Portrayals of transgender people in movies and TV are common today — ꧙but they weren’t foไur decades ago, when Chris Sarandon earned an Oscar nod for playing one in the New York City classic “Dog Day Afternoon.’’
Sarandon — best known for his later work in films like “The Princess Bride’’ and “Fright Nig♏ht’’ (and for voicing Jack Skellington in “The Nightmare Before Christmas”) — was warned that making his screen debut playing Al Pacino’s male “wife’’ might be a career killer. But he was eager to work with Pacino and Sidney Lumet, who’d directed his then-wife Susan Sarandon.
“The draw was the character’s humanity,’’ says Sarandon, 73, who’s promoting a Blu-ray edition for the film’s 40th anniversary, which includes a documentary on cast member John Cazale and will be released on Monday. “It wasn’t just about a guy robbing a bank for his wife, who happens to be a guy, but it mirrored any relationship where two people are in dire straits or jealous.꧒’’
The film was inspired by an infamous bank robbery and hostage situation in 1972 Brooklyn. Pacino’s character, Sonny, who has a꧋ jumpy accomplice named Sal (Cazale), wants the money to pay for a sex change for his “wife,’’ Leon (Saran🐲don).
Sarandon prepared ܫfor the role by talking with transgender women and drag queens, dressing the part and plucking his eyebrows. “I decided to test this out in public by going into Manhattan in full makeup and drag, all teased up. And of course, nobody batted an eye!’’
He first appeared on the set in Brooklyn’s Windsor Terrace, where he was shot in full drag by a portrait photographer for a wedding photo glimpsed in the film. “This was my first dayꦐ at the set, so I kept getting hit on by some o♛f the male crew members,’’ he jokes.
Mostly, Leon is shown in a ba𝄹throbe, havin♉g been taken by the NYPD from Bellevue — where he was held after a suicide attempt — to help reason with Sonny. The two have a heart-wrenching phone call.
“Frank Pierson’s script is brilliant — i൩t won the film’s only Oscar — but Sidney encouraged me and Al to improvise in rehearsals,” he says. “We did it four or five times while they transcribed it, and we decided what worked best and used that.’’ (He never met the real-life model for Leon, , who underwent sex-reassignment surgery funded by payments the movie studio made to the real “Sonny.’’)
Sarandon, who lost the Oscar to George Burns for “The Sunshine Boys,’’ says, “If they were making ‘Dog D﷽ay Afternoon’ today, someone like me probably wouldn’t be cast,’’ Sarandon says. “I don’t think it’s a bad thing [that] we’re trying to cast people who have had this actual life experience. But there are not many times in an actor’s career that you get to be involved in a movie as extraordinary as this one.’’