THE TAMING OF MELANIE
	The Cranky Critic® Interview by PAUL FISCHER

Melanie Griffith was a teen runaway, drug addict and alcoholic, married twice to Don Johnson and now happily ensconced to one Antonio Banderas. The adage that life begins at 40 could well apply to this reborn Melanie Griffith, whose latest film, directed by her husband, has got the critics talking. PAUL FISCHER reports from New York.

With cigarettes in tow, Melanie Griffith is looking thinner than her onscreen image suggests these days. Simply attired with a pair of tight jeans, and tired following her umpteenth round of interviews, Griffith, nonetheless, still looks radiant at 42. She, and husband Antonio Banderas, were in New York busily promoting the new movie, Crazy in Alabama. A latter day Auntie Mame tale set in a still divided and racist south in the mid-sixties, for their new dual venture, Banderas serves not as Griffith's' co-star, but as her director.

Anyone trying to discover whether that was a difficult arrangement would get none of that from the actress. "He was a great director, and a generous boss", she says smilingly. And Griffith's admits, that their personal and professional relationship were as one on this set. "We didn't separate them. After all, this project had been in our house for two years; we've lived and breathed this, because we not only had to but also wanted to. And it was tough. We really struggled to get it made, including the raising of the money."

Crazy in Alabama is seen through the eyes of wide-eyed adolescent Peejoe (Lucas Black), short for Peter Joseph, who lives in a small Alabama town in 1965, at the height of the Civil Rights movement. He becomes involved with a group of black students protesting the town's racially segregated municipal swimming pool, leading to a protest that explodes into deadly violence. But Peejoe has gotten a crash course in standing your ground and following your own path from his free-spirited Aunt Lucille (Griffith), who has killed her abusive husband and is headed for Hollywood, where she's convinced that television stardom awaits her.

Crazy in Alabama marks the directorial debut of Griffith's' husband, Antonio Banderas. It's interesting that despite him being a Spaniard, he chose a quintessential American story to tell for his debut outing behind the camera. Griffith had no doubts that Banderas was up to the challenge. "I was the one who gave him the script. If anything, I think he has a more beautiful view of America than most Americans would. But the main reason I thought he'd like the story, was because there are so many different things going on, and he's so complicated, full of ideas."

Her character could well be an older version of the abused wife she played so beautifully a decade ago in Something Wild, the first film that won her critical plaudits. Both films explore spousal abuse and the notion of freedom and the search for one's independence, themes about which Griffith can identify. "Anybody who's been in a relationship that, when you look back on it, was rather abusive, can relate to it. I've had some relationships in my life, in which the men have been rather abusive, so I could relate to that", She explains calmly, but at the same time refusing to be drawn on more details. At the same time, her Aunt Lucille escapes that abuse, not only through murder, but a spiritual escape, dreaming of success. The concept of dreaming is an important one, the actress insists. "I think what this film shows is how important it is for everybody to be a dreamer and that you should try and follow your dreams." It's clear that the actress genuinely loves this character. "She's so out there, is passionate, loves life and is willing to take a chance."

Though Melanie's own dreams have come true these days, hers wasn't an easy life, a life sprinkled with contradictions. She is the daughter of Tippi Hedren, (who was one of Alfred Hitchcock's favorite actresses, star of Marnie and The Birds). At 14, Griffith was ready to move off her mother's exotic-animal ranch and move in with her mother's co-star at the time, 22-year-old Don Johnson. She was 18 when they married and 19 when they divorced. Booze and drugs were on tap, and when a car on Sunset Boulevard hit her at 23, doctors said she would have been killed if she hadn't been so drunk. At 24, a lioness clawed her face on a movie set. Despite such distractions, the tall, baby-voiced actress made a striking first impression in Night Moves at 18, going on to make major waves in Body Double, in 1984, and the riveting Something Wild, in 1986. As Mike Nichols' Working Girl, in 1988, Griffith displayed an Oscar® calibre performance and love handles, but soon after checked herself into a drug rehab clinic for detox. At the same time, she renewed another addiction, remarrying the detoxified Johnson in 1989. Griffith survived the disastrous Bonfire of the Vanities, the film from which she disappeared halfway through production in order to have her breasts enlarged, causing continuity problems all over the place.