New York Daily News Wednesday, April 01, 1998 Delany's Tough Guilt Trip By Richard Huff

 

PLAYING a confused, guilt-ridden woman who skips out on her family to live in a home for unwed mothers was difficult for Dana Delany, who stars in CBS' "The Patron Saint of Liars," airing Sunday at 9 p.m.

"It was not a fun role to play," she said. "The character was so cut off . . . everything was right under the surface."

"The Patron Saint of Liars" is based on the novel of the same name by Anne Patchett. In it, Delany plays Rose Cleardon, who one day in 1981 puts a small suitcase in her car, leaves her husband a note saying she's just not happy and takes off. What she fails to tell anyone is that she's two months pregnant. She then ends up at a home for unwed mothers run by nuns.

According to Delany, she and director Stephen Gyllenhall differed on their approaches to the role, which was the crux of the difficulty.

"Stephen has a real strong point of view," she said. "His vision was so much more extreme than mine. I thought his was much more interesting that mine. It's a more 'auteur' piece than most TV movies."

And as this auteur saw it, Delany needed to rein in her character's emotions.

"It's a bit constipated," the ever-candid actress said in summing up her role. "Everyone knows what that feels like."

After leaving the set every day, she said, she'd try to release some of that emotional buildup by heading back to her hotel room (the film was shot in Winston-Salem, N.C.) and vegging out in front of the TV or surfing the Internet. But it never left her completely.

"The thing that keeps you going," she said, "is that you know there are people who live their whole lives like this and keep everything locked in."

Besides Delany, the film stars Ellen Burstyn, Sada Thompson and Clancy Brown. The movie was a reunion of sorts for Delany and Brown, as the two also play voices for the animated Saturday-morning "Superman" series on the WB network. She's Lois Lane and he's Lex Luthor.

Appearing in a project based on a book is always a leap of faith, she said. Viewers may be familiar with the work before they watch the film, which could be confusing should the film present itself differently.

"I find the whole situation kind of fascinating, myself," she said. "You have the author's point of view, the screenwriter's point of view, and the director's point of view. This story in particular, I think, is very open to interpretation. When the viewers watch, they'll have a whole different view."

Meanwhile, Delany, best known for her starring stint in "China Beach," continues to peruse TV series concepts and star in big-screen films. In the coming months she'll appear in the independent films "Dead Man's Curve" and "The Outfitters."

On the television front, she has a role in the upcoming edition of Showtime's Holocaust series "Rescuers."

"I am still interested in doing a series," says the "China Beach" alumna, "but I haven't found the right one. I am also interested in working on cable. The [broadcast] networks are so confused about what to do these days. Cable is still a place where you can have creative freedom. They don't pay as much money, but the freedom is worth more."

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