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"Igby Goes Down" is a very personal story to writer/director Burr Steers. Though he adamantly insists the film is not autobiographical, he does admit the script is a blend of his own experiences along with themes from novels and films that had an impact on his life. Steers originally set out to write a novel but discovered during the process that the material would lend itself better to the screen than to the pages of a book.

After more than two years of shopping the project around and generating a positive buzz surrounding Steers' script, financing finally fell into place and a cast was selected. On casting Susan Sarandon in the critical role of the mother, Mimi Slocumb, Steers says, "For me, Susan was a graduate course in making movies. She's a doctorate. Susan can do and give you anything you want in front of a camera and be incredibly effective. She's got an amazing arsenal emotionally, in her beauty and her power. She brings a palpable presence when she walks into a room, and she's just incredibly kind and generous in the process."

SUSAN SARANDON (Mimi Slocumb)

Can you talk about Kieran Culkin's performance in this film and your chemistry working together?
One of the great things about being in the film for just a little bit is that it's such a revelation when you get to see the whole film. You really can enjoy going to the first screening so much more than when you're up there all the time. I just was delighted in what he managed to do. I think that Mimi connects with him when he says, “Why did you bring me here?” and she says, “For entertainment value.” I think that they really do share a sense of irony and wickedness and humor - the two of them - that maybe she doesn't have with the other son.

He worked very hard, he's very professional and he's really focused. I think he realized that was a huge opportunity for him. He worked very hard and I really liked him immediately. He's got that kind of twinkle naturally, that something's up with him. He just told me that he was with my daughter all last night and he did it in such a way that was just a little bit… [He said] “We stole a golf cart and we drove all over.” I said, “What?” He said, “No, not really.” He was just a little provocative and I like the fact that he's a little edgy. I think it must have been hard to be in the business and have a brother that's right before you that's doing really well. This was definitely his shot and he did a great job.

What did you draw on for this role? Your character, Mimi, shouldn't have been a mother.
She sure shouldn't have. She's a needy person. She's really sad but strong; I mean she's a fighter. I think it's very well written. You don't have to really be that horrible to play someone that horrible. It's very clear who she is and what kind of cultural circumstance gives rise to this kind of a lifestyle. She's not a phenomenon; she's just typical of a person who has certain needs, and emptiness and lack of spirituality and non-communication. You can always rely on drugs to get you through. It just starts shattering and shattering and shattering. I think the only real act of love - her disease has afforded her this act of love from her children. That is a great gift. It's a testimony to how self-involved she is that she'd even ask them to do it. The fact that they'd even do it - maybe she's asking them in that way to reach out to them, to have one bonding moment even in these circumstances.

She certainly has missed the boat with her children, her spouse, [and] with her lover. I can only sense that the only thing that gets her through is that wicked sense of humor. I really like that about her and I felt bad for her. I think she makes a stab to try and get the loose ends taken care of when she starts to believe that she actually might be in danger of dying. Trying to get him into school is her focus for that reason.

It was fun. Playing bad people is much more fun than playing nice people. You always would rather do 'Hook' than 'Peter Pan.'

Is there anything in your parenting saga that's similar to Mimi?
I'm not even similar to the way I was raised. It's been pretty much invented [and] finding your [own] way. I think it's not that far off from people of my generation. I don't think I stand out. We were determined to be much more hands-on. I think one of the biggest differences between Mimi and myself, and my mother and myself, is that I go out of my way to let my kids know that I make mistakes. I've never set myself up as the person who knows everything. We talk about things. My kids are very interesting people and they're pretty cool about talking to me - not about everything, sometimes it comes out masked about other people and stuff like that.

Are you glad you waited to have kids?
I'm so glad I waited. It wasn't a choice actually. I had a medical condition that never made it possible and then somehow my daughter just miraculously appeared. Having been the oldest of 9, I was not operating under any romantic illusions about raising kids. I always had a kid on my hips so I just figured my sisters were already having babies, there were plenty of babies around. I didn't have this priority that I had to have a family by a certain time, or that I wasn't a woman if I didn't have a baby. I just thought, “Okay, fine, this is the way it's going to come down and I'm fine with that.” And then lo and behold, at a certain point in my career and my life, I just started to get… I went to Nicaragua and I started to get really physically more politically active. I was definitely in search of something.

I had reached a certain point in my career and de-mystified it. Clearly it was not enough to build a life on and I was looking to make some kind of a difference and do something, and I found myself pregnant. That was definitely something I was not overqualified for. Then my life just took this other whole turn but it wasn't something that I dreamt about.

What did you think of Burr Steers as a first time director?
I liked working with him. I think he'll just be better and better. Clearly this was something that he was almost channeling. He had very specific ideas. Occasionally I said to him, "Can we just try this?" He'd go, "No, no, no. She wouldn't do that." And I'd say, "But you might need it later. You don't know when you get it together." I think that's always a problem with writer/directors, whether they are first time writer/directors or not. There is a certain point that they have to spin off and see what they've got and go with what gifts might be given them in the present, because sometimes they get more than what they bargained for or slightly different from what they bargained for. That happens on any film. With a writer/director, they've been living with it so long in their minds. This is where Tim [Robbins] is really brilliant. He can revise and cut and throw things away. He's also written a lot of plays.

