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Susan Sarandon (Photo: Dimitrios Kambouris/Wireimage)
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HBO:
You've created so many fascinating characters
over the years. What attracts you to a role?
Susan Sarandon:
Well, I've always been drawn to something I
haven't done already. And I'm interested in
love stories because I feel that two people
reaching out and becoming intimate, even if
it's not in a sexual way, but in some way
surrendering to another person, is one of the
most courageous things you could possibly
do, whether it's two women, or a mother and
a child, or two friends, or lovers. So every
movie I've ever done I've seen as a love story.
The Client, Thelma & Louise, Dead Man
Walking- for me, they're always love stories.
I think that's at the heart of what I'm
looking for: encouraging people to be the
protagonist in their own lives, and celebrating people who take a chance, not because they're
heroic, but because they're human. People
with major flaws, people with major fears,
people with major needs, ordinary people that
do extraordinary things. I don't think it's
changed through the years, it's what has always been interesting to me.
HBO:
How did you want audiences to perceive these
characters?
Susan Sarandon:
I wanted to make sure that the character of
(Bernard) Lafferty was treated in a dignified
fashion, and a humorous fashion, and also
that you could believe he was capable of running a huge house. So he had to be smart. That was the
first concern I had.
Ralph (Fiennes) was at the top of the list. I
had met him socially but I'd never worked with him
before, but I thought that he was certainly
handsome enough to desire and smart enough
to be able to run a house. I trusted that he
would not be a cliché over the top, queen-y
kind of guy, which I thought would be such a cliché.
I was concerned that both of them care about
each other, not just him being obsessed with her,
which wasn't as interesting. So we had to
identify what she gave to him, not just what
he gave to her, which was more obvious. And
it was a story that for me lived in the spaces
between the dialog. It's really about the looks, the moments between them. And it's a little voyeuristic in that
they're always kind of in on a joke that
nobody else shares. That's what bonds them.
But the question, again, is do you ever really want
to ever be intimate? If you do, then it might as well be this person. It's not
about gender. It's not about race, or age, or
anything. The hurdle is intimacy. That's
what we wanted to focus on.
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Susan Sarandon (Photo: Jemal Countess/Wireimage)
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For me the most interesting films that I've
worked on are films that are funny and then
suddenly there's a poignant moment that
pops up when you least expect it. As
opposed to watching films where you know
where they're going. I'm more interested in
things that catch you by surprise like life does. If you can
manage to do that, then it's really fun.
And the collaboration, since this was so
cheaply done, everybody's learning curve was
very steep. They say that you relax in the jaws
of a lion, [LAUGHS] - we were very relaxed
because it was just completely impossible to
think that we would pull it off for the amount
of money, in that amount of time.
Not that I haven't worked that way before, but
not where you're supposed to be living a
lifestyle with jewels and gowns and estates
and animals and servants. That's a whole
other thing. So it added a certain amount of
energy because we didn't have time to over-
think it. It was just like a big free-fall, with
Ralph and I in the middle of it.
HBO:
It sounds like the budget freed everyone up
creatively and gave you a great deal of
autonomy.
Susan Sarandon:
As the amount of money increases then so
does the amount of people that have an
opinion about how it should be spent, and
how many people are overseeing in areas
where they're not necessarily qualified to have
strong opinions. So what you gain in the
luxury of having more time you sometimes
lose autonomy, and you can also just over-
think things. Sometimes you just want to get
up and do it instead of talking about it and
theorizing. You just have to jump at some
point, and just do it.
HBO:
Doris is extraordinarily philanthropic and she's
also extraordinarily eccentric and often quite
contradictory. She has a wonderful mix of
qualities.
Susan Sarandon:
I think most people have contradictions, but
when you're that wealthy maybe you're just
able to indulge the contradictions more. I
notice it with people who become movie stars.
In the beginning they seem one way, and then
as they get more and more power their ability
to live the way they want to suddenly becomes
very [LAUGHS] - much more clear because
they have the means to not have to filter
things through other people. They become so
powerful that their taste becomes purely their
taste. And so then you really get a notion of
what they're about.
I think everyone's full of contradictions and
fears and vulnerabilities. But because she
lived so large, and had the means to do what
she did her eccentricities became easier to
see. And there aren't that many people that
have the kind of money that allows them to make mistakes that large. They don't have the
means to be so generous, and so cheap.
[LAUGHS] Most of us are curtailed by
the parameters of a life that's imposed by a
certain wallet size. But she didn't have that,
so she could follow all her whims.
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Rocket Science DVD
"... A Poignantly Comic Tale." (Rolling Stone) Pre-Order your copy now from the HBO Shop (SM)!
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