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 and 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.
