By Jenny Halper in New York City

Susan Sarandon has been a household name since she belted an impressive rendition of “T-t-t-t-t touch me!” in 1975’s “Rocky Horror Picture Show.” Nearly thirty years later, she’s still very much the movie star, and three high profile fall releases boast Sarandon at her best.

One early Friday morning, a stylish, black-suit clad Sarandon poured herself a cup of tea and sat down to chat about her latest film, “Noel.” As Rose, the lonely children’s book editor at the heart of Chazz Parlminteri’s ensemble film, Sarandon enters territory that’s a far cry from her other fall releases: Rose would likely gape at the sexpot saleswoman the actress plays in “Alfie,” and envy her happily married “Shall We Dance?” character. And while “Alfie” and “Shall We Dance?” certainly fall under the umbrella of escapism, “Noel” offers a comforting, early glimpse of Christmas spirit- entirely welcome in this season’s bitter political atmosphere. Speaking of politics, Sarandon- who also discussed family matters, upcoming projects, and working with the “Noel” cast and crew- had quite a lot to say.

Q: As busy as you are, as extremely busy as you are, when you’re doing movies with Jennifer Lopez and Jude Law, why this film, such a small film?

SUSAN: I kind of liked the story, and Chazz came to see me. I was working in Toronto and he came to see me, and said I thought it was really interesting, and I liked him, and I talked to people who worked with him and they said they had a good time. I’m always up for a good time and this was before I realized that this was one that was still being shot in New York. I said it will depend on who else you get. And Robin said he’d do it if I did it, and Penelope then jumped on, and then unfortunately they moved it to Montreal which meant it left the track, not that I don’t love Montreal but it was just, I was driving back, flying in blizzards, more complicated.

Q: I thought you had a really nice dynamic with Robin, had you worked with him?

SUSAN: No, that was one of the things (that attracted me to the project), we’ve been old friends since Tim did Cadillac.

Q: Could you keep a straight face?

SUSAN: The thing about Robin is that he’s actually an incredible listener, in real life too, having known him now for I guess 15 years, 16 years. He’s actually has so much heart and really sweet, but a really good listener so he’s not always wired like you see him.

Q: Was it hard for you to identify with this character who is- she’s a very sad and lonely…

SUSAN: Mousy.

Q: Mousy, and all the things you’re not, based on the times I’ve met you anyway. Was it difficult to identify with a character like that?

SUSAN: No, no. I guess inside every extrovert there’s a mousy person. It’s not hard for me, I have an enormous amount, it’s easy for me to identify. People- no matter what their external situation is- finally in the end everybody wants and needs the same thing, or is afraid of the same thing, so that’s the bottom line isn’t it? The lowest common denominator’s all the same in every character. Everyone has the potential to feel like they’re outside of everybody, everybody needs courage to be intimate with a person, everybody fighting their own demons, everybody wants to be loved, everybody wants, we’re social animals, somewhere in us we want to be with our tribe. I think that finally the bottom line. I’ve certainly felt out of place myself. I was really really shy growing up, and I’m still not that comfortable speaking in front of people.

Q: Really?

SUSAN: I don’t like that at all. In fact this is hellish for me.

Q: No, come on…

SUSAN: I’m kidding, but you know, the two things you have to have as an actor is imagination and empathy, and I think that that’s your key into everybody. Sometimes your vanity, if you’re looking a little bit dumpy or whatever, and you think that’s the right choice, but it’s the wrong choice when you see yourself on screen having a bad hair day or not wearing makeup. I know I have to look that way but ugh, God, now I have to watch it! That’s another thing.

Q: Are you more confident now that you are older?

SUSAN: Yeah, I think it would be pretty painful to be in this business. I think that’s the liberating thing about working for a lifetime in something that you really love is that you become more confident. I still don’t sleep at least for the first week when I start a new project, which as my kids pointed out when I did Elizabeth’s Town- which was only about a week at a time- that I never quite settled into that job. So I don’t think that means just because you’re confident that you can’t be terrified. Every time I start a job I’m terrified.

