Sean Young has had a long acting career.
Film buffs have seen her in “Jane Austen in Manhattan,” “Stripes,” “Dune,” “Wall Street” and “Batman.”
But she’s best known for her role in “Blade Runner.” Today — 34 years after the Ridley Scott movie was released — she’s still recognized regularly on the streets of Astoria, where she lives.
The Westport Cinema Initiative has chosen “Blade Runner” — a cult classic thanks to its cutting-edge design, futuristic theme and dark, despairing vision of Los Angeles in the year 2019 (!) — for its next offering.
The showing takes place this Sunday, June 12 (5 p.m., Town Hall). It’s followed by a talkback featuring the movie’s own Sean Young, and film critic Susan Granger.
Sean Young in “Blade Runner.”
Young calls “Blade Runner” a seminal moment in her career. “Actors can go their whole lives without an experience like that,” she says. “The sets, locations, what everyone wore — it was a tremendously rich production.”
Nearly 4 decades later — and just 3 years before the film was set — Young says that “Blade Runner” has stood the test of time. “It still looks great. The dialogue was excellent. The music was beautiful. And we still don’t know what happens afterward. People really respond to it.”
Young knows that in 2016, many film buffs watch “Blade Runner” — and everything else — on TVs and mobile devices.
But, she says, there remains value in a large audience watching in an auditorium.
“There’s a much different feeling when a film is projected on a screen,” she explains. “It looks different than on a plasma TV or iPad. And just coming together as a community is important.”
Sean Young will be part of that audience on Sunday. Then she’ll add her own insights, in the talkback.
That’s one experience Netflix — the future of film that “Blade Runner” never foresaw – can’t duplicate.
(Tickets are available at the door, or by clicking here.)
