Defying the Odds: Susan Sarandon

It somehow seems fitting that Susan Sarandon was discovered just after the 1968 Democratic National Convention at a casting call for young actors likely to have disrupted a political convention.

After all, this is the same woman who used the 1993 Academy Awards as a forum to, with longtime partner Tim Robbins, bring public attention to the plight of a few hundred Haitians with AIDS who had been interned in Guantanamo Bay.

It?s the same woman who was arrested for disorderly conduct in 1999 during a protest in New York over the unarmed shooting of African immigrant Amadou Diallo by four policemen.

And yet again, the same woman who led the campaign to have Dr. Laura Schlessinger's television show taken off the air in 2000, because of her disagreement with Schlessinger's conservative views. That battle was an overwhelming success, and if that alone weren?t reason enough for the gay community to embrace Sarandon with open arms, it?s just one of the many causes and issues the actress has thrown herself behind body and soul over the years.

Acting may pay the bills, but underneath the Hollywood fa?ade, Susan Sarandon is a mother, an activist and, in many ways, a pioneer. She?s consistently defied the odds ? anyone who complains there are no good roles for women over 40 in Hollywood should remember that, while Sarandon?s been making movies since the early ?70s, the film that shot her into super-stardom, Bull Durham, came around when she was 42.

Now, she?s defying odds again, this time taking on a meaty role in Elizabethtown, a semi-autobiographical film from director Cameron Crowe about the death of a family patriarch. Sarandon plays Holly, a slightly neurotic mom who decides she?s not going to roll over and play the victim after her husband dies.

So in honor of this, her 35th anniversary in the business, we asked Susan Sarandon a few pressing questions? and listened in on a few good questions from other fans of the esteemed actress? work.

Q: You?ve played a few mothers in your career now, but what attracted you to the role of Holly that made her different from other roles you?ve played?

Susan Sarandon: When I read the script, I just thought this was such an interesting take on grieving. It?s a movie that I? think I could talk about for days and still be interested. And I love the fact that Cameron? it was such a personal story and he needed so badly to tell it and had thought about it for so long and dreamt about it. It?s always really special to be part of a movie that someone cares so much about. However it turns out, you know you feel like your in a very rare environment. So when he came to see me, I wanted to know what the tone was and who his ideal casting would be. Playing his mom was going to be scary so I wanted to know him a little bit better.

Q: So many people say it?s hard to find good roles for women over 40 but you?ve had so many exceptional ones. How do you seek out roles and what do you look for?

SS: You know, I think it?s hard to find good roles for men as well as women. There are many more leading roles for guys than there are for women and they get paid more, but they?re not necessarily good parts. Sometimes you have to create your own parts and develop projects and other times you get lucky. Since I?m a character actor, maybe it?s been easier for me to last than some people that were just, you know, gorgeous leading ladies.

Q: Well, I beg to differ about the gorgeous part ? What do you find you connect with most in Holly?

SS: I?m not somebody who cries easily and I think I probably would keep myself busy. I like the fact that she gets aggressive with her life when it lets her down and she decides that she?s not going to be a victim. She?s going to learn how to take care of the toilet and the car, two very important things in your life. So you know her family is very, very important to her, so I guess we have that in common.

Q: You and Tim have never married, yet you?ve managed to make it work and stay together. I?m curious to know your feelings on that.

SS I'm certainly not an expert, but Tim and I just celebrated 17 years together, which in Hollywood years I think is 45. I think the key is just focusing on this one person and not keeping one eye on the door to see who might be better.

Q: You?ve been vocal in your support of the gay community. There have even been rumors suggesting you are gay.

SS: Like Alan Cumming, I don?t like any kind of labels. You?re open to all kinds of thinks and eventually you find your balance. I had a longtime relationship with someone who?s gay. He was fabulous! He had never been with a woman before. We didn?t split up because of that. I tell my kids it?s not about gender ? the hard part is deciding if you want to truly be intimate with another person.

Q: So I have to bring up the inevitable: plastic surgery ? everyone?s getting it. Would you?

SS: I haven't yet had any plastic surgery, but I won't knock it. I think women have the right to do anything they want to their bodies that makes them feel good about themselves. It's hard to be in this business and be viewed on a screen that's huge. You can see every single line. But I think it's an aesthetic choice for the individual. I don't like it when surgeons take a perfectly interesting looking woman and she ends up looking like a female impersonator with these gigantic breasts. It's just so extreme and that worries me. I think everyone is looking the same.

Q: No interview with a gay mag would be complete without asking you about The Rocky Horror Picture Show. What are your fondest memories of making it?

SS: Well, it's one of the few things that makes me cool to my daughter, that's for sure. (When she was) 14, she?d come home from school singing ?Touch-a touch-a-touch me.? (laughing) I thought it was a great idea. I knew Tim Curry because friends of mine were in the stage production in the US. That moment when he came on stage was just one of the most electric, sexy moments in theatre that I had seen in a while and I happened to be in LA when they were casting the movie and I always had a real terror of singing. Humming used to make me break out in hives.

For more information about Elizabethtown, visit www.elizabethtown.com