I loved working with Burr. He's a really odd, wonderful, funny guy in a very dry way. I had a blast and he had command of the set. That's the thing - if you are directing, it's like getting lower than a lion the minute you show any kind of limp. They're just on you and they've got you. They want you out of there and they just gobble you up the minute they can sense any kind of weakness. You're handed a shot list the next day. I think he handled the set really well. I know he worked really hard with Kieran and clearly that paid off.

There's talk about an Oscar for Kieran for this movie. Why do you think he deserves it?
I don't know. I think everybody deserves the Oscar. It's so hard to compare performances. So much of it has to do… This film has no money so now you can't get a mention unless you have a Harvey Weinstein or somebody that's just pushing it through. I wouldn't want to think of it like that but I think he deserves an enormous amount of credit because he has an innate charm that could have gotten lost in this.

There's a kind of reserve that that character has to have. He's not an angry, fisticuff kind of guy. That's not the way this character operates. To find a way for him to go through and have this sense of irony and be charming at the same time, and make you believe that he's connected and needy, is much more difficult than just playing some angry young man, I think. I think he was used really well and he used it really well. I think he gives a very honest, true and witty performance. He deserves a lot of credit and he deserves a lot of attention. I hope that he'll get it.

What do you remember the most about receiving your Oscar?
Everybody standing up. Looking out and everyone getting to their feet that quickly. To me, when I saw Jack Nicholson, Meryl Streep and Laurence Fishburne - who had said two seconds before, “If you don't get this, I'm burning this place down,” - I felt like in a way I came home. I'm kind of an outsider; I live in New York and I never really felt of myself as of this town. As Whoopi Goldberg told me that night, “We were just so happy you survived. You are a survivor.”

I felt like it was for my body of work and when I saw everybody leap to their feet that way I felt, in a way, like I'd come home somehow. Like all of these nominations over a period of time were just leading me to that moment. Really, it felt like the class trophy because it was really for Sean [Penn], it was really for Tim, it was really for everybody. Sister Helen was there. So of all the films that I could have gotten it on, this was by far the best one to do it on. It just meant so much so that when it happened then I really didn't know if it would happen.

Geena Davis pictured a sequel to “Thelma and Louise” that would run in their imaginations while they are flying off the cliff. Do you have any idea of where you would take those characters if they didn't go off the cliff?
We had talked about all of a sudden I'd wake up and go, “Oh my God, I had the worst dream.” I'd dial her up and say, “Listen Lou, whatever we do we can't stop in that roadside place on our trip because I just had the worst dream.” Then you'd take them from where they are. I think they'd have to have another kind of adventure. You certainly don't want to see them settling down. They actually had an idea that we did die and came back as ghosts.

For a sequel?
For a sequel. We'd go around helping women leave their husbands. I said to Tim, “What would we do?” and he said, “You'd make a lot of money.” So they didn't do that.

Do you ever watch performances of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show?”
I took Natalie [Portman] when we were doing “Anywhere But Here,” and my daughter and Lukas Haas and Thora Birch, who was in “Anywhere But Here,” also. That was the last time that I went. The time before that I took Molly Ringwald when she was 11 or 12, when we were about to do “The Tempest.” I must say the audience performance has deteriorated (laughing). The show on the stage was great. The people who do the little show in front of the screen, they had it together. But it was like an audience of Tourettes. They were just screaming out anything that they could. There was no sense. I found myself feeling like a really old fogey because I thought, “Where is the instructor here? They have it all worked out and why aren't they doing it?"

For me, I always felt like it was like a mass. If something happens, they respond. This was just chaos. After an hour, your head was splitting. You were trying to hear the thing but you couldn't because everyone was just on top of each other and screaming. I don't know if the drugs are different now or what's happening.

Did the audience know you were there?
Oh yeah. The people in the audience didn't but the people who did the show did because we came in through the back. They knew we were there.

Would you do a cameo in the “Rocky Horror” sequel they are talking about?
Probably not. They should have shared some of the wealth from “Rocky Horror.” I will let you in on a secret. When they did the DVD and they asked me to do a voice over I said, “You know, how about getting people some money? None of us made any money and you could throw a little money our way.” And they wouldn't and I didn't. They took an interview from VH1 that I'd done for their anniversary show - because I've done a lot of press for “The Rocky Horror Picture Show,” I love the movie and I love the people - and they took that and put it on the DVD, so I'm boycotting.

For me it's the principle of the thing but there are other people involved in that movie who deserved and need some money. They should spread it out a little bit. It's been a golden egg for the longest time and it's the least they could do.