“Answering this question will ensure I remain blacklisted for the rest of the year.” Susan Sarandon, juror of the Riviera International Film Festival and protagonist of a sold out masterclass in the former convent of the Annunziata in Sestri Levante, smiles accompanied by applause from the audience after THR Rome he asks her what she felt when, in November 2023, she was dropped from United Talent Agency, the talent agency she had worked with since 2014, following comments made during a pro-Palestine rally in Union Square, New York, in same month.
“For ten years I was in my agency working with two Jewish women and there was never a problem,” recalls the Oscar-winning actress. “But when I started going to marches and speaking, I got a phone call saying, ‘I’m a Zionist and I can’t represent you.’ I was shocked because more than half of the people at the demonstrations are Jewish. Being Jewish does not mean being Zionist, and that is a problem with the way this story is presented. I was amazed because they knew who I was. I have been politically active since I arrived in New York and since I entered the workforce. Even since I went to school. But, at the same time, I understood that, as a Zionist, her belief system saw me as a threat and a betrayal.”
“The bad thing was that they went from Page Six, a very seedy newspaper, and they anonymously published a dramatic story about me saying I was anti-Semitic and ranting. All things that weren’t true,” Sarandon continues. “But this blew everything up. I was one of the first – if not the first – to be fired or sidelined in my industry. It was painful and shocking, but I kind of understood. Even though it was very unpleasant.”
Red hair and a rebellious spirit, the cult actress like The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Little Women or Friendly enemies, jokes with the people in the room and defines the simultaneous translator who will make her words reach everyone present as a “heroine”. Her words do not betray a life spent taking sides in favor of the rights of others. A mission she also shared with Tim Robbins, companions on and off the set for many years, with whom at the beginning of the 2000s she strongly criticized the Bush Jr. administration for the war in Iraq.
Susan Saranton with the copy of Il lido dei dreams, the first issue of the THR Roma paperPhoto by Alessio Piccirillo
Susan Sarandon and the nightmare of the American elections
“What was the second part of the question?”, the actress then asks THR Rome. “Ah, the elections! What can I say about the elections? I do not know. It should be the most intelligent and richest country in the world, and these are the choices we have”, the actress replies with a bitterly ironic laugh, referring to Joe Biden and Donald Trump while the audience present in the room applauds her several times. “I think this shows how the system is completely broken when it comes to how we elect people in the United States. There is really only one party and it is controlled by corporate money, the gun lobbies and the pharmaceutical insurance lobbies. There is very little chance of doing anything progressive. Bernie Sanders, who I worked for, came close.”
“But we still don’t have healthcare, we have student debt, a huge housing crisis and homelessness. In short, it’s all a mess,” comments the actress Dead Man Walking.
“No one addresses these problems, even when promises are made about the environment. This is a very important existential question, which we no longer talk about. I don’t know what will happen. I’m probably protecting myself from nightmares. I just can’t imagine it. I don’t think anyone can do it. I think it will be very difficult for Joe Biden to get re-elected for many reasons. The most important one right now is probably Israel, which is leading so many people to say, ‘Genocide is the lowest point beyond which you can’t go.’ And in terms of fascism – because that’s what we’re threatened with if we don’t vote for Biden – you’re going to have Trump again. And therefore a fascist. I think we’re already there. Because if there is this censorship that allows you to fire a custodian of a school building who has been there for twenty years because of something he retweeted. Well, this is not a democracy.”
Susan Sarandon with the personalized Genoa shirt donated at the end of the masterclass. Photo by Lorenza Corciolani
Activism and male toxicity
Over an hour sitting in an armchair on stage alone answering questions from the audience and journalists present in the room. Without ever backing down from anything. Not even to those more thorny than her who could put her in difficulty and make her already conflictual relationship with Hollywood difficult. “In my work you are asked to use your imagination and when you use it you can imagine what it means to be a mother with a bombed-out child. You have empathy. And when you have it, I don’t understand how you can’t be an activist,” Sarandon replies to those who ask her how she managed to reconcile such an important career with her commitment to social and civil causes.
