From Guy Maddin's foreword:

Ann and I became friends! We became partners in this project. She loved the mad idea of playing a woman, my mother, who thought she was playing herself in something that was supposed to be a documentary but really wasn't. She loved the challenges inherent even in the actor's approach to this character, the kind of meta-backstory that had more twists than most plots. She and I got a great kick out of all the prep we did together, rehearsing dialogue over the phone while I worked on preproduction in faraway Winnipeg, Canada, and she went through her own Los Angelino boot camp at home, readying herself for her close-up, reciting her lines ever more fiercely until she was spitting rivets into my avid ears!

My father was a mean bastard. The less said about him, the better. He had a violent temper, which I inherited. I've never been able to forgive him for the things he did to my beautiful mother...One of my earliest memories is being taken to a gigantic palace to meet a very important king. I realized years later, when I asked my mother about it, that we had gone to an ornate movie theater to see Valentino. The movies were silent then, and the theater was filled with beautiful music. I wanted to get up and dance for the king...When we got home I would cheer them up by play-acting scenes from our favorite movies. I didn't know a damn thing about acting. I didn't even know what acting was...but it usually worked, and was fun for all of us.

On Ann's performance in Detour:

The Evening Bulletin review called her performance "nothing short of astounding", Hollywood Reporter said Ann gave "a most outstanding performance" and Hawaii Times noted that she "dominates the show with splendid acting" (both the Hawaii Times and The Evening Bulletin compared Ann's work to that of Bette Davis in Of Human Bondage, as did the review in the Los Angeles Times)...(A) trade ad, incidentally, is accompanied by a glorious photo of blonde and beautiful Ann, obviously in an attempt to prove that Vera was a masterful performance.

Ann Savage incorporated the Reinhardt tradition in the development of every character she ever created. Her style was a mix of Reinhardt, Stanislavski, her own personality and observation, and her unique assumptions of the truth of a character's identity. She began to study the people around her relentlessly, sometimes writing notes, or making mental notes, and practicing, "rehearsing" early in the mornings, in the same way some practice meditation, chanting, or yoga. Once she mastered these mechanics of acting, she never let them slip away. Practicing her art grounded her. "It kept me sane, in a crazy world."