Question: Why is Susan Sarandon rarely included in discussions about our best living actresses? She’s been nominated in the best Actress category at the Oscars in 5 different years and won in 1996 for “Dead Man Walking”.
Let’s see:
She’s not known to be a pleasant person – Her peers may respect her talent, however Sarandon is known to be difficult to work with and that has made it difficult to get her former costars (such as Kevin Costner or Sean Penn with whom she apparently had a short-term affair,)to work with her again. That has made her unappealing in many quarters.
She doesn’t seem to be good for the box office – Sarandon’s last “hurray” as a box office in a lead role was 1998’s Stepmom. While she has been in successful films since then, she was not a major component of those films and so her profile has dropped. Your being considered a “great actor” is often linked (unfairly or not) to your box office numbers and Sarandon’s haven’t been great.
Her choices of films has been (charitably) abysmal – She’s acted in 24 projects since 2000 and of those, perhaps six are worth watching. The rest are tired or are simply dreck. They might have paid her well; however they did little to enhance her standing in Hollywood.
Her politics – While actors such as Vanessa Redgrave and Jane Fonda were outspoken about their political stances, they were at least (arguably) nice people. Sarandon has managed to put the spotlight on her political causes in a manner that makes her less appealing. Her criticism of the popular then-POTUS Barack Obama was equally bizarre and stupid and her career has likely suffered a great deal from her mouth.
There are a lot of better female actors out there – Seriously. While Sarandon has flashes of brilliance, there are a lot of dogs in her closet. Frankly there are myriad female actors who have had fewer bad films and who are thus more likely to be “top of mind” when “Best Female Actor” choices are bandied about.
Susan Sarandon had a successful career and she has an Oscar.
Other than that, her decisions and her commentary may have robbed her of the chances to be considered of of the brightest lights in the Hollywood constellation.