Actress, mother, and a law unto herself

off to be with her companion, actor Tim Robbins, their new baby, and her

two other young children.

By late last year, however, the actress was beginning to feel the urge

to return to the film world. The only question was: which project would

she choose?

For about a year director Joel Schumacher had been after Sarandon to

star in his film adaptation of John Grisham's best-seller The Client.

She had put him off initially, because she hadn't felt it was the right

time to leave her family for a film set.

But when she was ready to return to work, the actress began to

reconsider Schumacher's offer.

''When I read the script, the part wasn't nearly as compelling as the

project,'' she says, sitting Indian-style on a couch in a suite at

Manhattan's Regency Hotel. ''The project was compelling for a number of

reasons.

''Clearly, Grisham has made a deal with the devil, and everything he

touches turns to gold.

''Also, Joel came in and said, 'I'll cast it well. We'll treat you

well, pay you well, and you'll have fun.' And he did all of those

things.''

In the film (which has just opened in the US) Sarandon plays Reggie

Love, a Southern lawyer and recovering alcoholic who lost custody of her

children after a bitter divorce and is just getting her life back

together.

Into her office walks the client of her career: an 11-year-old boy

named Mark Sway (Brad Renfro). Mark, it seems, has got himself into a

bit of a jam.

It all started when he took his younger brother Ricky (David Speck)

into the woods to smoke a cigarette. While they were there, a car pulled

up and they watched from behind some bushes as a big man got out and

took out a hose. He hooked one end of the hose to the car's tailpipe and

ran the other end through the car's window.

Realising this was a suicide attempt, Mark tried to interfere. But the

man grabbed him and pulled him into the car. Mark learned that the man

was a lawyer who knew where a Mafia hit man had stashed the body of a

missing Senator. Just before shooting himself to death, the lawyer told

Mark where the body was hidden.

Now Mark is in the unfortunate position of knowing too much. He is

being pursued by both the Mafia and by ''Reverend'' Roy Foltrigg (Tommy

Lee Jones), a Bible-spouting, office-seeking, hotshot federal prosecutor

who wants to crack the murder case.

Desperate, the boy has come to Love, offering her $1 -- all he has --

to act as his attorney.

Once Love accepts, the movie follows the uneasy development of her

relationship with Mark and the race to keep the boy one step ahead of

his pursuers.

Sarandon hadn't read Grisham's novel before she was cast as Reggie

Love, but she says she eventually went through it to see how the book

and the screenplay differed. Specifically, she wanted to determine if

any of the problems she had with the script had existed in the book. ''I

also was trying to find anything that would make more of what I call

'the love story' work,'' says the 47-year-old actress, who is probably

best known for the films Thelma and Louise (1991), Bull Durham (1988),

Atlantic City (1980), and The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975).

''I thought it would be so much more helpful to approach the film as a

love story, even though Mark is only 11. We shouldn't like each other

immediately because there'd be nowhere to go.''

One aspect of the book that Sarandon had trouble with was the fact

that Love learns almost all of the information about Mark's predicament

in the beginning but ''just sits on it''.

''It bothered me that she didn't suggest immediately that Mark be put

in the Witness Protection Programme. Anyone who watches TV knows you can

do that.

''Joel (Schumacher) very smartly solved the problems. He decided to

give her less information and have her get it incrementally. That makes

Mark more of a liar. Therefore, the obstacle to them trusting each other

is constant. We just kind of upped the stakes.''

Sarandon says that because she is a mother herself, some of her

maternal instincts emerged while making The Client. One example was a

scene in which Love reveals to Mark her own travails, including how

alcoholism cost her her family.

''I put specific things in about mothering and tried to make it more

personal for myself. Brad (Renfro) doesn't lend himself to mothering.

You deal with him as an equal, which is similar to the way I deal with

my kids.

''Yes, I mother my kids, and sometimes I'll override them, but I also

think it's my job to get them out (into the world). So I tend to treat

them as little people but definitely people.''

Motherly instincts weren't needed for Sarandon's scenes with Jones. In

fact, she could have used a pair of boxing gloves while portraying

Love's sometimes heated, sometimes funny relationship with Foltrigg.

''We made it a little more eccentric and fun than maybe it was (in the

book and script),'' she says, smiling. ''Tommy Lee is the best. He's in

that category of actors who aren't afraid to play bad guys. He's just a

presence, very formidable and really smart. He tries to be really tough

which, of course, is so funny.''

The role of an understanding attorney seems right up Sarandon's alley.

The New York-born actress, who is involved with several political and

charitable organisations, actively promotes the Centre for

Constitutional Rights, a group known for representing people whose civil

liberties have been infringed.

Last year Sarandon and Robbins transformed their presenting duties at

the academy awards into an opportunity to voice their concerns over the

plight of Haitian refugees. Though millions heard their message, many

felt the Oscars ceremony was an inappropriate forum.

The couple have been banned from presenting awards at future

ceremonies.

''Now I'll only get to (speak) at the Oscars if I get (one), because

I'm not allowed to present,'' Sarandon says, laughing incredulously and

shaking her head in disgust.

When the issue of whether actors should publicly promote their

political views is raised, Sarandon bristles. ''After having had an

actor for a President, I think it's a pretty lame complaint,'' she says.

''As an actor you certainly don't give up your citizenship.

''I pay an enormous amount of taxes, and there are a lot of things

being done in my name with my money, really. I'm also a mother, and a

lot of these issues have to do with the world as my kids enter it, as

they'll have it.''

Sarandon's role as a mother is turning out to be an important one both

off and on-screen. Her next project is a big-screen remake of Little

Women in which she will play the mother of Winona Ryder.

''Little Women is a beautiful movie. I did it for my daughter. It's

really my season of mothers. I have seven sons in Safe Passage,'' she

says, referring to a coming project in which she stars opposite Sam

Shepard.

[CPYR] 1994 Ian Spelling. NYTS.