“It’s our job to witness what happens. I don’t think activism and an acting career are that different, I think it’s a very simple connection. I just think it’s harder today. There is more censorship and punishment for asking questions. But for me as a mother and a person it is important to remember where I am, where I live and that my responsibility is in the world.”
Susan Sarandon during the masterclass at the Riviera International Film Festival. Photo by Lorenza Corciolani
And as a woman who has often chosen to portray female characters carrying social messages on the big screen, the actress de The client it also comments on the long and endless wave of violence to which women, in every corner of the world, are subject. “Women’s rights are also men’s rights. We must raise our sons and not punish our daughters. We have seen a correction within MeToo , but I believe there could be many men useful to the movement if given the chance. For Themla & Louise I wasn’t interested in making a revenge film. I told Ridley Scott. The film also deals with the topic of rape, and twenty years ago no one talked about it. Things have improved on that,” the actress observes.
“Male toxicity is a symptom of lack of self-confidence. Men who have it don’t need to be dominant. They can be under a lot of pressure, especially if they grow up in a society that tells them they have all the rights and the world is theirs. Until they realize that this isn’t the case. When I had sons I saw sweet boys who were pressured from the outside to become macho. It was very painful for me. It made me understand what tragedy is behind it. If you hate, beat or dominate a woman, you don’t have a happy life.”
Susan Sarandon and the Glazer case
Self-deprecating, biting, frank. “Have I ever turned down a great role? Do I seem stupid to you? But I would have liked to act in it The Godfather with Francis Ford Coppola, even if it is a film about men.” Attending her masterclass was a heterogeneous audience – with those who had been stationed in front of the former convent since early in the morning in the hope of being able to get a photo or an autograph from the actress – made up of aspiring actors, students and film enthusiasts. Yet many of the questions end up talking about the political and social situation in which we are immersed.
Susan Sarandon during the masterclass at the Riviera International Film Festival. Photo by Lorenza Corciolani
Among the people in the room there are those who ask her if her status as a Hollywood star allows her to say everything she thinks. The actress of Thelma & Louise he bursts out laughing and shakes his head no. “Censorship is very strong, it’s scary. Projects get canceled and you can get fired. No one has reached the point where they are not subject to pressure. Just think of Jonathan Glazer who won the Oscar for best foreign film for The area of interest”, underlines Sarandon.
“Over a thousand people wrote a letter condemning him, after he made a film about the Holocaust, because of his acceptance speech. I don’t know what will happen in terms of activism. Young people are self-educating and organizing peaceful protests. But in the newspapers they write that they are violent. There are many ways to form public opinion, to create fear. Many are calling for a ceasefire in Palestine, but the government continues to finance Israel. I don’t know if I would call it democracy.”
The pitfalls of AI and collective freedom
Remaining in a more cinematic area, a question about artificial intelligence is inevitable, which is changing the contours of contemporary cinema before our eyes, projecting it towards a still nebulous future. “We saw with the actors’ and authors’ strike that we know very little about the future of artificial intelligence. When I did Blue Beetle they did a full body scan on me and I don’t know who has it. AI is slowly replacing and taking over the bodies of actors. I think she’s a photography and writing thief, taking property that doesn’t belong to her and putting it in computers. But she will never know what it’s like to love or lose someone,” Sarandon declares.
Susan Sarandon during the masterclass at the Riviera International Film Festival. Photo by Lorenza Corciolani
“I’m worried about kids who spend a lot of time playing video games and no longer know what’s real or not. It’s easier for them to accept it. One of my sons, Miles, played a video game. When I saw him he looked like himself but it was as if something was wrong, as if his soul had been sucked out. I don’t know what will happen but I hope humans want to continue seeing humans act. There’s not much we can do at the moment. There is a lot of talk about the protection of personal data, but there is no mention of copyright linked to the image, there are no legal protections.”
There’s time for one last question. A reflection on cancel culture. “I think it is terrible to wipe out an entire population under the bombs in Gaza. None of us will be free until we are all free,” Susan Sarandon replies seriously as yet another round of applause starts spontaneously and the actress raises her fist in the air. Sometimes legends live up to the fame that precedes them.
