Sarandon concluded about the Hollywood scene, “A promise is not a promise, a person’s word is not a person’s word.” Her next role as Annie Savoy in Bull Durham, for which she lobbied hard, would become her new signature—the intelligent and sensually vivacious older woman. She became romantically involved with costar Tim Robbins, 12 years her junior, during the filming. The couple has since had two children, Jack Henry and Miles, and currently live together by common-law marriage. Sarandon’s roles continued to increase in quality and variety as she came into middle age. She played a waitress turned criminal convict in 1991’s groundbreaking hit, Thelma and Louise alongside Geena Davis, and won an Oscar nomination. She was again nominated the following year for her role as a distraught mother struggling to find a cure for her son’s degenerative brain disorder in Lorenzo’s Oil, with Nick Nolte. In 1995, she finally wrapped her fingers around the statue, winning the Best Actress award for Dead Man Walking, a film based on the autobiographical story of Sister Helen Prejean. Her collaboration with partner Tim Robbins, who directed the film, former-lover Sean Penn, and her daughter Eva, who played a small role, proved rewarding and fruitful. After taking a break from the big screen for three years, Sarandon returned in 1998 to star opposite Gene Hackman and Paul Newman in Twilight. Later that year, she costarred in the holiday tearjerker Stepmom, opposite Julia Roberts and Ed Harris. In 1999, she turned in roles in Robbins' ensemble film The Cradle Will Rock and the sentimental mother-daughter film Anywhere But Here. She spent a good deal of time in 2000 as an activist on behalf of the striking Screen Actors Guild as well as a political supporter of Green Party presidential candidate Ralph Nader.


Sarandon currently resides in New York City with Tim Robbins and successfully manages to pursue her acting career, raise three children, and continue her activism in numerous political, cultural, and health causes.