If there was one Cannes red-carpet attendee that got the Vogue office talking after the film festival’s opening ceremony on Wednesday, it was actress and L'Oréal Paris spokesperson Susan Sarandon – resplendent in plunging velvet Alberta Ferretti, aged 70 but looking 20 years younger. But how, how, does she look better as a septuagenarian than most of us do in our thirties? Well, we asked her.
“I’m shocked to be 70 myself! I keep thinking I’m younger, and I feel that inside! It was kind of a strange moment, that milestone...” she told us following the event. “The secret - I mean, honestly, I think staying engaged and staying curious and having a good time is really a lot of it. And not smoking is really important. I think that staying hydrated and not doing anything too extreme, too… Also I’m not really a drinker. I think a little bit of wine in moderation is probably good, but I think really if you drink heavily it’s not great. But I guess good genes. I thank my mother.”
Read more: On Beauty: Susan Sarandon
Thanks to her L'Oréal Paris role, Sarandon also has access to the brand’s latest skincare innovations, as well as the make-up she’s been sporting at Cannes.
“For me a lot of it is all about moisturising. The new L’Oréal Paris moisturiser – Age Perfect Golden Age Soin Jour Rose - is so luxurious. I’m really fond of that. As you get older the key is that it really penetrates but isn’t greasy,” she explained. “That’s a great advantage of working with L’Oréal, to be able to see things when they first come out. I always ask them to send new things my way. A lot of the lipsticks are really beautiful, really fun colours. I love the one that I’ve been wearing here in Cannes.”
This is not, of course, Sarandon’s first time at the film festival. Last year she came with L’Oréal Paris just a few months into her contract with the brand, and first attended in 1978 to promote her film Pretty Baby with Brooke Shields.
“I was here in my thrift shop dress, doing my own make-up and hair. It was kind of a time when there seemed to be space, a more eccentric individualism. There were more personalities, a genre of dancing on tabletops and women half naked getting photographed on the beach. But because it’s become so important I think there’s a lot more pressure. And the productions have all gotten bigger – and certainly L’Oréal helps with that because of the make-up sponsorship, but you’ve got serious fashion happening and serious critiquing of that fashion too,” she said. “There’s a picture of me on top of a building in Cannes in 1978 wearing a jacket I cajoled one of the waiters into giving to me, from one of the famous restaurants – I don’t remember which one it was. I just found that picture again because someone else put it on Instagram. People find everything these days.”
Read more: Cannes 2017: Red-Carpet Beauty
This year though, Sarandon’s main perk has been catching up with her fellow L’Oréal spokeswomen – a group which includes her friends and fellow New Yorkers Julianne Moore and Naomi Watts, as well as new signing Elle Fanning.
“I’m actually not comfortable on the red carpet, but I think that maybe it’s easier when you don’t have a film, you know? So you’re not pressured. You’re just there for fun hanging with the gals,” she told us. “It was great to see Elle Fanning, and Julianne Moore. I hadn’t seen Elle since we worked together a couple of years ago. I mean that’s what makes it fun. And I have to say all of the women that L’Oréal has chosen – I’m very flattered to be part of that family, for sure.”
And whilst she doesn’t have a new film in competition at Cannes this year, one of her most memorable classics will be making a reappearance during the festival.
“Tonight I’m introducing Thelma and Louise - they’re showing it because of this really great idea L’Oréal had to make the fun of Cannes more accessible to more people, so they have screenings that are open to the public. Each of the gals is introducing one of her films, so Julianne did one last night and I’m doing Thelma and Louise tonight,” she said. “I last saw it about five years ago, when it was the 20th anniversary - they did a really brilliant screening in Toronto. And it really held up, it was so beautifully photographed.”
Read more: Cannes Film Festival 2017
L’Oréal Paris is the official beauty partner of the Cannes Film Festival and in 2017 is celebrating its 20th anniversary at Cannes.
