| By Fred Topel
In Theaters Feb 18
|
Eva Marie Saint used to star with the likes of Marlon Brando, Cary Grant and Paul Newman. She’ll soon be the mother of Superman’s alter ego, Clark Kent. But in her latest film, Because of Winn-Dixie, she plays a supporting role in the film starring a dog. Saint plays Miss Franny, the town librarian. A frequent storyteller to children, Saint could relate to her character.
“I did actually when my kids were growing up,” Saint said. “Like my parents told me stories, we would read to them at night. You know, you read a book and you’re transported to another world. A lot of kids are watching the television. It’s not going to do it. It’s not going to do it for those young minds. It’s so passive.”
And Saint prefers to read other people stories, rather than telling her own. “I don’t have too many stories to tell except today, about my life. But I always have books that I’m reading before I go to bed. And a couple of our friends have written their autobiography. Both are producers and they really wrote it for their families I think. But I’m reading that and it’s interesting what their experiences were.”
They don’t make movies about normal librarians in normal towns, so of course Miss Franny is a bit eccentric. A loner when young Opal first meets her, it is through the young girl and her dog that Miss Franny and the other town eccentrics become a family of sorts. Saint said that part of Miss Franny came from librarians she knew.
“I spent time in a library. I love libraries. I know a few librarians who never married, never had children, so there was one in particular I kind of used for Miss Franny. And they would always have a lot of books around and I feel comfortable in a library. I wanted to be a teacher, but decided to be an actress. So I thought that I knew Miss Franny and felt comfortable in that. Just a friend from way back.”
Saint is also involved in reading charities. “My son-in-law has a group a man started called The Wonder of Reading and they open up libraries in places of the city where they don’t have much money. I went one morning with my son in law and what they do is they build a library and they put the books in the library and they’re not used books. They’re brand new books. Everybody gives money, it’s kind of a charity, but endowed a little bit. They have to raise money all the time. And these kids in this poor district go into this beautiful library with clean desks and sofas and chairs and beautiful books with their parents, and they’ve never seen anything quite like it. The Wonder of Reading. It’s a wonderful, wonderful cause. And they’re all over the city and the man who builds them does it at a cost. The construction gang comes in and builds it. Doesn’t take much time. So I’ve been involved in that a little bit.”
While she enjoyed shooting in Napoleonville, Louisiana (posing as Naomi, FL) for the film, Saint is a city girl at heart. “Sometimes I think it would be fun to be in a small town, but then other times I think, ‘No, I want to see the latest movies. I want to go to a concert’ and people know you maybe too much. But sometimes I think about it. We have a house in Santa Barbara which we go to every weekend. We’ve been going for 33 years. And to us, it’s kind of a small town because we have our friends and usually we don’t see anybody but we read and study whatever, walk. And that’s kind of a feeling of a small town, but we live in a condo between Beverly Hills and Westwood. That’s not small town. But I think because I’ve been in a small town, I don’t dream about being in a small town. It was fun to be in Napoleonville because we would be leaving. But while you’re there, it’s an awakening. I think people who live in a big city don’t have that opportunity. And it is completely different. Everybody knows everybody. We’re in apartment house, we know everybody on our floor, but not below.”
Though Saint is most famous for North by Northwest and On the Waterfront, she includes many other titles among her most memorable films in her career of more than 50 projects. “I loved All Fall Down with Warren Beatty and Angela [Lansbury] and Karl Malden. Johnny Frankenheimer [directing]. I loved Echo. That was my character. I really loved doing that, and Hatful of Rain, Fred Zinnamann. Those are kind of the people that really know. Listen, I’m very fortunate too that people know about [those films] and they’re moneymakers. But I also loved Exodus. I loved playing that role, I loved being in Israel and working with Paul. I don’t have one favorite. Chocolate sundae with vanilla ice cream, that’s my favorite thing. Or root beer and vanilla ice cream which I just discovered. It’s so funny. My husband made me one the other night. We’ve been married 53 years, you want one of these? I’ve never had that, honey. So, every night, no, you’re not going to have it every night. I hear him make it, oh, tonight’s the night I’m going to get one.”
See Eva Marie Saint in Because of Winn-Dixie this Friday. |
