When the movie poster was first released, it was the talk of social media, with many believing it was the work of a fan who had compiled a wish list of actors they would like to see in a movie together. But the truth is, the stars all aligned to make it happen. And according to the cast, even the comedy production that opened Friday from Bleecker Street was a wild ride.
The combined career accolades of the Dream cast of Susan Sarandon, Bette Midler, Megan Mullally and Sheryl Lee Ralph include one Academy Award, six Emmy Awards, four Golden Globe Awards, three Grammy Awards, two Tony Awards, six Screen Actors Guild Awards, two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, a Peabody Award and a Kennedy Center Honor.
The end result is a comedy about four old friends who meet in Key West to be bridesmaids at the wedding of one of them, Marilyn (Midler). But Sarandon's reserved character, Lou, doesn't know the real reason for the trip: She and Marilyn had a falling out decades earlier because Marilyn ended up marrying Lou's boyfriend when they were in college.
“It's about friendship, but it's also about forgiveness,” Sarandon says. “It turns out she never apologized. But it wasn't just the man she lost; it was her friend, who she was living or dying with before that.”
The four characters—Lou (Sarandon), Marilyn (Midler), Alice (Mullally), and Kitty (Ralph)—all have very distinct personalities and quirks. Lou is a successful but sullen surgeon; Marilyn is a bride-to-be with a perpetual smile who loves being in love; Kitty is an earth mother who makes a respectable living in the cannabis industry; and Alice is a free spirit (but not one who respects her ethics) who is spontaneous to the extreme.
Although Sarandon was initially offered the role of Marilyn Monroe, she asked for a change. “I loved the challenge of playing someone like Lou, who is so sad,” she says. “How do you make someone who says ‘no’ to everything active, who doesn’t let joy in? How do you see this character and not think, ‘Oh my God, she’s a Debbie Downer?’ So I had to find some weird passion in her to pull that off.”
And my apologies to JD Vance – but her weird passion is that she's a cat lady!
In the film, Lou is drawn to Key West after being told she has won the chance to adopt a six-toed cat from an organization on the island. In one scene, Lou watches a video of her cats on her smartphone. The cats were Sarandon's real-life pets.
“I suggested doing a FaceTime video call with my cats, so my assistant filmed my cats,” she revealed, adding with a laugh, “My cats feel like there’s much better footage of them.” She admits there was a lot of drama whenever the cats were used “because for some reason they weren’t very professional, I mean, you can count on cats,” she jokes. “There was a lot of craziness trying to control the cats and figure out how to work with them which made that night pretty crazy.”
Among the unplanned madness was an improvisation from Mullally that had everyone laughing. “Meghan said the line, ‘You know, when you have sex with your cat, this happens,’” Sarandon says. “That wasn’t in the script.”
Susan Sarandon on “Fabulous Four” with her cats via FaceTime.
Mullally's improvisational skills were at their peak throughout filming. “Megan was coming at things all the time from this unexpected place, which made everything really fresh… A lot of her reactions were improvisational and she always had fun when other characters were panicking or angry. Megan's adaptation of this character was so amazing.”
Mullally was battling Covid during this interview, and her voice sounded pretty bad. But she talked about how much fun she had working on the film. “Alice is like a mosquito that’s hovering around and annoying the other characters and not paying attention to any responsibilities,” she says. “Originally, my character had a serious health issue, and I suggested that maybe that wouldn’t be good for comedy,” she adds with a laugh.
And the fun didn't end when the cameras stopped rolling. Mullally said they would go back to Sarandon's hotel room and the laughter continued. “They would relive the crazy things that happened during the day and laugh. There's nothing better than that.”
Sarandon remembers one event best. “Megan and I went to a live screening of ‘Rocky Horror Show’ during Pride Week at this little club. They were blown away by our appearance.”