Q: When you work with a director like Chazz who’s acted before, does that make it easier for you?

SUSAN: Yeah, if he’s a good director. There can be people you get along with really well and use the right words and are interested but they can’t handle directing, they don’t know where to put the camera, maybe they can’t deal with the organisational challenges, I think you have to have both. Just being an actor isn’t enough. Chazz loves actors, he is organized, he does have a great rapport with our DP who was a fabulous guy. I think he did tell us, wanted to tell us the story from a character point of view, which is always good for an actor. And he is so enthusiastic! If you had to make a choice to do a project or not, I’ll always choose a person who has a passion for the story they’re going to tell. It doesn’t mean it’s going to turn out great but at least you’re going to be on a team where the captain is really excited and Chazz was so fun to work with. He really, really was. It was one of the best times I’ve had in a long time.

Q: Was there something about working on a Christmas film that’s struck you, or you’ve seen other ones and you’ve thought ‘that’s one thing I haven’t done’?

SUSAN: Yeah, it’s a film that deals with miracles and that kind of thing and I think that’s true.

Q: Do you have any bitter Christmas memories?

SUSAN: Yeah, sure, who doesn’t? Christmas is the time when reality clashes with what you think your life should be, and how loved you think you should be and all that kind of stuff, so I think everybody’s had a Christmas that hasn’t lived up to what they think their Christmas should be living up to. I’ve had a Christmas when I was completely alone.

Q: What in particular inspired you to make a Christmas film this time?

SUSAN: It was just at the right time. Like I said I thought at first I thought it was going to be in New York which would have made it even easier and I’m kind of prone to doing films that are in New York, but I thought that the message of it was hopeful, and it was kind of mystical and I like that, and I liked Chazz. I’ll jump on for a few weeks, I thought it would be fun.

Q: Is this the most creatively, fruitful time of your career? There’s one movie already out.

SUSAN: I went through a period like this before, where the bad thing is you kind of have this rush, and you’re not sure if they’re going to cancel each other out or what. I don’t know if I’d look at it that way, my career’s always gone in spurts, especially when I was having children, I’d take off a year or so for each kid, or there didn’t seem to be anything happening and then you’re working on a bunch of movies and then they suddenly all come out together. I remember around “Stepmom,” I’ve done periods where I’ve been filming like, but the fact they come out right on top of each other, isn’t the best planning.

Q: Seeing an actor like Chazz making a movie, does that spur you to do more work with your production company, seeing other actors becoming successful, doing independent films?

SUSAN: Well I’m the one that found “Dead Man Walking” and basically produced that, and I just haven’t found anything. I’m producing my family, actually, which takes an enormous amount (of work), especially when Tim’s out and about. Somebody has to be doing the boring stuff that goes on, holding the family together, get the forms in for the class trips and make sure they have their sneakers and all that kind of stuff. So that’s really my focus right now, and I’ve acted in a producing capacity before, for other films. I did one even before “Dead Man Walking,” where I was the producer, ages ago, and I think I produced “Stepmom” for instance, Julian and I did that together. Right now I’ve got a bunch of things that are smoking around. You know it’s a very hard thing to get a script and a director together that are right, and I just would prefer not to do it until it’s right, and I probably would get things done faster if I were focused more on then, but honestly I can’t quite- I guess- my daughter’s in school, she’s in a good place, but my boys, I just feel like they need me more than they did when they were little. At least when they were little, they’d just stand there screaming, but when they’re teenagers you have to be so vigilant because you’re missing it and they’ve got friends I don’t know now, and they’re struggling, they’ve got so much more mentally.

Q: Motherhood is clearly a priority to you. So how do you juggle?

