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Susan Sarandon
Wonder Woman

Age: 50 Why her?: Baseball groupie, matriarch, lawyer, nun — is there any part she can't make her own. What inspires her: ''Hardly anything interests me as much as my family,'' she says, ''and finding a way to live a spiritual life.'' What's next: A drama with Julia Roberts.

Frances McDormand
The Conformist

Age: 39 Why her?: From Fargo to Lone Star, she's relentlessly eccentric. How she does it: She favors character-refining confabs with the director. ''It's very free-form but she's always thinking,'' says her Primal Fear director, Gregory Hoblit. What's next: Talk of Angels, out Aug. 8.

Ethan and Joel Coen
Blood Brothers

Ages: 39 and 43 Why them?: Because the directing-writing-producing duo refused to dumb things down with their breezily bleak crossover hit Fargo. How they do it: ''Mostly Joel sits and Ethan paces and there are these long periods of strained silence — like two hours,'' says Coen collaborator Sam Raimi. ''Then one of them will sigh.'' What's next: A kidnapping caper, The Big Lebowski.

Tim Robbins
Triple Threat

Age: 38 Why him?: After whizzing onto our radar like a split-fingered fastball unleashed by his gonzo alter ego ''Nuke'' LaLoosh in 1988's Bull Durham, Robbins has shown himself to be the most self-assured and enigmatic of chameleons. Whether sending up Tinseltown sangfroid in The Player, hanging on to hope as a wrongfully imprisoned con in The Shawshank Redemption, or deftly steering a colloquy on capital punishment to its irreducible crux in Dead Man Walking, he calls not only to his triple-threat talent but also on his conscience. What inspires him: ''I draw on my imagination for a role more than research,'' says Robbins. ''But when I was doing Shawshank, I wanted to know what solitary felt and sounded like, so I asked if I could spend the night in there. They would only let me go in for a few hours, though. The thing is, I always know I'm going to my nice house at the end of the day.'' Creative crutch: ''I don't really have any superstitious talismas to help me work,'' he says. But when he's blocked, ''I'll have a drink, or play with the kids.'' What's next: Starring with Martin Lawrence in Disney's buddy comedy Nothing to Lose.