Susan Sarandon 'Never Tried to Force' Politics on Three Children
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There’s a running joke around the dinner table each Thanksgiving at the home shared by actors Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins — how many minutes into the meal before politics are discussed!
What’s more, the couple’s two sons Miles Guthrie, 17, and Jack Henry, 20, and Susan’s daughter Eva Amurri, 24, are usually manning the clock, Susan says in the January issue of Psychologies.
“Well, there are other people there, so sometimes it’s pretty quick! But we talk about lots of stuff. My kids keep me up to speed on music and trends — it’s one of the few good things they can do for you, in exchange for all the worry they put you through.”
As for whether or not the boys are showing signs of being as politically active as their parents, Susan says that the jury is out. “I’ve never tried to force it on them,” she explains, but the election of President Barack Obama “got them excited.” Although the family of five attended the Democratic National Convention and the eventual inauguration, Susan insists “our dinner table conversations are rarely political.”
They’re also rarely about show business, and Susan reveals that Jack, Miles and Eva “still haven’t watched” most of her films. She elaborates,
“Not because of embarrassment but just not wanting to see their mum as somebody different — that’s hard for them.”
Of course there are countless other ways to embarrass your children, and it’s something Susan says she does “constantly.” The 63-year-old actress says she’s “given up being defensive about it,” noting, “if you’re breathing, you’re an embarrassment.”
To that end, Susan says she began opting out of filming nude scenes once the kids began to ask tough questions.
“They’ll point out something I did earlier and ask, ‘Did it never occur to you that you might have a child?’” she recalls. “I say, ‘No, it didn’t, really.’ But I accept them; they have to learn to accept me.”
Still, confusion has — at times — persisted, particularly when the kids were younger.
“If I kissed someone in a film, my son used to ask, ‘Did you have sex in that movie?’ and I’d say, ‘No, we just kissed,’ yet he considered it sexual. But that is the dance, because sexuality exists around children. From the time they’re walking, they’re completely sexual. I remember having to explain to both my sons that we couldn’t get married.”
Source: Psychologies
