Susan Sarandon’s most controversial roles are off-screen

For decades, Susan Sarandon’s acting career thrived alongside a robust interest in political activism, which often placed her far to the left, even from Hollywood’s liberal mainstream.

While starring in films such as “Bull Durham,” “Thelma & Louise” and “Dead Man Walking,” for which she won an Academy Award, she became a well-known, outspoken figure, appearing at rallies and taking stands at awards shows. and made political statements of support. Over the years, her progressive politics led to clashes with others on the left, most notably in 2016, when she decided to support a Green Party candidate over Hillary Clinton, who ultimately lost to Donald J. Trump.

But her politics did not seem to have much impact on her career until Ms Sarandon, 77, was dropped by United Talent Agency after speaking at a pro-Palestinian rally in New York, held amid the war between Israel and Hamas. said: “There are many people who are afraid, afraid to be Jewish in this day and age, and who are getting a taste of what it feels like to be Muslim in this country that is so often subject to violence.”

Her comments, first reported by The New York Post, struck a chord at a time when Hollywood was divided by the war. Some in the industry expressed concern about rising anti-Semitism and felt that their community had not shown enough support for Israel after Hamas fighters killed about 1,200 Israelis and captured more than 200 on October 7. But questions were also raised about whether and when political speech should influence a career, as others in the industry lost positions and acting jobs after criticizing Israel for killing thousands of civilians in Gaza.

An aide to Ms. Sarandon responded to a question by referring to her full speech. At the meeting, Ms. Sarandon, who became a backer of the pro-Palestinian marches in New York, said criticism of Israel should not be seen as inherently anti-Semitic. “Something terrible has happened where anti-Semitism has been confused with speaking out against Israel,” she said. “I’m against anti-Semitism, I’m against Islamophobia, I’m against anything that a person chooses because of their religion or whatever.”

Politics, acting and courtship controversies have been intertwined in Ms. Sarandon’s career for decades. After entering acting in the early 1970s, appearing in the 1975 cult classic “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” and earning her first Oscar nomination for 1981’s “Atlantic City,” her career gained momentum with 1988’s “Bull Durham.” In it, she played a lover of baseball and baseball players who had to choose between two minor leaguers, an experienced catcher played by Kevin Costner and a young pitcher played by Tim Robbins.

The following year, she and Mr. Robbins, her partner of 20 years, marched together in an abortion rights parade in Washington. In 1993, when she presented an Oscar for film editing — at a ceremony where Ms. Sarandon was also nominated for acting in “Lorenzo’s Oil” — she and Robbins spoke about the plight of hundreds of HIV-positive Haitians who were held in Guantanamo Bay. Over the years, she has protested the war in Iraq, hunger, homelessness, sex trafficking, mass incarceration and the death penalty, the subject of “Dead Man Walking” (1995), in which she played Sister Helen Prejean, who opposes the death penalty .

To date, Ms. Sarandon’s most high-profile political controversy has been her decision to endorse Jill Stein, the Green Party’s presidential candidate, in the final days before the 2016 election. Ms. Sarandon, who had endorsed Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont that year in the Democratic primaries, made it clear that she expected Mrs. Clinton to win.

“Fear of Donald Trump is not enough for me to support Clinton, with her record of corruption,” said Ms. Sarandon said in a statement from the Green Party. “With Trump self-destructing, I feel like even those in swing states have an opportunity to vote their conscience.”

Earlier that year she had Chris Hayes told MSNBC that “some people think Donald Trump will start the revolution immediately when he gets in, then things will really explode.”

Many Clinton supporters were outraged that Ms. Sarandon, unlike other celebrities who had supported Mr. Sanders, refused to back Mrs. Clinton in the general election.

Celebrities “have an outsized influence over others,” longtime Clinton aide Philippe Reines said in an email Tuesday. “That means they have a greater responsibility to be constructive. Nevertheless, she spoke as she did, well aware of the possible consequences.”

