|
|
|
the banger sisters
MODERN MEN: Geoffrey Rush as the
very uptight Harry does his best to cope with Vinnie and Suzette.
The stage is set for an epic confrontation between the tattered remnants of sixties permissiveness and the tight-lipped self-denial of the noughties. It is, says Sarandon, a classic clash between two of the most frequently conflicting of emotions: the urge for freedom and the acceptance of responsibility.
|
“We’re talking about two extremely important actresses of our time.
So what you do with it is, you take that baggage, and you play with it”
|
“Can you be free and still be responsible, or is freedom really about being irresponsible and not having any kind of structure?” she muses. “The idea that you become a mom and negate your entire past when you used to have fun is a concept I really don’t like. This story is about two women who were crazy and wild and wonderful in the time when you could do that. And now Suzette’s life is kind of desperate and sad, and Lavinia is living in the future. Neither is really inhabiting the present. And that’s the question: how can you be free within a structure, having a family, taking care of your kids? Is there a way to do that? Or does freedom mean not having to account for anything? Do you feel free when you live a life that has no attachments?”
Dolman - whose past writing credits include the not-entirely-rock-‘n’-roll Far and Away and Willow - claims he got the idea for the movie from a line in a little-known Doors song called ‘Stoned Immaculate’. The words go:
“That idea of freedom and responsibility was part of what I was thinking about, even in the early days when I was putting the two characters together,” he says. “That our lives take two paths and we partly hunger for our freedom and we also want the responsibility that comes with moving ahead in life.” In those days, Dolman was still thinking of setting the movie in the sixties or not long afterwards. It was only when he had the idea of looking at the two girls as they reach middle age that The Banger Sisters really took off.
Hawn and Sarandon responded almost immediately to the finished screenplay. Hard as it may be to believe, the pair had never worked together before - but both were keen to do so. “I’ve always been a fan of Goldie’s and I thought the two of us would get along,” says Sarandon. “We have a lot of the same off-screen values, so I knew it would be fun.”
“She is not only a woman I really respect,” adds Hawn, “but I think I see myself in her and I think she sees herself in me. We are pretty much straight-shooters, and I like that about her… There’s a lot of affection there.”
Rounding out the cast of The Banger Sisters are Erika Christensen and Eva Amurri (Sarandon’s real-life daughter) as Lavinia’s daughters, and Geoffrey Rush as Harry, a down-on-his-luck writer who pays for Suzette’s gas at a desert petrol station, mainly as a way of getting off the Greyhound bus he’s come in on. “He’s quite obsessive-compulsive and has a very carefully delineated lifestyle,” says Rush of his character. “He has basically shut down any of his natural impulses, so being around a vibrant ex-groupie who lives life to the fullest and is very comfortable in her own skin has a big impact on him.”
|
|
