Cannes jury member Paul Laverty ended the competition’s jury press convention by slamming Hollywood for blacklisting actors akin to Susan Sarandon who’ve spoken out in opposition to the battle in Gaza. The Oscar winner, whose character in “Thelma & Louise” is on the official 2026 Cannes poster, went viral in February after revealing she misplaced her Hollywood agent after publicly calling for a ceasefire.
“Can I just leave one tiny thing?” Laverty stated on the finish of the press convention. “The Cannes Film Festival has a wonderful poster. Yes, and isn’t it fascinating to see some of them like Susan Sarandon, Javier Bardem, Mark Ruffalo blacklisted because of their views in opposing the murder of women and children in Gaza? Shame on Hollywood people who do that. My respect and total solidarity to them. They’re the best of us, I look up to them.”
Laverty then quipped: “I just hope we don’t get bombed now, because we’ve got this poster in Cannes.”
Sarandon was talking in Spain earlier this 12 months forward of receiving the Worldwide Goya award in recognition of her profession when she stated: “I was fired by my agency, specifically for marching and speaking out about Gaza, for asking for a ceasefire.”
“It became impossible for me to even be on television,” she added. “I don’t know lately if it’s changed. I couldn’t do any major film or anything connected with Hollywood. I found agents ultimately in England and in Italy, and I work there. I just did a film in Italy, and I did a play at the Old Vic for a number of months. I know this Italian director that just hired me — he was told not to hire me, so that’s still recently. He didn’t listen, but they had that conversation. Right now, I kind of specialize in tiny films with directors who have never directed, in independent films.”
Laverty quoted Shakespeare earlier within the convention, referencing the well-known King Lear quote, “Tis’ the time’s plague when madmen lead the blind.” He stated being chosen for the Cannes jury was an antidote to the sociopolitical local weather.
“You see so much violence, genocide in Gaza and all these terrible things. To come to a festival — which is a celebration of diversity, imagination, tenderness — when there’s such vulgar, vicious, systematic violence? Where there’ll be contradiction and nuance and beauty and inspiration? It knocked me out.”
