Thelma and Louise: Susan Sarandon on 'offending' male critics – ‘It wasn’t a big deal’
It’s been 30 years since Ridley Scott’s Thelma and Louise hit cinemas. And this week Geena Davis and Susan Sarandon attended a charity screening of their Oscar-winning movie at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles. During the pre-show Q&A, the actresses and screenwriter Callie Khouri reflected on the film’s backlash from some male critics when it first released.
The movie sees Susan’s Louise convince her innocent housewife friend Thelma to take an unplanned road trip.
During one scene, Louise shot dead a man who was trying to rape Thelma at a bar, so the pair flee to Mexico from the police.
While Thelma and Louise was lauded for its depiction of independent women and female empowerment at the time, some male critics were offended by the way men were depicted and the violence inflicted against them.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, screenwriter Khouri remembered being “completely shocked” by some of these responses in the reviews.