SUSAN: I just juggle badly. It’s really, I think every working Mom has that. I think as they get older, I’m in a place where I can do more but when you’re producing or directing a film, which will be the next step for me, I might as well work at the UN if I’m going to do that because it’s like a year and a half, two years of your life, all the time. I know what it’s like because I’ve lived with directors before so it’s not like I’m naïve about what it’s going to mean, and at the moment I don’t have anything I need to say so desperately or that I’m eager to do those things that I want to take the time.

Q: You were lucky to take on a remake like “Alfie.”

SUSAN: “Shall we Dance” too.

Q: And that as well, two different remakes. What prompted you to make those particular decisions?

SUSAN: I didn’t have to do the remake, again I thought “Shall We Dance” would be a lot of fun and “Alfie” was a great, again I worked about ten days and got to keep my clothes and have fun with the Jude.

Q: How do you compare Jude with other men that you’ve worked with? And did you keep the clothes from “Noel”?

SUSAN: Well I never want, would I want my clothes from this one, no. I loved them, they were very nice but I wouldn’t, except to put them on ebay or something but I wouldn’t be keeping them. Do you know how many waitress uniforms I’d have by now? What did you ask? Oh Jude. Jude is great, Jude is obviously, did you see “Alfie”?

Q: Not yet.

SUSAN: Well it’s self-explanatory once you see him. He’s incredibly charming and he’s a real pro and he’s kind of harkens back to like an old Hollywood movie star except with a theatre background and somebody who’s got a great sense of humour and really works with the whole thing and not just himself, he was very there. We had a really good time.

Q: I need to broach this subject delicately, have you seen “Teen America?”

SUSAN: No I haven’t actually.

Q: Have you heard about it?

SUSAN: Well some of (my kids’) friends are boycotting because they don’t like what happened to me. Look, I think those guys are really funny, I like South Park a lot. I’ve survived Celebrity Death Match which sounds, it’s a long version of that but it doesn’t sound like they have a political point of view except that people aren’t supposed to have opinions but I guess unless you’re a marionette movie maker, because obviously they have opinions so I don’t quite understand what they’re trying to say. But in terms of, like, that should be the worst thing that happens to me, I’m really not upset.

Q: They’re puppets.

SUSAN: They’re marionettes right?

Q: And they have sex too.

SUSAN: It’s been years since we’ve had a good marionette.

Q: It’s funny, it’s actually very funny.

SUSAN: I just don’t know what they’re saying to kids, is that you get fired if you speak out. I think so.

Q: Say again?

SUSAN: You get set on fire if you speak out because they don’t blow up the other guys.

Q: They only blow up the Liberals.

SUSAN: That’s interesting- so they’re not really giving it an even hand, so they obviously do have a slant to it, right?

Q: They said the celebrities they chose were mostly random.

SUSAN: Schwarzenegger, do they blow up Schwarzenegger? No, they don’t blow up…

Q: Michael Moore gets lampooned in this one.

SUSAN: They don’t lampoon anybody that’s on the right do they? For speaking out? No. There you go.

Q: Are you involved in getting people out there to vote in this election. I know a lot of the celebrities are doing that?

SUSAN: Yeah, I have, I’ll probably go to Pennsylvania. I’ve done a number of events, Tim was on the tour with Pearl Jam.

Q: Do you feel you’re having an impact?

