My London: Susan Sarandon

The actress loves the scones at Claridge’s, would take a date to the pet cemetery in Hyde Park and wants to throw a music festival for Londoners...
Getty Images for Prada
Lily Worcester31 August 2017

Home is…

New York City.

Where do you stay in London?

Claridge’s, which is a very comfy stay, it has a wonderful kind of old-school elegance. I really love the whole thing they do for tea (below); I love scones and clotted cream. Anything that’s fattening, I love.

Tea at Claridge's

Where would you recommend for a first date?

Maybe the pet cemetery in Hyde Park? It’s something you probably haven’t done before and would give you lots of time to talk.

What would you do if you were Mayor for the day?

I’d throw some kind of fantastic free outdoor music festival with everybody from Arcade Fire (right) to Perfume Genius to Bruce Springsteen. I’d invite Annie Lennox and M.I.A. could perform. I love dancing to LCD Soundsystem as well as to Pearl Jam.

Best piece of advice you’ve been given?

‘When you’re on your deathbed, none of these other things will matter.’ Mary-Louise Parker told me that in the middle of a crisis.

What are you up to at the moment for work?

I recently launched the second chapter of the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Story — it focuses on its electric concept car of the future. I am all about sustainability and saving the planet, so this was a perfect fit for me.

If you had to be locked in a London building overnight, which would it be?

Maybe the National Gallery or the V&A Museum — that would be fun. I’d probably just get high and wander around.

Who is your hero?

Vanessa Redgrave because she’s brave and brilliant both on and off the screen; Danny Boyle because he does so many different kinds of movies; and Ian McKellen for the same reason — he’s brave, very loving and not afraid to stand up for what he cares about. Also Bryn Mooser [founder of RYOT, the immersive media company] is top of my list — I met him in Haiti after the 2010 earthquake and he has become part of my family.

What do you collect?

Right now I’m in the process of giving everything away, so I did have a lot of fairly well-known photographs — and some art — but I’m passing everything on to my children while I’m still alive. I have some magnificent photographs from Sebastião Salgado that I’m giving to them — and some Picasso etchings. You know, some names.

Antarctica by Sebastião Salgado

Earliest London memory?

When I worked on The Rocky Horror Picture Show (right) with Tim Curry, Richard O’Brien, Nell Campbell and all the original cast. It was not a pleasant experience because they kept moving me from rented flat to rented flat every few days — and it was freezing and I got pneumonia.

Last play you saw in London?

I went to see a play that Ben Whishaw (left) was in at the Noel Coward Theatre called Peter and Alice — I had just worked and fallen in love with him in Cloud Atlas.

Susan Sarandon appears in Chapter Two of the #mbcollective Fashion Story.

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