Susan Sarandon says the professional cost of her Palestine advocacy hasn't gone away. At a press conference in Venice on Sunday, promoting her new film "The Echo Chamber," the actor said plainly: "I've still had movies taken away recently because there are agencies that are telling people not to hire me still."

She was answering a question about whether the mood in Hollywood has shifted on Gaza. Her answer split into two halves. One acknowledging real movement in public opinion. The other insisting the industry's gatekeepers haven't budged.

"The narrative has completely changed in terms of the historical relevance of Palestine and the ties of Zionists with America and our politics," Sarandon said, according to accounts from Variety, The Hollywood Reporter and TheWrap. "That has been a major revelation for people. How much money the United States gives to Israel, nobody really understood that."

But then the turn: "There are still positions in my industry that are held by Zionists who have not relaxed their feelings towards me." She added that when a major studio is involved, she's heard the same is true "not just with me, but with other people," who've been told certain projects are simply impossible for them.

Sarandon thanked "The Echo Chamber" director Andrea Pallaoro directly, saying he was warned against casting her and did it anyway. "He doesn't listen to the warnings," she said, drawing applause from the room, per THR's account.

The backstory here is well documented. UTA dropped Sarandon as a client in November 2023, days after she told a pro-Palestinian rally in Union Square that American Jews were "getting a taste of what it feels like to be a Muslim in this country." She apologised weeks later, calling the phrasing "a terrible mistake" that implied Jews hadn't faced persecution before, which she said was the opposite of what she meant.

She hasn't vanished from screens since. TheWrap points to credits in "The Fabulous Four," "The Six Triple Eight" and "Nonnas" as proof work has kept coming, even without a major agency behind her. Sarandon herself drew the distinction between that kind of project and studio-scale films, where she says the door has stayed shut.

"The Echo Chamber" itself is a notable comeback vehicle, an Italian and Belgian production built from a script Bernardo Bertolucci left behind, with Sarandon playing a retired rock singer pulled back into the studio by Luca Marinelli's character. Alicia Vikander also stars. It premiered in Venice on Sunday to reviews that singled out Sarandon's singing and her chemistry with Marinelli.

Sarandon closed her answer without softening it. "I found my family, I found my people, and I'm OK," she said. Whether any studio responds to the claim on the record is the open question now.