SUSAN: There’s been an enormous number of people registering, whether or not their names will be on the books when they get there seems to be another question because there’s been the destroying of so many registration forms. I don’t think that anybody’s going to vote for somebody, I hope nobody’s going to vote for somebody because a celebrity tells them to. I think that’s the point. I think that a fundraiser’s when you’re trying to lure somebody in to write a cheque that it’s helpful to say that people like Martin Sheen, Susan Sarandon, and Julianne Margulies and the people we went to Martin Sheen who’s from Ohio and we did some events in Ohio and the point was not to, the point was to get registered, to get funds to register people to vote, to canvas the neighbourhoods to make sure that people got out there. I haven’t been on the trail with John Kerry but I have been focusing, also with Russell Simmons, I’ve done some work with Russell and I think that’s valuable. I think there’s an enormous amount of interest in making democracy work this time round and considering that the largest party in the United States was the 50% of Americans that don’t vote and understandably haven’t been voting. I understand the reasons why they felt disenfranchised or don’t think it makes a difference but in this election I really feel there’s a lot at stake and I’m happy that there’s so many men and women interested in voting, and I think celebrities can point out and try to bring those people into some sense of empowerment. I think that is valid. I would never tell anybody what to think. Just for the record, before the Iraqi war, I asked questions which now are being asked. All I did was say, is there an exit plan, why can’t we leave the inspectors in, all the things that now, you know, that other people are asking. Everyone was afraid, that nobody else in the press was asking. If the people and the press had done their job and grilled all those administration people as severely as they have Michael Moore about his documentary, we probably wouldn’t be in this war and all those heartbreaking stories of all the thousands and thousands of people that have been killed, both Iraqi citizens and our soldiers and the 7,000 wounded that are coming back and the whole horrible situation in the world today may not be happening. But why were people so silent. It’s one thing not to have an opinion about a marionette movie but it’s another thing not to have an opinion when your country spends your tax money and go into something as serious as a war and nobody was asking questions.

Q: How concerned are you about the results of this election?

SUSAN: I think it’s life altering. I think Kerry’s going to win.

Q: I hope you’re right.

SUSAN: I don’t know that he’ll, he won the last time and the Democrats rolled over on that so I don’t know how it’s going to play out but I’m pretty confident that

Q: Don’t you think Kerry will be President of the United States?

SUSAN: No, I said I think Kerry will win.

Q: There’s a difference?

SUSAN: I’m saying why were the Democrats not fighting harder, the last time round. One of the saddest scenes in 9/11 for me, besides the horrible story, this women loses her child, is sitting there and seeing all these members going up and asking from their district in Florida, asking for the signature of one senator. Not one person, Gore’s standing there and effectively slamming down his gavel and not letting anybody speak. Just recently one of these women, an elected member of the House of Representatives, was in the House of Representatives and she reiterated her fears for this year and they expunged her testimony from the House of Representatives record and kicked her off the floor of the House. Now why don’t we know about these things?

Q: I don’t know why they didn’t fight more but I do think that Bush will be up for impeachment if he does win.

SUSAN: And that would be an excellent reason to stay in the country.

Q: Would you leave the country if Bush became…

SUSAN: I’m not saying I’d leave the country.

Q: Rob Altman said he’d move to Paris if the Republicans won again.

SUSAN: I think a lot of people are very very nervous about what it means. Because he’s made our lives, and for this I’m furious, he’s made our children’s lives and our lives so much more dangerous.

Q: I agree.

SUSAN: And the world’s so much more dangerous and I don’t understand why people could possibly think that he’s going to be the safer choice. Clearly we are living in a much more dangerous place. Now that would be my concern if he gets it, that it would continue that he’s not only destabilised that area but that he would continue to besides making this country very week because economically there’s this huge strain, because of the division, because of the lack of funds for education, health care and everything else that makes for a weak nation. I don’t think he’s going to change. Will we eventually get out of Iraq? I hope so.

Q: Not during a second term.

SUSAN: Well he might have to prove himself again, but it’s going to be a shambles.

Q: Do you think a movie like this, a movie that is hopeful, is important right now?

SUSAN: Yeah, I think people need entertainment all the time. I like making entertaining movies. I consider “Dead Man Walking” entertaining, even though it’s a tough one, I think that ironically people in our business, no matter what happens to the economy, they’ll always get jobs because people do need something hopeful and distracting and entertaining.

Q: Do you think that you’re an example of the attitude in Hollywood about women, or have you just been lucky?

SUSAN: Do you mean a new attitude in Hollywood toward women?

Q: Yes.

