Susan Sarandon As Crowe's Mother

With a career that has lasted close to four decades, Academy Award-winner Susan Sarandon show's no sign of slowing down. In her latest film, "Elizabethtown," she plays a widow dealing with the death of her husband, as her son goes to collect his body.

The story is about director Cameron Crowe's life. Sarandon plays his mother, who is still alive and paid a few visits to the set.

"She's great," Sarandon tells The Early Show co-anchor Harry Smith. "She's strong and funny and told me everything I was saying was true. That's a little bit of a pressure. In the end, you just have to try to make it work that day and not worry about the fact that the real person is sitting in the audience."

Sarandon's part calls on her to be both strong and frail while she deals with the devastating news that her husband has died. Initially, Hollie crumbles under the pressure and enlists her oldest son to handle the details. At the memorial service, she is able to gather the strength to move forward and begin to live a life without her husband, Mitch.

Career wise, Sarandon says, "I do small parts. If you put them all together, it's probably one Lindsay Lohan movie. But I like it that way. I like the fact that I can buzz in and out. I did a movie in Australia recently just to see if I still had the stamina to make it all about me. I know I can.

"And then when you go to see the movie, so much of it is a surprise, you can actually enjoy the screenings. When I go to see a movie like 'Dead Man Walking,' it's not pleasant because you're so vain: watching yourself with no makeup and saying I should have been more courageous. You never quite get it right."

Sarandon recently celebrated her 59th birthday, thought the party started as a fundraiser for Hurricane Katrina.

"We were doing a benefit that, actually, my son was involved with," Sarandon says. "And it happened to be on my birthday. I didn't say anything. Then Wycliffe, who I know, wished me happy birthday and sang. So it ended up being a fabulous party with 250 strangers. We did dance because he got everybody up on their feet."

"Elizabethtown" is being released by Paramount Pictures, which is owned by the same parent company as CBS.

Some Facts About Susan Sarandon

• Susan Sarandon was born in Queens, N.Y., Oct. 4, 1946
• Sarandon began her career as a model with the Ford Agency
• In 1970, Sarandon made her screen debut in "Joe"
• From 1970 to 1971, Sarandon acted in the ABC daytime soap, "A World Apart"
• Sarandon made her Broadway debut on "An Evening With Richard Nixon and ..." in 1972; the same year, she acted on the daytime soap "Search for Tomorrow"
• In 1974, Sarandon played the fictionalized heroine in the television dramatization "F. Scott Fitzgerald and the Last of the Belles"
• In 1975, Sarandon co-starred as Janet in cult hit "The Rocky Horror Picture Show"; she also was a leading lady to Robert Redford in "The Great Waldo Pepper"
• In 1980, Sarandon earned her first Best Actress Oscar nomination playing a young casino employee who falls for older Burt Lancaster in "Atlantic City"
• In 1988, Sarandon met her companion, Tim Robbins, while co-starring in hit comedy "Bull Durham"
• In 1991, Sarandon co-starred with Geena Davis in hit female buddy film, "Thelma & Louise"; she earned a second Best Actress nomination for her role in the movie
• In 1992, Sarandon garnered her third Best Actress nomination for her role in "Lorenzo's Oil"
• In 1994, Sarandon picked up a fourth Best Actress nomination for her turn as a no-nonsense Southern attorney in "The Client"
• In 1995, she finally won her first Oscar as Best Actress for her role in "Dead Man Walking" opposite Sean Penn
• In 1998, Sarandon was cast as a movie star married to Gene Hackman, who calls upon an old friend, detective Paul Newman, for assistance in Robert Benton's "Twilight"; She also co-starred with Ed Harris and Julia Roberts in the comedy-drama "Stepmom"
• In 1999, Sarandon received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame; Acted opposite Stephen Dorff as a woman taken hostage by a bank robber in the HBO movie "Earthly Possessions"; She starred as a single mother of a teenager in Wayne Wang's "Anywhere But Here"; Sarandon also made a cameo appearance in Tim Robbins' "The Cradle Will Rock"
• In 2002, Sarandon received an Emmy nomination for a guest appearance on "Malcolm In The Middle"; She played the title character's mother in "Igby Goes Down"; Co-starred with Goldie Hawn in "The Banger Sisters"; and co-starred opposite Dustin Hoffman in "Moonlight Mile"
• In 2003, Sarandon co-starred in "Children Of Dune" for The Sci Fi Channel. She played Jerri Nielsen, a female explorer who becomes trapped at the South Pole in Lifetime's true-life biopic "Ice Bound."
• In 2004, she took the role of Richard Gere's wife in "Shall We Dance?" She also appeared as one of Jude Law's paramours in the remake "Alfie"
• Sarandon recently appeared in the TV Movie "The Exonerated," directed by Bob Balaban. She will soon be seen in a musical comedy for director John Turturro entitled "Romance and Cigarettes," starring opposite James Gandolfini, Kate Winslet and Steve Buscemi. She will also soon star opposite Billy Bob Thornton and Seann William Scott in the comedy "Mr. Woodcock"