Susan SARANDON

She's the 75-year-old actor-activist whose trailblazing film roles have been matched only by her passionate politics off-screen. Kathryn Madden charts the life and legacy of the woman who made smart sexy

Two women sat in a 1966 Ford Thunderbird in the middle of the desert, their presence dwarfed by craggy, crimson cliffs.

The driver, whose copper curls swished against her dirt-smeared face, clutched the passenger's hand, gave a sorrowful smile, then floored the accelerator.

"Cut!” called director Ridley Scott. Actor Susan Sarandon, 43, emerged from the driver's seat and Geena Davis, 34, got out the passenger side. Body dummies would be used to complete the dramatic film sequence, which saw the blue convertible soaring over the sprawling chasm of the Grand Canyon before blurring into the heavens above.

The two women had no idea that their 1991 road-trip epic, Thelma & Louise, would one day be hailed a feminist sensation, or that the image of the flying car would become iconic - a metaphor for crashing through barricades in patriarchal Hollywood.

But off-screen, Sarandon was getting comfortable in the driver's seat, too.

Davis - the Thelma to Sarandon's Louise - remembers the first time she met her co-star at a pre-production script-reading. The star of films Bull Durham and Atlantic City pulled out the first page and told Scott in a low, raspy voice, “This first line of mine, I think we should cut it." As she flipped through the pages, Sarandon continued to dissect the timelines, character arcs and accents, explaining how the romance and sex scenes were flawed from a female perspective.

Davis' eyes widened as she observed Sarandon in action. “I was like, people can do that?” she recalled years later. "Women can actually just say what they think?”