SUSAN: I don’t think that there’s a new, Hollywood, the good news and the bad news is that Hollywood is not political. Hollywood does not, that’s not what Hollywood’s about. Hollywood is not going to decide upon itself to start making films for this demographic because they’ve had some kind of a raising of consciousness, any more than they’re going to suddenly decide well let’s get with racism, let’s rid of ageism and let’s get rid of homophobia, any of the things that it’s guilty of. It’s not the way it works. Somebody comes up with an idea for a story that they care enough about, that they push it through and if that makes money, maybe after “Thelma and Louise,” maybe they started to entertain the notion that maybe there could be female buddy movies but only for two seconds so it’s really about, it’s a very systemic so it’s not really Hollywood as the system that’s ever going to change I don’t think. The only thing that changes are the individual projects, maybe tell a good story that have people together that can find a way to get it going and if it makes money, they go oh, but they’ll still call women’s films chick flicks and they’ll still, even “Banger Sisters” they told me that they were thinking of casting it younger. Now how could you cast that younger, would they have been groupies at two or something? I mean how could, it doesn’t even make sense sometimes when they’re thinking. I mean I’ll be trying to put together a project and there’s this story of two women or whatever and they’re a certain age and they say, how about this person, and I say, but it’s not a tragedy if at 24 she’s working too hard. It’s a tragedy at 44 if her whole life has gone, and she’s been working, it just doesn’t translate.

Q: Who do you play in “Elizabethtown?”

SUSAN: I play Orlando Bloom’s mother. I really adore him and it’s a small part but it has one long, it has, she’s a very funny character and I really loved Cameron Crowe and I have like a seven-page monologue and so it’s quite challenging.

Q: How did you find Cameron Crowe?

SUSAN: He’s another person. This is another movie that was kind of autobiographical, where you’re actually talking to the person you’re playing which is Cameron’s Mom basically so there was lots, every time I’ve done this which happens quite a lot with me, it’s a responsibility that I sometimes is a little counter my style because I like to be just kind of fooling around. I’m very playful where I work and when someone’s sitting there where you’re actually saying their words, it makes it a little more stressful but on the other hand he’s so passionate, again, about telling the story and he plays a lot of music and the crew is just lovely and the other actors were great. Judy Greer plays my daughter and they said you have to come back for the wrap party, we’d like to have you here so that was really sweet.

Q: What else is coming up for you now?

SUSAN: Well John Turturro’s film, “Romance and Cigarettes,” is in the spring, and I don’t know when Elizabeth Town comes.

Q: Do you sing in “Romance and Cigarettes”?

SUSAN: Yeah. I’m awful.

Q: You sang beautifully in that earlier film.

SUSAN: In “Rocky Horror”? Well this is a strange thing because it’s kind of people lip syncing to pre-recorded period songs and things but then I heard you sing really well and I thought oh my god they didn’t put my voice, and I’m shouting piece of my heart, I hope it’s not me. It’s going to be really embarrassing. But it’s a really interesting film. It’s so much fun and I got to work with Kate Winslet and Chris Walken and James Kendall Feeney and Mary Louise Parker, Mandy Moore and Aida and it was really fun.

Q: Do you think Paul Walker will be taken more seriously as an actor?

SUSAN: I think he hasn’t really had the opportunity to show that, he’s gorgeous and charismatic and really sweet but I don’t think he’s had the opportunity. Have you talked to him yet?

Q: Not yet.

SUSAN: I don’t think he’s had the opportunity like he had in the Flint to really work on a character that had some emotional demands and I think, I thought he did a pretty good job of being from New York and that he and Penelope’s scene is incredibly compelling. I didn’t really know him as an actor but I didn’t really think it seemed like he was from New York, that was the only thing I question but I had no preconceptions about what he could do as an actor or not but I think he works really really well in the movie.

Q: It seems to me that the older you get, the hotter you become. How do you keep in such amazing shape and…?

SUSAN: Seriously, first of all when people ask me, I say don’t smoke, don’t smoke! It’s horrible for your skin.

Q: What about coffee?

SUSAN: Coffee’s not great either.

