Cher and Susan Sarandon


I heard a while back that Cher and Susan Sarandon did not get along on the set. Any truth to this?

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It makes you wonder...perhaps Sarandon wasn't thrilled about having her role switched without her knowledge. (I don't mean that to sound scarcastic).

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It's a shame if they didn't like each other. The chemistry between the ladies is so brilliant in the film.

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Actually, I rewatched the film, and any possible bad blood between the two was clearly used to good advantage...especially in the tennis scene, and later when they're all fighting outside Felicia and Clyde's.

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I dont know what the point of my adding my two cents on a two year old post....but here goes...

All three actresses got along really well. Yes, Susan Sarandon signed on to play Alex as the role of Jane wasn't fleshed out, there was nothing on the page in respect to the part of Jane. Cher wasn't comfortable with that so she insisted on playing Alex; the producers switched their parts and Sarandon wasn't happy about it. But her disdain was taken out on the producers, not Cher.

Every idiosyncracy you see in Jane, putting her shoes in ziploc bags, her braided wig (pre seduction) vs her flowing wig (post seduction) was all Sarandon doing everything she could to make the part interesting.

On their first day of filming, Cher was required to do her toughest scenes, which I think were Alex's seduction scenes, lots of dialogue. As it was the first day of filming, she wasn't given a chance to find herself in the role. That night the women wound up at a local bar where Sarandon brought a beer over to Cher and said, "Here, I think you're gonna need this".

After one of the flying scenes was completed, Sarandon discovered that their flying harnesses weren't grounded so there was a real possibility that they could have been electrocuted filing over the poool. The women bonded together for the shoot. It was tough for them, it was a degrading, humbling experience for all three of them for a vareity of reasons.

I think it's very telling that 20 years later WoE seems to have a legion of fans; I for one always liked it. But rarely, if ever, do the three actresses provide any anecdotes in interviews as it just wasn't a pleasant experience for them making this film.

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I believe it was actually Michele that took the beer to Cher, not Susan.

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Incorrect. While Sarandon commented repeatedly that giving her role to Cher almost resulted in her leaving the industry post production, the truth is the three actresses became very close during the filming. The three bonded and unified against the director which they all grew to dislike and vacationed together in Sarandon's Itialian vila during the European promotional tour.

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How would either of you know this? Were you conducting a documentary on the film? (Sarcasm)

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I was curious how Cher and Susan Sarandon got along. I heard Sarandon had been the first choice to play Rusty Dennis the the movie "Mask". I am not sure why the role went to Cher. Cher was amazing in that movie. It is hard to imagine anyone else in that role, but I am sure Sarandon would have also given a stron9 performance.

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Mask was the first film I ever saw of Cher's and she was amazing in it and I know because I was a child when I saw it and her performance has stuck with me over 30 years later and I haven't seen the film since.

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Not long after the film was released I heard a lot of 'behind the scenes' talk about how the actresses did not like the project. Their issues were with Jon Peters (who was the producer). Peters 10 years prior had been a hairdresser until he begun dating Barbra Streisand and she co-credited him as producer on a 'Star is Born'. Peters went on to have a terrible reputation. Whilst George Miller (the director) had his disagreements with the three actresses, he was also having issues with Peters (himself) and it was only Jack Nicholson who could hold the project together. Nicholson threatened to leave the production if they weren't effectively left alone. I recall one story where Sarandon's daughter (who was then a baby) was not allowed on set. However, Streisand was filming the picture 'Nuts' in the lot next door and allowed to come in with her entourage and watching filming! Susan Sarandon refused to do much publicity or junkets for the film

Whilst Susan Sarandon was understandably angry her part was switched, as another poster said it was she who entirely created the Jane character and her appearance. Sarandon believed Jane loved Darryl the most as she was the only one who had no children in her life.

The three women in the book are completely different types. Alex is the blonde, Suki is the redhead and Jane is the brunette. The personalities of the women in the book are very different to the film also. Jane is a stronger character in the book from the get-go. It's likely all actresses signed up to the project after reading the book. Then discovered they had a script which basically had no dialogue that fleshed them out. It's actually Alex's written words that are the strongest, Suki and Jane both have weak stuff to say. It's only how Sarandon and Michelle Pfeiffer deliver their lines and compose their characters that bring them to life.

I would have been very surprised if all three women didn't get on very well as they all have similar attitudes and very no-nonsense approaches, none of them are flaky Hollywood types. I heard them say (in a joint interview) they went out to the cinema together and that kind of thing. Susan Sarandon also went on to work with George Miller again in 'Lorenzo's Oil' so that relationship couldn't have been all bad.

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