THE WEEKLY: Hi Susan, we’re looking forward to seeing you in Australia next month. Your participation in La Dolce Italia festival in Melbourne is a nod to your Italian heritage. How has your background and early life shaped the person you’ve become today?
“I discovered my Italian heritage in an active way, quite late because my mother was raised in foster care and institutions so she really didn’t have a sense of her heritage. My grandfather, from Sicily, was not in our lives growing up. When I went to college I lived with him for three years and heard opera 24/7. But my step-grandmother was not Italian.”
Congratulations on becoming a grandmother. How do you find it different from being a mother?
“Being a grandmother is so much easier. I have complete confidence in my daughter [Eva Amurri] as a mother – she is an empathetic, hands-on, smart, organized mom. Her priorities are perfect, so that allows me to love Marlowe almost worry-free. You realize as a grandmother how vigilant you are as a mother and how that constant multitasking and anticipation weighs on you. As a grandparent I just take orders. It’s just fun. I hope Marlowe continues to thrive when she joins the rest of the world when she is socialized. She’s such a sassy, smart, curious person; so confident and funny and pretty wild. I hope she hangs onto all that.”
What are your hopes for your granddaughter’s future? In this respect, what changes would you like to see in society?
“We have to address climate change and economic inequality in a much more serious fashion. This huge, ever-growing gap between the rich and the poor is really what divides us and makes us unsafe. We must put people before profit, encourage imagination, which leads to empathy and we have to encourage our kids to know they are the answer. To participate. To never lose their outrage. To be compassionate. To never settle.”
The representation of older women in the media appears to be changing, with confident and sexy women in their 60s and 70s appearing in beauty advertising campaigns. Yet many post-menopausal women feel like they can’t be openly sexual anymore. What’s your advice to women on sex, love and relationships in their later years?
“I don’t have any advice on love, sex and relationships now, nor have I had any in the past. I have always tried to keep my heart open and at the same time remain authentic. I love being in love. I’m good at it. So if I’m in a romantic relationship I still have plenty to go around. A little like in The Meddler – the movie I have out now. Transitions just mean you reboot and find joy in new definitions of yourself.*
Susan Sarandon will share stories about her life and career at a luncheon and evening presentation at La Dolce Italia festival on August 7 in Melbourne. For details visit ladolceitalia.com.au
Read the full story in the August issue of The Australian Women’s Weekly, on sale now.
Trending video: Calvin Klein’s star-studded campaign