Q: But you can get over that, more than smoking.

SUSAN: Smoking really takes its toll. You can spend billions of dollars on facial creams and stuff, but it’s from the inside out. It really kills your skin. I think that I’ve been lucky in that I have a good gene pool or whatever but I think I’m relatively happy and healthy but seriously, I think there’s women now and men too that don’t have in their minds that suddenly everything stops at 40 and I think that makes a big difference. There’s so many of us, I’m interested in my life and my kids, they keep me, I mean I’m a little tired today, but most of the time, I try to keep myself pretty healthy.

Q: With your character here, in certain ways, she’s alone, where did you connect with that?

SUSAN: Well, because, finally at the end of the day, there’s a common denominator, you know how you find a common denominator in algebra? We’re in algebra in school at the moment, so I’ve very conscious of it. Everybody is afraid of the same stuff, everybody needs the same things, people know, everybody knows what it feels like to be the odd one out or to feel lonely. And I think that’s where you connect, you just have that in common with everybody and I think when people ask me about activism, I say it’s imagination and empathy which is all you have in acting, it’s the same thing. If you could imagine that that could be your child, how could you possibly ignore that situation and I think with her, I’ve certainly felt left out and I’ve certainly fumbled and I remember going out on dates even as a movie star, and thought what script is he reading from because I’m not on that page and feeling completely stupid and left out, maybe not as bad as she is because obviously she feels sexually attracted to him, but she just can’t do it. I don’t think that it’s that, I think she’s avoiding the pain in her own life by just keeping busy with this Mom and I can understand that. It’s just hard, life’s hard, intimacy is ridiculously hard, you can’t even go there trying to figure out why you ever reach out to another person, it’s such a tough tough thing. I think that any age, any place, and anything is just hard.

Q: You’re lucky. You’ve been able to do that, you have this great family.

SUSAN: I have a great family, and I love them and I have great girlfriends, great great support team that I’ve had for years and years and years but I think one of the reasons that I really like making movies is that it gives you an opportunity, this is so pretentious but I do feel like you give people an opportunity to go into a dark space and see a story unfold that hopefully is about people, because I think all my movies are about this, that do make the decision to just, however small, incrementally just move their lives forward and become even slightly more honest and slightly more open and slightly more in contact, even when you’re playing a bad person, to see that on screen is a really valuable, fun thing that people can lose themselves in a theatre and go through some sort of experience that really makes them laugh. I’m grateful for it when I go and see something, you don’t have to cry but that even takes me out of my life into some place else. It really means a lot to me so I’m so happy to have a job, that’s another thing that makes you live kind of more together. I just think that if you’re in a job that you really hate doing it, it must be horrible.

Q: So you mean, if you’re in a job you love, you can be really hot because you’ve got a job you love?

SUSAN: Probably, because I think when you see people…I can remember when I was a kid, looking at Marlena Corey and trying to figure out how come she seemed sexier than Barbarella. There was something about them that said yes to life and just, they weren’t classically beautiful, there was just something in them that really made me wonder for years about what it was about those gals that was so intriguing and I think it’s something about that you think they’re going to take a chance and they’re going to do and they’re going to be there, there’s something great about it.

Q: Like you?

SUSAN: Well I’d like to think that I say yes to life, in varying degrees but I’m not always particularly courageous but I hope that at least on screen that those characters at some point do go through a change, whether it’s a nun, or whether it’s a gal in "Alfie." They’re all very different but that’s the fun of it, you get to have these compulsive incarnations of different people’s shoes. You’ve got a chance to do that so you’re living a lot of different lives which is great.

Q: Are you having a break now, Susan?

SUSAN: From filming? Well kind of. Tim is going to be working, he goes off to do something on the third away from home in Spain so I think I’ll be holding down the fort. I’m trying to decide whether or not- I have some offers in March, TV thing I could do in December but I’m just so jam packed I’m afraid of Christmas.

“Noel” opens in select cities on November 12th.