She’s been a staple in Hollywood for decades, with iconic roles in Thelma & Louise , Stepmom , and The Rocky Horror Picture Show .
In her personal life, she’s also one interesting woman. Did you know that she got into acting by accident? Or that she raised her children to ignore gender norms?
She also has quite the reputation as a cougar…
1. She landed her first movie by accident.
While she had majored in drama at the Catholic University of America in Washington, she never saw acting as a career.
But that all changed when she tagged along with her first husband, Chris Sarandon, to an audition.
2. After Susan was asked to play in a scene with Chris, the agent signed them both.
She took acting seriously after that, and even moved to New York, where she landed her first role as a troubled teenager in the movie, Joe in 1970.
3. Sarandon isn’t her real last name.
It actually belongs to her first husband. Chris Sarandon. The two were married on September 16, 1967, when Susan was only 20.
When they got divorced, Susan kept his last name as a stage name.
4. She’s the oldest of nine children.
As the oldest, she told The Daily Beast that she “mothered” all of them.
This made it all the more surprising for the actress to have her own kids since she never wanted them.
5. She had a passionate love affair with David Bowie during the ’80s.
“He’s worth idolising. He’s extraordinary,” Susan told The Daily Beast of Bowie, who she met while filming the British horror flick, The Hunger .
“That was a really interesting period,” she added.
6. She used to be a soap star.
The actress has done more soaps than just playing a soap star on Friends .
In the early days of her career, she appeared on Search for Tomorrow and A World Apart .
7. She was married to Tim Robbins for 23 years.
They met while filming Bull Durham . They had two sons together: Jack and Miles.
Susan also has a daughter, Eva, who she had with director Franco Amurri.
8. She used to keep her Oscar for Best Actress in her guest bathroom.
She won the prestigious award for her role in 1995’s Dead Man Walking .
After keeping it in her guest bathroom for years, the award became one of the pieces in a traveling exhibit on gold.
This was organized by New York’s American Museum of Natural History.
It’s uncertain whether she has it back now.
Back in 2011, she told The Hollywood Reporter that she hasn’t seen it for a few years.
9. She caught pneumonia while filming *The Rocky Horror Picture Show*.
It was a real-life horror story for the actress who played the heroine Jane Weiss in the cult-classic.
She caught pneumonia due to the house on set since it had no roof to shield it from freezing rain.
“And so the doctor came and said I really shouldn’t go back to work, ’cause I had walking pneumonia,” Sarandon told Role Recall in 2014.
“And what they could do was either put me in a hot bath or warm me up between each [scene].”
She continued on, saying that the producers weren’t happy that they had to keep her warm.
“They thought, ‘Here’s the American diva,'” she said.
“And so what they did do was they created a screen that they put space heaters in so there was one warm place to go. And everybody went in there, and then it went up in flames, and that was the end of that.”
10. She dated a 37-year-old when she was 68.
The actress certainly has a thing for younger men (her ex-husband, Tim Robbins, was 12 years younger).
The actress met the screenwriter, Jonathan Bricklin, in Chile in 2010.
During an interview with *Hello* magazine, she said that she doesn’t see age in a person.
“It’s the soul of a person that interests me,” she said . “When you are in love, the question of age, sex, color no longer hold any importance.”
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11. She believes that her political views have hurt her career.
Back in 2016, Sarandon was a vocal supporter of Bernie Sanders for the next President.
When he lost out on the nomination, she aired her frustrations online, bringing down Hillary Clinton with her.
She ended up calling Clinton “more dangerous” than Trump.
“I have had a huge amount of backlash,” she told The Guardian .
“There’s been a really strong blame for a lot of things that are obviously not my fault.”
12. When it came to Academy Award season that year, she believed that it hurt her chances of being nominated for an Oscar.
“I couldn’t give you any solid proof that has hurt my chances in the business. Today in the New York Times, they were talking about the Academy awards and the fact that I was one of the people who didn’t get a nomination for The Meddler, and [it] mentions that it might have something to do with the Clintonized Hollywood, when I supported Bernie Sanders.”
13. She’s supportive of her children going against gender norms.
Susan told People magazine that her son, Miles, likes to “colors outside the lines” of gender roles.
“My son Miles is a musician and a DJ and sometimes when his band performs they all wear dresses, and he has long hair.”
She even chose to raise her kids in New York City for a very important reason.
“I wanted to raise my kids in New York because, as a privileged kid, I think you can become very isolated and at least if you’re privileged, you should understand you’re privileged, and not take it for granted.”
