Susan Sarandon has said she was blacklisted by Hollywood after calling for a ceasefire in Gaza in 2023.
The Thelma And Louise star attended multiple rallies in support of the people of Palestine in the period following the October 7 attacks in 2022, and was dropped by her agency UTA as a consequence of some of her comments at the time.
At one rally, she told the crowd: “There are a lot of people afraid of being Jewish at this time, and are getting a taste of what it feels like to be a Muslin in this country.” She later issued an apology for those remarks.
She has repeatedly called for a ceasefire in Gaza, and now, while in Barcelona to accept a lifetime achievement prize at the Goya Awards, she has said that her stance led to her being effectively blacklisted in Hollywood.
“I was fired by my agency, specifically for marching and speaking out about Gaza, for asking for a ceasefire, and it became impossible for me to even be on television,” she said at a press conference. “I don’t know lately if it’s changed, but, I couldn’t do any major film, anything connected with Hollywood.”
She said she has been offered work outside of the US studio system, including the Italian film The Echo Chamber, with Alicia Vikander, and the American indie film The Accompanist, while she also starred in Mary Page Marlowe on stage in London’s West End last year.
“An Italian director just hired me, but he was told not to hire me,” Sarandon continued. “So, right now I kind of specialise in tiny, independent films with directors who have never directed before, and films that are in Europe or in Italy. So, that’s the main reason I haven’t been working as much.”
She went on to praise the “moral clarity” of the Spanish government in its support of Palestine in recent years, and reiterated that “the annihilation of the Palestinian people is a horrible crime” that she feels “very ashamed to be paying for”.
Sarandon is far from the only figure in the entertainment industry to speak out on behalf of the people of Palestine. In December, hundreds of musicians including Massive Attack, Brian Eno and Caribou signed an open letter as part of the Musicians For Palestine campaign to call for Live Nation to drop operations in Israel.
Eno was also behind a huge benefit show at Wembley Arena last September, with the likes of Damon Albarn, Bastille, Cat Burns, Greentea Peng, Hot Chip, James Blake and Jamie xx playing live, and Billie Eilish, Cillian Murphy and Steve Coogan among those making video appearances.
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