Griffith Goes For Screen Grit

It may be hard to believe, but Melanie Griffith has been making movies for more than 20 years. Her latest is Another Day in Paradise, in which she and James Woods play a junkie couple who adopt two teen-agers into their world of heroin and crime.

Griffith plays Sid, the matriarch of this "family," who, she has said, is "a kewpie doll who hit a brick wall going 100 miles an hour when she hit 40."

During an interview with CBS This Morning Co-Anchor Mark McEwen, Griffith added, "Sid, I think, is a good person. She's a good person. She just happens to be a junkie and a thiefÂ… She's really good with the shotgun and doesn't mind if she has to kill somebody every now and then. It's a tough life."

The movie was filmed in six weeks at a cost of under $5 million.

"It was a group endeavor," Griffith says. "We worked really hard to get it done. And to have it come out and be really liked is amazing and wonderful, because we worked very, very hard."

McEwen asked Griffith how her own publicized bouts with alcohol and drugs colored her portrayal of Sid.

"I never did heroin," she says. "I was into cocaine in my druggy days. But with the heroinÂ…I guess I colored it in the way that I could imagine from what people told me. They told me heroin is better than anything, so I just imagined when it felt the best, and then imagined that ten times better."

She had some help from her director, Larry Clark, who is a recovering addict.

Griffith says it was her costar, James Woods, who first urged her to work on Another Day In Paradise. "We're buddies," she explains, and they seem to have an unusually straightforward relationship.

For instance, she has compared working with Woods to being pregnant: "It's a trip. It's so tough. In the beginning, it's all happy, like in the beginning of a pregnancy. And as it goes on, it gets harder and harder to the point that you're miserable. He's so tough, and he gets so involved. But when the final product is complete, it's amazing."

And, she also says of Woods, "I adore him. And he knows that."

Griffith is married to actor Antonio Banderas, who has just directed her in a movie, Crazy in Alabama, to be released next spring. It's a dark comedy in which she plays an eccentric Southern women who chops off her husband's head and goes off to Hollywood with her seven kids, where she becomes a sitcom star.

"We had a great time," says Griffith. "He was scared before I started to film. He didn't know what I was going to be like." And what happened when Griffith disagreed with her husband/director?

"I didn't disagree," she replies. "It worked very well."

Griffith, who is 41, has three children from three marriages: Alexander, 13, whose father is actor Stephen Bauer; Dakota, 11, who is the daughter of actor Don Johnson; and Stella, 2, with Banderas. She says she likes to kee her family together, so she brings her children with her wherever she works. "It's important to me to have my kids with me," she has said, "so I can be there for them."

Toward the end of his interview with Griffith, McEwen invited CBS This Morning Contributor Martha Stewart to join them, and Griffith greeted her like a devoted fan.

"You're my idol!" said the actress. "And my sister's idol, too!"

As for Stewart, she told Griffith, "I can't wait to see your new movie. I love James Woods, and I love you!"