Gaza: Susan Sarandon says she is still losing roles over being anti-Israel

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Susan Sarandon

Birthday: October 4, 1946

Susan Sarandon attends Netflix's "Nonnas" World Premiere at The Plaza Hotel on April 30, 2025 in New York City. (Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images)

U.S. actress Susan Sarandon said Sunday she was still having roles “taken away” from her in Hollywood because of her outspoken criticism of Israel’s war in Gaza.

The “Thelma & Louise” star was dropped by her agency UTA in November 2023 over controversial remarks at a pro-Palestinian rally which she later said she regretted.

Speaking at the Venice Film Festival, where she has a role in Italian film “The Echo Chamber”, she claimed the “narrative” around the Gaza war and the United States’ support for Israel had “completely changed”.

“There’s a lot of things that people are aware of now,” the Oscar winner told a press conference, referring to the extent of US financial and military aid for Israel.

“I’ve still had movies taken away recently because there are agencies that are telling people not to hire me still. But that’s the power structure,” she added.

“I think there has been a change in terms of the understanding of the situation and the general public, but there are still very strongly held positions within my industry that are held by Zionists and who have not relaxed their feelings towards me.

“But I found my family, I found my people, and I’m okay,” she added to a round of applause.

The veteran star of “Dead Man Walking” has been one of Hollywood’s most outspoken pro-Palestinian campaigners and critics of the Gaza war alongside others such as Marc Ruffalo, Richard Gere and Joaquin Phoenix.

Many others have signed open letters criticising Israel’s conduct of the war, which has left around 73,500 Palestinians dead and 174,500 injured since October 2023, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry.

The premiere of “NAZA” -- about the killing of civilians in Gaza -- by two Israeli directors looks set to be one of the most emotionally charged moments of the Venice festival when it premieres on Thursday.

Directors Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor won an Oscar for 2024’s “No Other Land”, which documented the displacement of a Palestinian community in the occupied West Bank by Israeli settlers.

Sarandon was dropped by United Talent Agency for telling a rally that Jewish Americans were “getting a taste of what it is like to be Muslim in this country” because of rising anti-Semitic violence.

She issued a public apology, saying her choice of words had been a “terrible mistake” because they implied “that until recently Jews have been strangers to persecution, when the opposite is true”.