By Jae-Ha Kim
Chicago Sun-Times
December 2, 1988
After spending most of his film career portraying weirdos or villains, Chris Sarandon finally gets to be the leading man – a role he said finds more comfortable.
“I’ve been the bad guy on screen for so long it’s difficult for me to remember whether I should wear a white or black hat in the morning,” Sarandon joked in a recent interview. “I’m more at ease now playing the hero, but I still approach every part as a character role. I think you put more into it than if you just play the bland, good guy.”
Sarandon stars in “Child’s Play,” now at local theaters. In the thriller, filmed on location in Chicago last winter, Sarandon plays a skeptical police officer helping a woman who insists her son’s doll has a killer’s soul.
“When I read the script, I called up (director) Tom Holland and said, `You’re crazy if you don’t use me in this picture,’ ” Sarandon said. “I really felt good about the movie and the role and felt close to the character. Fortunately, I know Tom well enough to say that without him slapping me.”
Sarandon and Holland first worked together in “Fright Night,” a 1985 horror movie several steps above the usual teen, slash-and-dice films. In it, Sarandon played a suave, handsome vampire.
“I couldn’t put down the `Fright Night’ script once I picked it up because it was so good, yet I kept saying to myself, `I can’t do it. The character is not a nice guy,’ ” he said.
“I didn’t think my resume needed another villain.”
On television, he has portrayed many good guys, including the ultimate hero – Jesus – in CBS’s “The Day Christ Died.” But on screen, he played a wife-murderer in “The Sentinel,” an adulterous aristocrat in “Cuba” and a criminal in “The Osterman Weekend.” In last year’s lighthearted “The Princess Bride,” Sarandon played the narcissistically evil Prince Humperdinck.
Thirteen years ago, Sarandon made his film debut as Al Pacino’s lover in “Dog Day Afternoon.” The role turned out to be both a blessing and a curse.
“The fact that the film was so indelible in a lot of people’s minds made acting problematic for me for a while, especially when I followed that role by playing a pedophile rapist in `Lipstick,’ ” he said. “Everyone always remembers the last role and people envisioned me as a menace. I kept getting all these offers to play psychos who blew up carnivals and such.”
He said he doesn’t worry about being typecast anymore, though. Because he’s played so many character roles, Sarandon said he doesn’t think audiences will have a difficult time visualizing him as the hero. His exotic tall, dark and handsome looks don’t hurt, either.
