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Oscar-winning actress Susan Sarandon is well known for taking a stand on political and social issues in the films she makes, but, as she tells Steve Pratt, she made her latest movie to please her children

IF she had a choice, says Oscar-winning Hollywood actress Susan Sarandon, then she wouldnt be here. And 98 per cent of actors would say the same thing, she adds. Here is the Dorchester Hotel in London where she and her Speed Racer co-stars are embarking on several days of press and media interviews for the new movie from Matrix creators, the Wachowski brothers.

Sarandon isnt being difficult. Far from it, shes a bright and chatty interviewee who doesnt impose restrictions on questions, while remaining aware that doing press is a brutal process because you have no idea what the outcome will be.

Arriving from the Berlin premiere at three in the morning, nine hours later shes facing the press.

It takes a very different kind of talent to answer the same six questions for four days and one of the reasons I take a film is that it has some concept I can keep talking about, she says.

The foreign press are markedly different to American reporters, she feels. They dont listen to the answers, pressing on with their next prepared question come what may. What happens is that you dont have a sense of give and take. They come in with what they feel the interview should be. There are actors of the same mind who go in determined to do what theyre going to do. It doesnt matter what the person opposite says, theyre determined to do what they want to do regardless.

Its true of a lot of journalists that the Americans C and Ive said it to them face-to-face C have been robbed of their ability to ask questions. So you can just imagine what thats like if youre going through it for weeks at a time.

IT helps to have a movie that you care about and that people respond to. You can imagine doing an interview with people who really hated your film and are trying to be polite.

As you gather, Sarandon is one of Hollywoods more intelligent actors and not one to keep her opinions to herself, as her public stances on social and political matters have shown.

She won her best actress Oscar as the nun who befriends Sean Penns condemned man for Dead Man Walking, directed by longterm partner Tim Robbins, after four previous nominations.

Her work displays a pleasingly adventurous mix. Shes worked for both the North-Easts Scott brothers (Tony for The Hunger, Ridley for Thelma And Louise), was the screen Janet in The Rocky Horror Picture Show and isnt afraid to let her hair down in mainstream projects like The Witches Of Eastwick.

Her role as Mom Racer in Speed Racer is a supporting one in a motor-mad spectacular more likely to be remembered for ground-breaking special effects than its story or acting. Sarandon was keen to be part of a movie aimed at a family audience.

The Matrix was just a huge, huge film in my family, so I thought my kids would think I was really cool if I did this movie, she says.

Not that she followed all the technical innovation planned by the Wachowskis. I didnt understand a thing they were saying to me when they talked about what they were going to do, she admits.

Its much more exciting for me not to know where a film is going. If you know exactly how a film is going to turn out, its not as interesting to do.

I knew my kids were excited about getting to know the Wachowskis. I spoke to them a few times on the phone when they were asking me to do it and I could tell they were funny and really smart.

She and John Goodman, who plays Pops Racer, provide the heart of the picture in the domestic scenes. Much of the film was shot with the actors performing against green screens with backgrounds added later.

I never read directions in scripts. There was an awful lot of stuff in this film I couldnt bear to read because it was just directions, directions, directions, she says.

When they were trying to explain I just said I dont understand what youre talking about. I dont think anyone can imagine whats going on in their brains because their vision is just so extraordinary.

You just have to surrender, it was an exercise in surrendering.

If you liken it to a drug trip, it finally kicked in when we saw the film.

Sarandon is clearly capable of being surprised in film-making despite her long experience in the business.

The fringe benefits can be pleasurable too, as becomes apparent by her enthusiasm about her London hotel. I walked in... where is it? where are we? I cant even remember what its called. Claridges?

When I walked into the suite I thought Im a movie star. It was gorgeous. Id stayed there once before with the family, but this suite was total Carole Lombard.

She was similarly amazed when taking part in a BBC Wales family tree documentary investigating her Welsh roots. It was so crazy because all her siblings, and shes the oldest of nine, took up her invitation to join her on the trip to Wales.

That was the first time everyone had been trapped in a bus together since I dont know how long. That was where the real story was C by the end of finding our roots we were close to like a homicide.

But it was really fun to see it and now Ive been contacted by an American company thats going to do one and Im going to Sicily and to find out my Italian roots.

Making the programme was a break from a busy screen career. Roles for women over 50 are reputedly hard to find. There arent that many good roles for men either, she says.

There are more leading roles and more money for men. Thats true, that hasnt changed. Whats happened now is that women have been more proactive in developing projects.

And, you know, I cant complain. Certainly, you end up doing a lot more supporting parts but, for me, as long as theyre interesting and important in the context of the film, I dont mind at all.

The movie industry suffers from a lack of interesting parts for everybody because theyre not very brave in developing things. They want to do the same thing over and over again. Anything thats outside the box has a hard time getting money.

She points out the problem of working in a business where you get paid more if you repeat yourself.

If you had a success making a boot, maybe you could make a blue boot but theyre not going to ask you to make a sandal. That makes them uneasy.

Thats why character actors, who have more independence and do a lot of different things, get paid less. People who have very strong personalities and do the same thing over and over again tend to get bigger bucks. But were working longer.

ö Speed Racer (PG) opens in cinemas on Friday.

10:08am Monday 5th May 2008

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