Latest Wrinkle in Her Career

“I don’t mind the lines, because when I was younger, I just looked so blank!” says actress Susan Sarandon, talking to Biography magazine about the inevitability of aging.

Whatever Sarandon thought of her younger face, today she is a ripe stunner, all over autumn movie screens. She’s the monster mother of “Igby Goes Down” and Goldie Hawn’s uptight, suburbanite old friend in “The Banger Sisters.” Soon, her “Moonlight Mile” opens, in which she plays a woman grieving the loss of her child.

Once, actresses shuddered when “mother roles” began appearing on their agents’ desks. It was a sure sign that bells were tolling the end of their careers. But Sarandon has been playing moms for a while and appears glad to do so. “Maybe it’s my job to expand the possibilities for mothers,” she says.

Listen, she’s expanding the possibilities for actresses, too. Sarandon, a woman of strong convictions, is proof that you can mature with grace and dignity, even in a business not famous for encouraging either.