A conversation with Susan Sarandon
On Sunday, Nov. 28, TNT will air “Noel,” a film that tells the story of a group of people whose lives would appear to be forever untouched by the joys and blessings of the holiday season. But something extraordinary happens, and each of them is, indeed, touched by a personal Christmas miracle. Chazz Palminteri (“A Bronx Tale”) directs “Noel” and has a cameo in the film. Others in the cast include Alan Arkin (“And Starring Pancho Villa as Himself”), Penelope Cruz (“Head in the Clouds”), Paul Walker (“Pleasantville”) and Oscar winner Susan Sarandon (“Dead Man Walking,” “Shall We Dance?”) as Rose, an emotionally vulnerable woman who cares for her ailing mother. On Christmas Eve, Rose visits her mother in the hospital, and things start to happen that eventually help her see the world, and her place in it, in a different light.
(NOTE: “Noel” will also be shown in theaters on a limited nationwide run during the 2004 holiday season. A Flexplay DVD — which can be played any number of times for a 48-hour period after the package is opened — will be available through Amazon.com.)
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Susan Sarandon says some people may miss the significance of the description of her character, Rose, as vulnerable, and think it means weak.
“It doesn’t mean that at all,” Sarandon says. “And before I continue, let me say that I love playing vulnerable people because they tend to be more sensitive and more aware of the needs of others, and I think we need more of that. As for Rose, she’s actually a very strong person when you realize that she’s managed to be successful in her career and still deal with the responsibility of caring for her mother. And her strength shows itself in other ways, especially when her life is about to be changed in that wonderful way that it all happens on Christmas Eve.”
Sarandon and her longtime partner (since 1988), actor/director/writer Tim Robbins, have been active in political and social causes. Her upcoming film “The Exonerated,” which is based on the off-Broadway play about real people who were sentenced to be executed, although each proved to be innocent (in one case, the proof came after the execution), reflects her longtime campaign against capital punishment.
“So many people (who support capital punishment) talk about justice,” she says, “when what they really mean is revenge, and that has no place in a just society.”
As for her work to help women caught in traditions that keep them as little more than property and with no rights — even to the sanctity of their own bodies —Sarandon says, “We are making progress, and although the traditional patriarchal societies these women live in are difficult to change, we have to keep trying.”
Finally, asked what she would like the audience to take from “Noel,” Susan Sarandon says, “I would like them to see that even when things look hopeless, they may not be. And that hope is always a possibility. We just need to be open to it. It also tells us that things often happen for a reason, and we have to find that reason.”
IN FOCUS: William Shatner’s long career in theater, film and television has run the gamut from Shaw to Shakespeare to science fiction, and lots of great stuff in between. Currently, he stars on ABC’s “Boston Legal” as Denny Crane, a successful lawyer who faces the possibility that he may have dementia.
Shatner says the possibility that Crane may have the cruel mind- and identity-robbing disease is dramatically significant.
“Here you have someone with one of the most brilliant legal minds in the country, if not the world. His strategies win cases — many against enormous odds. He’s not afraid to take on anyone. Corporate giant, politician, it doesn’t matter. But now that he realizes his mind might be slipping away, he is suddenly afraid. But he’s a strong man and won’t hide in denial. He wants the truth.”
Although he has one of the longest and most diversified resumes of any actor working today, Shatner admits that he is still most strongly identified with his role as Captain Kirk on “Star Trek.” But it doesn’t bother him.
“After all,” the Montreal-born William Shatner says, “it made it possible for me to play a lot of other wonderful characters, including Denny Crane.”
DIAL TONES: The story of the fabled “Christmas Tree Ship” that has brought Christmas trees to needy people in the Chicago area for more than 100 years is told in a special episode of “Storm Stories: The Christmas Tree Ship” airing Nov. 28 on the Weather Channel.
The new movie Superman is Brandon James Routh, whose television credits include a role on the soap opera “Love of Life” and appearances on MTV’s “Undressed.”
And on a somewhat-related note, plans to produce a television documentary on the life of the late Christopher Reeve — who was the previous film Superman — are said to be under way, and will include his efforts to get government support for stem cell research.