Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, July 22, 1994 TAG: 9407260049
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: EXTRA EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By GENE SEYMOUR/NEWSDAY
DATELINE: NEW YORK LENGTH: Long
It turns out the nanny canceled, because someone in her family had a serious accident, thus pitching into potential chaos a carefully orchestrated day of interviews and photo sessions publicizing Sarandon's latest film, ``The Client,'' which opened this week.
But watching Sarandon coolly give the maitre d' detailed instructions on what to do when the new sitter arrives, one senses it won't take long for matters to achieve, at the very least, an exquisite simulation of stability.
With everything in place, she saunters over to a waiting table, her smile glowing as brightly as the sunlight engulfing the dining room. She seizes a reporter's hand with a grip steely enough to make one reconsider using such words as ``silky'' or ``willowy'' to characterize her physical presence. ``Sugarcane tautness'' is more like it.
Which isn't to say she lacks magic. Far from it. It's hard not to be impressed by those perfectly sculpted cheekbones, deep-dish hazel eyes and the expressive mouth that, whether at rest or in motion, conveys both sultry worldliness and wry intelligence. If anything, Sarandon's casually worn composure in the midst of her dog-day child-care hassles only makes her more magnetic. And this is before she puts on her makeup for a late-afternoon photo shoot.
With or without makeup, Susan Sarandon, at 47, remains as alluring as she was in the 1980 film ``Atlantic City,'' with its evocative opening-credits sequence of Burt Lancaster's gangster ``manque'' gazing longingly through his window at Sarandon's oyster-bartender as she languidly squeezed lemons over her nude torso to kill the smell of fish.
In the presence of such mythic power, who could blame director Joel Schumacher (``Falling Down'' and the upcoming ``Batman'' sequel) for getting on one knee in the middle of a New York power lunch with Sarandon, pleading with her to play ``The Client's'' dauntless, overmatched attorney-heroine?
``I've been in love with her for years,'' Schumacher says. ``It wasn't just a stunt. I wanted her badly. There were no second choices.''
Sarandon was both embarrassed and charmed by Schumacher's public display of wretched excess. Yet, as someone who covets candor in personal transactions, Sarandon was more beguiled by the rest of Schumacher's rap, which he says went something like this: ``I've got a lot to learn as a director, but I can cast a movie better than anyone. You'll be cast well. You'll be treated with respect. And you'll have a lot of fun.''
``And I have to say that spoke to me,'' laughs Sarandon, who had taken a couple years off from moviemaking for Miles' sake. ``I liked the idea of working during the summer, which is when I prefer to work anyway, so I don't disrupt school for the other kids. I was in Memphis. Tim was filming in Ohio. So we were able to get together easily for time off. And it worked out just the way Joel said it would.''
Tim, by the way, is actor Tim Robbins, who's been Sarandon's significant other since they met on the set of 1988's ``Bull Durham'' and is the father of both Miles and 5-year-old Jack Henry. Her 9-year-old daughter, Eva, was fathered by Italian director Franco Amurri and lives in Manhattan with Robbins, Sarandon and the other two children.
``The Client'' is Hollywood's third attempt to make as much money off a John Grisham legal thriller as the books themselves have made. It's also the riskiest since, unlike last year's ``The Firm'' and ``The Pelican Brief,'' it isn't being ridden into the multiplexes by a box-office powerhouse like Tom Cruise and Julia Roberts. Industry pundits will be watching to see whether Sarandon, playing the central character in this, her 32nd feature film, can carry a movie on her own. Sultriness, worldliness and all.
``The Client'' is about an 11-year-old boy (Brad Renfro) who hears more than he should about the mob-related murder of a U.S. senator. A flamboyant federal prosecutor (Tommy Lee Jones) wants testimony from the frightened boy, who hires Sarandon, playing a recovering drug addict, estranged parent and struggling lawyer, to keep the feds and the mob at bay.
Sarandon's comfort level with the project was enhanced by the way Schumacher welcomed her input.
``The way I've worked is to throw out lots of suggestions, and I don't expect all of them to be taken. On (``Client''), I was listened to, probably, more than I'd ever been. Joel gave me so much creative license that by the time the film was over, my only anxiety was that I'd hung myself in self-indulgence,'' she says.
It's partly because of the warped values she sees in the film industry that Sarandon is especially picky about the roles she accepts. She's just finished playing ``Marmee'' in an adaptation of Louisa May Alcott's ``Little Women'' and will be seen later this year in ``Safe Passage,'' in which she plays the mother of a soldier missing in action. She's also been talking with director Jane Campion about a part in her adaptation of Henry James' ``Portrait of a Lady.''
But there are other, bigger reasons for being vigilant about her film career. Specifically, three of them, growing up together in her New York apartment. In fact, she agreed to do ``Safe Passage'' because it allowed her to work close to home during the school year.
``My kids,'' she says, ``are so much more interesting than most of the scripts I read that it's certainly not in any way even tempting to spend more time chasing more work. My problem lies in finding enough people who feel passionately about what they do, that are trying to do something that's different. Not political, but something that has its own voice. I'm not tempted that often. So real life to me is so much more compelling.''
by CNB