If you walk down the street and see someone in a box, you have a choice. That person is either the other and you're fearful of them, or that person is an extension of your family. And that makes you at home in that world and not fearful. So really it's very self-serving.

In 1989 Sarandon co-starred with Marlon Brando in A Dry White Season followed by White Palace (1990) with James Spader. In 1974 Sarandon co-starred in The Front Page with the comedy duo Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau and played Anthony Perkins' neglected wife in Lovin' Molly. She hosted a section of the Live 8 concert in Edinburgh Scotland in 2005.

She has worked in movies and television since 1969 and won an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in the 1995 film Dead Man Walking. She had also been nominated for the award for four films before that and has received other recognition for her work.