Susan Sarandon said on Sunday that her public support for Palestinians was still costing her film roles, claiming that agencies were advising people in the industry against hiring her. Speaking at the Venice Film Festival, where she is promoting her latest film, the 79-year-old actor said the consequences extended beyond her own career and were especially acute at major studios.
“I've still had movies taken away recently because there are agencies that are telling people not to hire me still,” Sarandon said. She did not identify the films she said she had lost, or name the agencies she alleged were giving such advice.
Sarandon said the problem was wider than her own experience. “If it is a major studio, I think it's not just with me but with other people who have been told that that is impossible,” she said. She did not name other figures whom she believed had faced similar treatment.
Her account raises a difficult question for an industry that often presents public expression as a professional virtue. Sarandon has made a claim about informal pressure rather than a documented formal blacklist. The extent of any such practice, and whether studio heads have coordinated guidance to agencies, remain unknown.
Sarandon was dropped by her longstanding talent agency UTA in 2023 after remarks she made while attending pro-Palestinian rallies shortly after the Hamas massacre. At Venice, she said she had found a welcome internationally despite professional consequences in the US.
The actor is at the festival for ‘The Echo Chamber’, which is adapted from the final screenplay by Italian filmmaker Bernardo Bertolucci. Sarandon plays an aging singer who hires a music producer recovering from drug addiction.
‘The Echo Chamber’ is one of 21 films competing for Venice's Golden Lion award, which will be presented on September 12. The 83rd Venice International Film Festival was held in Venice, Italy on September 6, 2026.
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