Sarandon says aging, not activism, threatens a film career

BERLIN—Hollywood actress Susan Sarandon said her outspoken stance against the US-led war in Iraq never hurt her career, and that the only thing Hollywood cannot forgive is “getting old and ugly”. Longtime activist Sarandon, 59, told German newspaper Welt am Sonntag that even as she was getting hate mail and death threats over her opposition to the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the offers for film roles kept coming in.
“I have worked more than ever before since the protests against the Iraq war,” she was quoted as saying, in comments published in German. “The only thing that is unforgivable (in Hollywood) is when you get old and ugly.” She said she had not turned to a plastic surgeon like many of her middle-aged colleagues but that she could understand the desire to lengthen a career with a few nips and tucks.
“I can’t say anything fundamentally against plastic surgery — fortunately I have not needed it yet myself,” she said. “Eating vegetarian and jogging regularly have taken me far. But if a woman needs it to feel good about herself, why not. It’s true — when you are on the screen every wrinkle on your face looks like the San Andreas fault.” Sarandon is currently appearing in the romantic drama “Elizabethtown” with 20-something heartthrobs Orlando Bloom and Kirsten Dunst.—Agencies