Obviously excited about her trip from Santa Fe to Colorado Springs on the Silver City Express, Daryl Hannah arrived at Kimball’s Twin Peaks Theatre with a big smile and enthusiastic comments about her traveling companions. “I’ve just taken up the guitar, so I loved being with Kris (Kristofferson) and Steve Earle,” she explained. “They played and sang on the bus. It was great!”

Hannah, who’s won rave reviews this year for her performance in Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill: Vol 2, said she took the supporting role of Maddy Pilager in John Sayles’ Silver City because she admires the legendary independent filmmaker so much. “I enjoyed working with John on Casa de los Babys, and he wrote another great character for me to play in Silver City,” she added. “Maddy may be stoned and viewed as the black sheep of the Pilager family, but she’s very intelligent and funny -- and the one with the closest insight into her brother’s faults.”

In Silver City, the Pilager family is depicted as a malevolent force in Colorado politics. Maddy’s father (Michael Murphy) has a senate seat, and brother Dick (Chris Cooper) is running for governor. Hannah endows the ostracized Maddy with a wild but vulnerable nature -- a far cry from Elle Driver, the evil assassin she portrayed in Kill Bill: Vol. 2.

What’s it like to work with two creative filmmakers like Tarantino and Sayles? “They’re both writer/directors and each one has done some acting, so it’s a pleasure,” Hannah declared. Describing the way Sayles works, she whispered, “He’s quieter and there’s no improvisation. He gives you a whole background for your character.” Turning to Tarantino, Hannah became quite animated and almost shouted, “He’s so exuberant with his enthusiastic ‘we’re-making-a-movie!’ attitude.” She appeared to adopt the persona of each director as she talked about him, and it's clear she holds both Tarantino and Sayles in high regard.

During a Q&A session after the Silver City screening, Hannah admitted she’s not the only one in her family involved with Sayles’ new movie. “My uncle (Haskell Wexler, who served as Director of Photography) is amazing but he’s also cantankerous,” she said. “I tried to sit with him at lunch and he waved me away. That’s probably because the DP is always the hardest working person on the set and doesn’t like to be bothered.”

In her powder blue and white “No Enemy” T-shirt, Hannah comes across as too young to be an actress with 59 movies (including TV) to her credit. In addition to Silver City, Casa de los Babys and Kill Bill, she has appeared in such important films as Blade Runner, Splash, Roxanne, The Clan of the Cave Bear, Steel Magnolias, and Northfork. Is Hannah glad she chose acting as a career? “Yes, but anything in the creative arts would be fine with me,” she stated. “And I think it’s time for me to branch out.”

Some of that branching out may involve becoming a filmmaker herself. The Last Supper, a short film Hannah wrote, directed and produced won the Best Short Award at the Berlin Film Festival in 1994.

Oh yes -- just in case you’re wondering -- at 44 years of age, Daryl Hannah still looks absolutely fabulous, and Silver City doesn’t shy away from showcasing her statuesque athletic beauty.   

(Silver City, released by Newmarket Films, is rated “R’ for language.)