Sarandon’s Wild Ride

There’s no denying that Susan Sarandon is one of cinema’s most formidable dramatic actresses. Her Oscar-winning role in “Dead Man Walking” as a nun who befriends a death row inmate is the centerpiece of a body of work that also includes Academy Award-nominated performances in “Thelma & Louise,” “Lorenzo’s Oil” and “The Client.”

But she wishes people would let her cut loose and be funny every once in a while.

“I don’t want to get in a rut of being suspected of taking myself too seriously,” explains Sarandon, an ageless 52.

After all, Sarandon made her film debut in 1970’s black comedy “Joe,” and went on to demonstrate an impressive comic range in 1975’s cult classic “The Rocky Horror Picture Show,” the delightful 1984 “American Playhouse” presentation, “Who Am I This Time?” and 1988’s sexy box-office hit, “Bull Durham.”

So the actress was taken aback at reaction to clips from her freewheeling new comedy “Earthly Possessions” during the annual Television Critics Assn. conference earlier this year.

“One journalist raised her hand and said, ‘You seem awfully silly.’ And I thought, ‘Yeah. Exactly. That is kind of one of the reasons I did it.’ ” The cable movie premieres Saturday on HBO.

Gone are the days, says Sarandon, when actresses like Katharine Hepburn, Carole Lombard and Myrna Loy would move effortlessly between comedy and drama.

“The flexibility that they had back then is not what people are looking for now,” she explains. “I guess [producers] feel if they are paying you, they want to make sure they get the same shoe they saw last season. ‘We don’t want a boot if we bought a sandal.’ ”

“Earthly Posessions” is based on Anne Tyler’s (“The Accidental Tourist,” “Breathing Lessons”) acclaimed 1977 novel, which Steven Rogers (“Stepmom”) adapted for television. Sarandon plays Charlotte, a discontented middle-aged housewife who has decided to leave boorish husband (Jay O. Sanders). During a stop at the bank on her way out of town, she is taken hostage by a young, fumbling robber named Jake (Stephen Dorff). But when the robbery goes awry, these two misfits find themselves on the lam from the cops. As they journey by car and bus down the eastern seaboard, the two fall in love.

The quirky comedy, shot last fall outside of New York City, was directed by James Lapine, the Tony Award-winning director of Stephen Sondheim’s Broadway musicals: “Sunday in the Park With George,” “Into the Woods” and “Passion.”

Lapine acknowledges the movie is quite different than the book, which concentrated more on Charlotte’s family life. “It’s definitely its own little animal,” says Lapine, who likens it to an “Alice in Wonderland”-type fable. “These people kind of go down a rabbit hole and meet all of these eccentric types and come out the other end back to where they started.”

The plot, says Dorff (“Backbeat” and “Blade’) is more romance than caper. “It’s not about the cops trying to find us,” says the 25-year-old actor. “This is about two people. It’s a character study.”

Those two people had a lot of charm for Sarandon. “They are so inept in their roles,” she says of Charlotte and Jake. “He’s such a bad bank robber and she’s such a silly hostage. That is kind of what makes them funny.”

“Earthly Posessions” marks Sarandon’s first project for television since the 1986 CBS movie Women of Valor. It was prospect of doing a comedy after the emotionally wrenching demands of “Dead Man Walking” that drew her back to the small screen.

“I liked the character and I liked that it was a little romantic, but still eccentric,” she says. “It could be filmed in New York (where she and her family live) and it could be fun.”

Once Sarandon had signed on, it became a matter of finding someone who could bring Jake to life. “You can find people who are funny, you can find people who can be sexy and you can find people who are scary, but it’s hard to find people who are all of them.”

But she agreed on Dorff after seeing his film work. “He is confident--God knows--enough and experienced enough because he’s been working for a long time.”

Both Lapine and Dorff make no bones about the fact that they, like a lot of men, are in love with Sarandon.

“I thought it would be great to work with her and it was great to work with her,” says Lapine. “She is an amazing talent.”

And Sarandon happens to be Dorff’s longtime favorite actress. Yet despite his desire to work with his idol, Dorff initially had conflicted feelings about playing Jake. “I actually thought the character was too young for me to play,” he explains. “I didn’t feel connected to it at first.”

A breakfast meeting with Sarandon changed that. “When I met with Susan we had such chemistry as collaborators and friends, and we got the chemistry into the movie.”

“Earthly Posessions” airs Saturday at 8 p.m. on HBO. The network has rated it TV-14VLD (may be unsuitable for children younger than 14 with special advisories for violence, language and suggestive dialogue).