Tim Robbins: If you are willing to do it for no money, then it's not that hard. If you're willing to work for free, it's pretty easy.
Stoner: By "no money," you mean take less than what you normally can get, I assume?
Robbins: I mean, take less than an 1/8 of what you can normally get. . . all three of us. And then use your family as much as possible. We never expected to MAKE any money on this, so - knock on wood - the reaction has been a gratifying surprise.
Stoner: We've often talked about you playing strong women. Now, Sister Helen is strong, but not in the same way. She's more like a mirror, that in which we see the other characters.
Susan Sarandon: Yes, I had to eliminate myself - my personality, my ego - as much as possible. I tried to become a vessel for the other characters, especially Sean, to pour into.
Stoner: As an actress, you must have enjoyed, if that's the right word, the challenge of playing your scenes with Sean under such limiting physical conditions.
Sarandon: That's true. What helped was taking all of our scenes together and doing them in order, right in the prison. And yet, it was terrifying right there, with each scene building to the next. I just wanted to give Sean all he needed to make his journey. And then it was so strange: I've never had a co-star taken off and executed before. After all that intensity, I really felt he was gone.