Susan Sarandon Talks Sexuality

Susan Sarandon recently sat down for an interview with Pride Source, where she talked about her upcoming role on Feud. Here are some highlights from the interview:

You grew up Catholic in Jackson Heights, a neighborhood in the northwestern end of the borough of Queens in New York City. Would you say LGBT people felt like family then too?
"Well, not in my high school; I had 500 in my class. This was ages ago. But sure, in college, of course if you're in a theater department or in any of the arts, that's just part of the landscape, so there wasn't any delineation as I became an adult. It was just natural. And, honestly, the people who I made friends with in my early day in New York in the '70s are still my friends.

I find the guys who don't stick with you are the guys that you've had affairs with or marriages... or whatever! (Laughs) It's very rare that those guys - once you're not involved in a relationship, it's hard to maintain those ties. So, really, my friends I've had forever and ever and ever are gay men and women."

That makes sense, unless you're having affairs with gay men.
"Well, I did at one point have a very successful and very loving and wonderful affair with a man who then wasn't with another woman after me, and that worked out fine! I don't think you had to declare yourself as rigidly as you do now in terms of having to declare yourself almost politically about your sexual preference."

Just to clarify - you were in a romantic relationship with another actor who was gay?
"Yeah. Philip Sayer (who also starred in "The Hunger") - he was a wonderful actor. He passed away, but yes, he was gay, and we had a great relationship in every way."

Is your sexuality more or less rigid these days? Basically, should we be welcoming you to the family?
"(Laughs) Well, I'm a serial monogamist, so I haven't really had a large dating career. I married Chris Sarandon when I was 20, and that went on for quite a while - each of my relationships have. I haven't exactly been in the midst of a lot of offers of any kind. I'm still not! I don't know what's going on! (Laughs) But I think back in the '60s it just was much more open."

Are you open regarding your sexuality?
"Yeah, I'm open. My sexual orientation is up for grabs, I guess you could say. (Laughs)"

Read the full interview at Pride Source.