For Immediate Release on Entertainment Drive
Released by Beck/Smith

Yoakam Acts Up a Storm
Hollywood -- April 8, 1996 -- Country star Dwight Yoakam just added another role to his ever-growing list of acting credits. He plays "a member of a group of guys who are villains -- a guy who kind of bumbles" in Billy Bob Thornton's upcoming "The Gulf" cable pic for HBO. "I die in this one," he lets us know. Yoakam has also completed a role in Thornton's forthcoming feature, "Some Call It a Slingblade." In the latter, he plays an evil character, which he acknowledges could be a stunner "to some degree" for his fans. "But it's all in the context. Hopefully, people won't be looking at me playing a character up there, thinking it's really me." Yoakam admits that portraying such a malevolent sort was emotionally taxing, "but please," he says, "don't make it melodramatic. I wasn't so lost that once we said 'Cut,' I couldn't pull myself back from behaving that way. The character said some pretty evil things....I don't know if I'd want to play that much of an antagonist again any time soon. But it was very well written. I was flattered he asked me to play it. And I wouldn't trade the experience of having done it." Yoakam's music career, of course, continues to be hot, hot, hot. With not one, but two hit albums out last year ("Gone" and "Dwight Live"), he's in the midst of a world tour -- with a U.S. leg to commence in May. As far as the future of his acting career, he says, "I think I'd describe it as 'forays into acting as a form of expression.' I don't know if I'd call it a career."

Sarandon Taking Year Off?
Hollywood -- April 9, 1996 -- Susan Sarandon, who is featured as the voice of Miss Spider in Disney's "James and the Giant Peach," says that she worked on the stop-motion animation for some two years, "on and off." She explains, "I'd get calls every so often to come in for a day or so. Then I'd hear nothing for, say, another three months, and then I'd get a call to come in for 'one final time.' And then another call months later with the same message, and so forth." She does say it was a joy "getting to work in what was for me a very different process. I loved it." Right now, this year's Best Actress Oscar winner is settling back down in New York after she and Tim Robbins had their children on a vacation in Manzanillo, Mexico. She says it might be a year before she returns to the cameras. She explains, "I like to be home with the children when they are in school, try to work in the summer when they're on vacation. But I haven't lined up a summer picture yet. Tim has ["Nothing to Lose" with Martin Lawrence] and so I think I'll be spending my time bringing the kids back and forth from New York to L.A. -- where his film will be shot. Susan does say there's a project she's hoping she and Julia Roberts can team in this fall -- preferably with the film shooting in New York so she can supervise things at home.

"The Frighteners" Challenging for Stone & Fox
Hollywood -- April 10, 1996 -- Universal's summer biggie, the Robert Zemeckis-produced "The Frighteners" with Michael J. Fox and Dee Wallace Stone, made demands on the actors such as they'd never had before. That's the word from Stone, who adds, "I haven't had this kind of challenge since 'Cujo,' as far as a film being physically and emotionally demanding at the same time. We had to literally bounce off walls, fall over stairs, get beaten by people you don't see....We spent three days on wires in the air to do one sequence." How did they do the scene in which she's beaten up by people we don't see? "Let's just say it was the greatest test of concentration I've ever had as an actor," laughs the performer immortalized as the mom in "E.T." She adds, "I've worked with kids, dogs, aliens, and werewolves all my professional life. All that was good training for 'The Frighteners,' which I think of as 'Beetlejuice' meets 'Natural Born Killers.' Michael J. Fox is hysterical AND dramatic....It's going to be a really different, unique, and huge picture," she predicts. Others apparently share Dee's enthusiasm. "Frighteners" was initially set to be released in November, but when the studio saw some of the footage, "they moved it to July, which is a really good sign they're looking for it to be a blockbuster picture. Sit down and get ready for a ride!"

"Chamber" Deals with Race Change Quietly
Hollywood -- April 11, 1996 -- Filmmaker James Foley, who is in the thick of lensing the screen adaptation of John Grisham's "The Chamber," reports there've been no changes in the script caused by the fact that "Waiting to Exhale" actress Lela Rochon is playing a role that originally called for a blond. Lela plays the governor's staffer who assists Chris O'Donnell's attorney character in his quest to get his grandfather (a white supremacist played by Gene Hackman) off death row. Sexual attraction sparks fly between Chris and Lela. Considering the storyline, how can they NOT acknowledge the African-American's race? Foley says there has been one throwaway line added, when Lela refers to herself as a black woman, but that's it. He feels, "In a way, her very visual presence is provocative without her having to do anything about it. It becomes even more powerful, in a sense, if you DON'T do a lot of talking about it. She embodies the reality of these things people are talking about simply by being a black woman in a position of power." We spoke to Foley from Jackson, Mississippi, location of the feature. They recently completed their key location stint at Parchman Prison with Gene Hackman. "It's out in the middle of nowhere -- a huge, famous place designed for 5,000 guys. The book was written for that place, so we went ahead and used it. We got so used to being on prison grounds, we almost forgot we were on prison grounds."

Johnny Cash Returns to "Dr. Quinn" This Summer
Hollywood -- April 12, 1996 -- Johnny Cash reports he and wife June Carter Cash will be returning to do another guest spot on "Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman" this summer. "It'll be my fourth time to do that show and June's third time," says. The country music legend and his country singer wife play Kid Cole and Sister Ruth on the CBS drama. He says he loves working with "Dr. Quinn" star Jane Seymour and that she and her husband James Keach "are like family to me now. She named one of her boys after me -- Stacy John Keach." The singer's been doing quite a bit of acting lately. He guested as a convict on the run in an upcoming "Renegade" episode and recently taped a guest spot as a coyote on an upcoming "The Simpsons" segment. But he says he has no intention of increasing his acting load. "I'm doing about what I want to do," says Cash. "I've been invited back to do another 'Renegade' so maybe we'll do that some time." He says playing a cartoon character on "The Simpsons" "was great. My part was only three or four pages, so it didn't take long. What they do is put down the voices the way they want them, then the cartoons are drawn to the voice, so it was pretty easy."

Copyright (c) 1996 Beck/Smith Ent.


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