was a little surprised at the detail the article went into about the nature and extent of my wounds and the realities of my appearance, but what the hell. It was true. I didn’t need polite fictions.

Well, we’re all dying in increments. I don’t mind people knowing what I look like, but I don’t want them thinking I’m dying.

We love someone who likes when people tell it like it is and doesn’t get all sensitive. Bravo Roger Ebert!!!!  Read his entire response HERE.

Photo: Esquire

Tagged as: Can't Talk, Cancer, Chris Jones, Esquire Magazine, Film Critic, Interview, No Jaw, Response, Roger Ebert, Surgery, Thyroid