Susan Sarandon has had a prolific career that has included an Oscar win but, the actress she still insists she has no idea what she’s doing.
In an interview with The Guardian, Sarandon confessed “I’ve done everything wrong so there’s really no explanation as to why I’m still around. I work with a lot of new directors—half the time they are not that great but you never know until you try. I’ve taken movies that people told me I shouldn’t, I’ve taken years off to have children, I’ve been outspoken politically, and here I am. So I’m the last person you should ask [about life tips.] I’m here because all my plans failed.”
Sarandon stars in the recently released indie Jeff Who Lives at Home, a role which has inspired her to check in with her personal growth. “I hope that I’m always re-evaluating my life,” she said. “The most difficult thing is to try to stay authentic. The trap is that you become comfortable, stop asking questions and start to go through your life hypnotized.”
One way Sarandon has re-evaluated is by discovering that she prefers bad-girl roles, “because you get to say and do things that you never in a million years would do. And very often the bad guys are written just so much better than the good guys. If you look at Sister Helen in Dead Man Walking I just walk around saying constantly ‘Let us pray’ and ‘I’m sorry’—there’s so much more to play when someone is evil.”
The actress has also dipped her toe in the world of producing, with films like Moonlight Mile and Stepmom. She said, “As a woman producing a family I’m used to producing, because you have to plan ahead and manage things. Producing a film is not that difficult; getting it sold and distributed is where there are the most problems.”
