NEW YORK (Reuters) - Thwarted
ambition and shattered dreams push actress Susan Sarandon to become
the ultimate stage mother in "The Last of Robin Hood," a drama about
the final fling of middle-aged matinee idol Errol Flynn and his
teenage lover.
As Florence Aadland, the mother of Flynn's young paramour
Beverly, Sarandon ventures into Aadland's deluded nature and
complicit role in the illicit two-year affair that shocked
Hollywood when it was made public after Flynn's death in 1959.
"I thought that it was so interesting how we self-delude in
order to survive, in order to get what we think is the best
thing," Sarandon, 67, said about the film that opens in U.S.
theaters on Friday.
Sarandon, an Oscar winner for "Dead Man Walking," has played
mothers, and even a grandmother, in films ranging from "Pretty
Baby" in 1978 to 2014's comedy "Tammy."
As the frumpish Aadland, a former dancer whose career ended when
she lost a leg in a car accident, Sarandon portrays a woman who
lived vicariously through the daughter she had groomed for a
career in Hollywood.
"Whatever her idea of the good life was, it definitely had some
kind of link to show business. All those people who went out to
Hollywood in those days, before it was so corporate, were able
to look at it as a chance, as a dream," Sarandon said.
Academy Award winner Kevin Kline ("A Fish Called Wanda") plays
Flynn, the hard-drinking, notorious ladies' man known for his
swashbuckling roles in the 1930s films "The Adventures of Robin
Hood" and "Captain Blood."
Flynn had already faced two accusations of statutory rape that
nearly ruined his waning career when he met Beverly, played by
actress Dakota Fanning of the "Twilight" films.
After spotting Beverly on a studio lot where she was working as a
dancer, Flynn invited her to a bogus audition, took her to dinner
and seduced her. Aadland was so starstruck she convinced herself
their relationship was innocent until confronted with the truth.
"They originally deceived her for quite a bit and she definitely
wasn't trying to ask too many questions or push too much because she
believed that this was her daughter's big break. The irony, of
course, was the daughter had so little interest in the business,"
said Sarandon.
A divorcee and an alcoholic, Aadland accompanied Flynn and her
daughter everywhere to deflect any suggestions of impropriety.
"He very smartly thought that if the mother is there all the time
there won't be so much gossip, so they used her in a way," Sarandon
explained.
When news of the scandal broke, Aadland was accused of contributing
to the delinquency of a minor and later lost custody of Beverly.
Without her daughter's permission she wrote a book about the affair
called "The Big Love."
"What interested me was this agreement that they got into," said
Sarandon.
"Everybody donated to the illusion," the actress added.