Referring to the final scene in “Thelma & Louise,” one of Ms. Sarandon’s most famous films, Mr. Reines added that “instead of just Thelma, Louise had 330,000,000 Americans with her in the Thunderbird when she fell off the cliff drove.”

Mrs. Clinton did not forget: In her 2017 memoir, “What Happened,” she singled out Ms. Sarandon in the course of arguing that Stein’s vote cost her critical support in a number of key swings that ultimately decided the election for Trump. “Maybe Stein, like actress Susan Sarandon, thinks Trump’s election will hasten ‘the revolution,’” Mrs. Clinton wrote. “Who knows?”

Ms. Sarandon had previously supported third-party candidates. In the 2000 presidential election, she supported Ralph Nader, the Green Party candidate, over Al Gore, the Democrat whose narrow defeat in Florida gave the presidency to George W. Bush. But in 2004, she joined other prominent backers of Mr. Nader urge swing state voters to support the Democratic candidate, John Kerry, in an attempt to unseat Mr. Bush. This is also the case in 2020 she said she would vote for President Biden after endorsing Mr. Sanders in the primaries.

But Ms. Sarandon was unrepentant after Trump’s 2016 victory. to The Guardian the following year that although some of her criticism of Mrs. Clinton had been taken out of context – including her comment about it “I believe she is more dangerous in some way.” then Mr. Trump – she stood by her words. “I don’t mind that quote,” she said. ‘I thought she was very, very dangerous. We’d still be fracking, we’d be at war. It won’t be much smoother.”

Other liberal-leaning Hollywood stars were moved to publicly criticize Ms. Sarandon. Actress Debra Messing sparred with Ms. Sarandon on social media during the 2016 Democratic primaries after Ms. Sarandon suggested she would not vote for Mrs. Clinton over Mr. Trump. And in 2018, after Ms. Sarandon argued in an interview that opposition to Mr. Trump had inspired more women and people of color to run for office, actor Bradley Whitford noted on X“We are about to lose Roe v Wade,” and asked, “Are you incapable of admitting you were wrong?”

Ms. Sarandon has landed good roles in recent years: as a series regular on one season of Showtime’s “Ray Donovan”; as the lead in the tearjerker film “Blackbird”; as the antagonist Victoria Kord in August’s DC Comics film “Blue Beetle.”

But after her comments at the pro-Palestinian rally drew criticism, United Talent Agency confirmed it had parted ways with her.

Jonathan Greenblatt, the director of the Anti-Defamation League, disagreed with Ms. Sarandon’s comment. “It is fair to say that Muslims and Jews have faced discrimination and hatred,” he said, “but it is useless and hurtful to turn this conflict into the Olympics of oppression.”

He added, “When someone gets it wrong, you want to help them get it right. But someone has to be willing to do that, and I have never seen the kind of contrition from her that makes me believe she is ready to begin a process of healing and understanding.”

Others expressed their support for Ms. Sarandon. Following the news that UTA had parted ways with her, Cornel West, the left-wing independent presidential candidate, decided posted on X, formerly known as Twitter: “I stand in deep solidarity with my dear sister Susan Sarandon. I salute her courage and compassion!”

Her latest comment could make her short for “box office poison,” said Steven J. Ross, a professor at the University of Southern California who studies Hollywood and politics. “But,” added Mr Ross – who said he found her comment “insensitive” – “she understands there is a risk. She clearly believes that as a citizen she should speak out if she thinks her country is doing something wrong or if there are policies that are wrong.”

Ms. Sarandon has described her activism as an obligation given her status and fame. Artist jobs, she said in a 2016 intervieware “to observe and give people the opportunity to reshape their lives and obtain information.

“It’s the kind of business that you can really use, so I’d rather use it than be used,” she added. “Although I’m not really an expert in anything, it gives me the opportunity to just shine a little light or give a voice.”

Olivia Bensimon reporting contributed.