A minute with Susan Sarandon

The actor candidly talks about her new film and her single life.

LOS ANGELES:

With the academy award winning actor Susan Sarandon’s new film Jeff Lives at Home hitting US theatres today, Reuters sat down with her to talk about the film, and what life has been like as a single woman, since splitting with actor and director Tim Robbins three years ago.

What made you decide to star in a low-budget, independent film like this one?

I loved all the twists and turns and I was moved by the reconciliation of the family. I was also moved by the questions it asks. Every film is a different universe, and this would be a fun universe to drop in on.

You have two boys of your own — Jack and Miles. Did you see any of yourself or your boys in this on-screen family?

No, but my boys in real life are on their journeys too, trying to find a philosophy that gets them off the track of feeling they have to be successful. They have questions because they’re sons of famous people, which can be a drag. I don’t mind if they live in the basement, take a stupid job or smoke some weed while they’re figuring it out.

You share a special kiss in this film that may shock certain moviegoers. Were you nervous shooting it?

Not at all. I’ve been there before on film. I think it’s more about the bravery involved with relationships — whether or not you’re going to be vulnerable to another person, whether or not you ever want to be intimate with another person. The age, the colour is just a detail. It’s making that leap in extending yourself to another person.

In 2009 you and your sons’ father, Tim Robbins, ended a 21-year partnership. How has it been being on your own?

It’s been a lot of different things. It’s traumatic and exhilarating. The one thing that’s been really clear to me is that you have to think of your own life and your relationship and everything as a living organism. It’s constantly moving, changing, growing. I think long-term relationships need to be constantly reevaluated and talked about.

Some people in similar situations feel that they’ve failed to keep the relationship together. Did you?

Of course you feel like a failure. It’s a big deal but again, it’s an opportunity to grow. At the end of my first marriage (in 1979 to Chris Sarandon), it was about the loss of an ideal, about who you thought this person was. I thought love conquered all and I had to reevaluate everything.

You vowed to never marry again. Your daughter was married last fall. How was that for you?

She’s brilliant. Her views about a lot of things are obviously different than mine. I don’t know if that’s in reaction to me or that’s just the way she came in. She’s always been really clear about what she wants, what she doesn’t want and she has executed her life in a way to move towards that.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 16^th, 2012.