We’re counting down the 40 days to NYWIFT’s 40th Anniversary Muse Awards with a look at some of our favorite honorees, all women of vision and achievement who have contributed to the film and television industry. Join us as we look back at #Muse40for40, and buy your tickets for the Muse Awards on Tuesday, December 10th at nywift.org/muse!
#2 Susan Sarandon
By Lisa Stahl
For an actress who said “my life has been filled with happy accidents,” it’s not surprising that Susan Sarandon got her start in the business in a serendipitous way, when she accompanied her then husband to an audition shortly after college. Landing a major part in Joe, Susan Sarandon, the former Ford model, went on to appear in cult classic Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975), Louise Malle’s Atlantic City (1980), more than 100 films and a number of well-known tv productions (Friends and others). She is perhaps best known for her powerful performance as Louise in Thelma and Louise in 1991, and her acclaimed portrayal of Sister Helen Prejean in Dead Man Walking (1995), for which she won an Academy Award.
Other accolades include a British Academy Film Award, a Screen Actor’s Guild Award, a BAFTA award, as well as numerous nominations for Golden Globe and Emmy awards. If she has often portrayed characters displaying moral complexity or conviction, compassion, and defiance of conventions, her offscreen persona is not that dissimilar: a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador since 1999, she’s an ardent activist in support of progressive political and humanitarian causes.
Lisa Stahl
Lisa Stahl has followed her own unconventional path, working in and out of the industry, behind and in front of the camera (TV and film), and as a writer, producing e-learning courses on personal style online, doing development research and writing for a UN-based TV show, extensive investigative research in politics and international affairs for a prominent political strategist, and as a lifestyle editor for a chic digital magazine interviewing prominent fascinating people in the entertainment, fashion, health, wellness, and travel industries. She has also worked recently as a technical writer covering the latest anti-terrorism technologies and developments in data science and artificial intelligence.
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