Susan Sarandon: She's no lazy Susan

Susan Sarandon isn't just a Hollywood superstar – she's a dedicated mother, eco-warrior and outspoken political activist. Gill Pringle asks what's driving her

The Independent, Tuesday, 13 May 2008

EPA/MARTIAL TREZZINI

Susan Sarandon won a best actress Academy Award for Dead Man Walking in 1995

At 61, the usually loquacious Susan Sarandon is at a loss to explain her continuing supremacy in an industry where so many other ex-models have failed: "Maybe it's because I've always been so fascinated by real people. I'm not hung up on glamour," she suggests. "Hollywood can punish actresses for getting old and fat. While I may not be fat, there's no denying my age. Other than that, I really don't know."

Perhaps it's because she's one of the few actresses of her generation whose face is still capable of physical expression? "Look, I'm not going to knock it [plastic surgery]. I think women have the right to do whatever they want to their bodies that makes them feel good. The only thing I'd say is that learning how to forgive yourself for not being perfect is probably a really positive step. I might add that motherhood doesn't exactly help your self-image when your kids are constantly telling you how bad you look. I'd like to think that it's what's inside that counts."

The eldest of nine children raised in New Jersey, she learnt early on how to grab attention, although, back in 1969, she had no acting aspirations when she accompanied her then husband Chris Sarandon to a movie casting call for the underworld drama Joe. Her husband was overlooked while Sarandon clinched a major role as a junkie teen. A quick learner, four years later she was starring opposite Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau in The Front Page and with Robert Redford in The Great Waldo Pepper, before earning her place in Hollywood folklore with a leading role in the cult favourite The Rocky Horror Picture Show in 1975.

Her career lasted longer than her marriage, with Sarandon going on to date director Franco Amurri in the Eighties, with whom she had a daughter Eva, now 23 and also an actress. The actress met her current partner, Tim Robbins, on the set of the 1988 baseball romantic comedy Bill Durham, and has since spent the past 20 years in unmarried bliss with him and their two sons Jack, 18, and Miles, 15.

Confident in her sexuality, she claims never to have felt threatened by the fact that her partner is 12 years her junior: "Age has never been an issue but, without doubt, the hardest thing you can set yourself up for is being with somebody over a long time: having a good friend that you sleep with who will also tell you when you're full of shit and doesn't take you for granted. It's virtually impossible."

With more than 60 movies to her credit – including unforgettable performances in Thelma & Louise and The Witches of Eastwick – she finally won a best actress Academy Award for Dead Man Walking in 1995 after four previous nominations.

But her vocal support for liberal political causes has often led to ridicule: her stance against the 2003 invasion of Iraq culminated in a public outcry and death threats. "Sometimes I don't even understand the ramifications of what I say; all I know is that I just can't live with myself if I don't say something," she says. "I'm aware that I've become some kind of joke in terms of my activism but it's not something I can worry about. You have to prioritise. And it's not like my activism is something recent. I come from a generation where, growing up, if you had half a brain in your head and half a heart, you were automatically active."... [continues]