Movie star Susan Sarandon claims she was blacklisted in Hollywood after she said, at a pro-Palestinian rally in November of last year, that US Jews fearing for their safety, given a spike in antisemitism, “are getting a taste of what it feels like to be a Muslim in this country.”
The Hollywood talent agency UTA cut ties with the Oscar-winning actress as a client a few days after a clip from the rally went viral, despite her issuing an apology.
“I was dropped by my agency, my projects were pulled,” Sarandon told the UK’s Sunday Times in an interview for a profile article that was published on Sunday. “I’ve been used as an example of what not to do if you want to continue to work.”
“There are so many people out of work right now [since] November of last year … who have lost their jobs as custodians, as writers, as painters, as people working in the cafeteria, substitute teachers who have been fired because they tweeted something, or liked a tweet, or asked for a ceasefire,” she told the British newspaper.
Sarandon said that she had made a “terrible mistake,” and that her comments at the rally implied that “until recently Jews have been strangers to persecution, when the opposite is true.”
The actress has been intensely critical of Israel throughout the war with Hamas in Gaza, which was triggered on October 7, 2023, when some 3,000 Hamas terrorists burst through the border into southern Israel, killed at least 1,200 people and took 251 hostages.
At a rally earlier in November, she told attendees that it was important to examine the events of October 7 in the context of Israel’s history, which some saw as blaming Israelis for the atrocities committed by Hamas.
“So many people don’t understand the context in which this October 7 assault happened,” she said, “They don’t understand the history of what has been happening to the Palestinian people for 75 years. So this is an opportunity to educate people if they can have an open mind.”
As the war has unfolded, she continued to share accusations of genocide and war crimes by Israel, has shared misinformation denying elements of the massacre, and praised Hamas as a “resistance group.”
