Sarandon relaxes with new lm 'Anywhere but Here'

Turn on the TV news and you might see her along the barricades. At 53, Susan Sarandon is still a cause celeb.

She was in front of the microphones last month at a rally to protest New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani's attacks on the Brooklyn Museum of Art for the controversial exhibit, "Sensation.''

Federal Judge Nina Gershon, in issuing a temporary injunction Monday against Giuliani's cutting off of city funding for the museum, said that the mayor's action violated the First Amendment. Giuliani said he will appeal.

Says Sarandon, "I think it's terrifying that the government can tell you what you can see and what you can't see. The premise of censorship - the whole idea of this paternalistic 'We'll protect you from yourself' thing - is very, very dangerous. Fre

Courtesy of Twentieth Century Fox Susan Sarandon and Natalie Portman star in Wayne Wang's "Anywhere But Here."

e speech is what this country is based on.''

Sarandon certainly has exercised her right of free speech. In March, she was arrested for disorderly conduct during a protest over the unarmed shooting of African immigrant Amadou Diallo by four New York policemen. In 1993, she and long-time partner Tim Robbins used podium time as Academy Award presenters to speak on behalf of Haitian refugees.

"Living with myself - if I hadn't said something, if I hadn't taken those 28 seconds - would have been much worse,'' says Sarandon of the Oscar outburst for which she and Robbins were taken to task.

"I'm somebody who's media-connected and I can give a voice to people don't have a voice,'' she says.

Friday, Sarandon returns to the big screen as star of "Anywhere But Here,'' directed by Wayne Wang ("The Joy Luck Club''). She plays an overly protective single-parent/school teacher who moves to Los Angeles so her daughter (Natalie Portman, Queen Amidala in "Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace'') can attend Beverly Hills High School and break into acting.

Over the course of 55 films, Sarandon has balanced family, career and causes, yet maintains a healthy sense of humor about herself.

"I've managed to have a life and a career. And that is a funny balance. But I didn't start off needing my career.

"I never studied acting. So it goes to show you how difficult acting really is,'' she says with a laugh.

Her daughter Eva is studying acting. And, when Eva was asked to work on a scene in high school drama class, Sarandon recounts: "She was assigned my monologue in `Bull Durham.' She said she couldn't do it. `It's my mother's.' I thought that was pretty funny.''

Sarandon stumbled into acting. She and then husband Chris, recent graduates of Catholic University in Washington, D.C., were working on scenes together. Sarandon, who became a Ford model, was in New York for only a week when she auditioned for the low-budget "Joe'' (1970) and landed the role of the daughter of a bigot (Peter Boyle). The film was a sleeper hit and Sarandon's career was on its way.

Five years later, Sarandon played Janet Weiss in '75's cult hit, the horror-film spoof "The Rocky Horror Picture Show.'' It was another five years and another splash for Sarandon, courtesy of some well-placed lemon juice, in Louis Malle's "Atlantic City," opposite Burt Lancaster, that yielded her first Academy Award nomination.

Sarandon garnered additional raves for the lesbian-themed "The Hunger," opposite Catherine Deneuve, and for the farcical romp, "Witches of Eastwick," opposite Jack Nicholson, Michelle Pfeiffer and Cher, and another Oscar nomination for "Bull Durham," opposite Kevin Costner. Her romance with Robbins, who played the ungainly young pitcher "Nuke'' LaLoosh in the film, began then.

Her role opposite Geena Davis in the girls-on-the-run-with-guns themed "Thelma & Louise" burnished her image as a feminist icon and brought another Oscar nomination, as did "Lorenzo's Oil" and "The Client," the latter based on John Grisham's best seller.

Robbins directed Sarandon's Academy Award-winning portrayal of real-life anti-death penalty advocate Sister Helen Prejean and counselor of a death-row inmate (Sean Penn) in "Dead Man Walking."

"The great thing about acting is it's always shaking you up and putting you in someone else's moccasins, and kind of forcing you into this position of compassion even when you're lazy about it. It's so educational.''

Sarandon is pleased to have portrayed so many independent-thinking, spirited, strong women. Growing up, there weren't many women actors she emulated.

"Certainly, Katharine Hepburn and Bette Davis had careers that everyone would like now. They were making different kinds of movies before we got into the '50s and the women had to be a victim and vulnerable. But I don't know that I'd want their private lives.

In "Anywhere But Here,'' Sarandon plays Adele August, a blousy mom who drives a vintage gold Mercedes, wears cat-framed sunglasses, flashy tops and capri pants and is unlucky in love. Call it "Louise & Louise's Daughter.'' Sarandon says the film is more than all that.

"It's so important to have somebody who at their core was healthy, because I didn't want to beat up on somebody on screen for two hours. I wouldn't have wanted to see that. This mother, for all her eccentricities, has managed to turn out OK.

"The other problem was: How do you get her centered without making her less fun? I hate movies when you're asked to root for somebody who becomes normal and boring. `Cure them of their eccentricities' is just such a horrible premise to have for a film.''

Sarandon says she didn't have a problem with a man directing a women's-themed film. "I've worked with women I haven't liked and (who) have not been as generous to other women (as Wang). He (Wang) loves women.

"Some people read this script and said, `Why do you want to do this? She's an obnoxious, ugly, politically incorrect boor and nothing happens.' Wayne (Wang) didn't think that. Wayne got it.''

Sarandon says one of the attractions of "Anywhere But Here'' for her was the opportunity to put on some "paint.''

"That was really fun because I hadn't been in makeup for so long. I hadn't had a part that was frilly clothes and makeup in many moons.''

Another reason she agreed to star in "Anywhere But Here,'' Sarandon says, was because the filmmakers agreed to wait for her until she finished a small role in the Robbins-directed "Cradle Will Rock'' and promised that they'd complete shooting before the start of her children's school year.

11-11-99