Susan Sarandon: Hollywood stars ‘afraid’ of backing Sanders

Actress Susan Sarandon on Thursday said many of her fellow Hollywood entertainers are nervous about publicly backing Bernie Sanders’s Democratic presidential bid.

“You know, there’s a lot of people I’ve talked to who are afraid,” she said, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

{mosads}”[They] say, ‘I am definitely supporting him but I’m afraid to come out’ because either I am a woman and I don’t want to get shamed — because that has been a big part of what the response has been — or they say, ‘I am just waiting to see what happens,’” Sarandon added.

“I feel people have to make up their own minds and their publicists are leaning on them. They see what happens to people when they stand out.”

Sarandon, who has formally endorsed Sanders, also argued he remains viable despite trailing Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton in Super Tuesday wins earlier this week.

“The response to him is still very strong and people are not giving up,” she said of Sanders, who won four voting contests nationwide to Clinton’s seven this week.

“There is only one candidate who cares about the environment in a real way and has not accepted money from the very people we’re trying to protect ourselves from,” Sarandon added of the independent Vermont lawmaker.

“I am very enthusiastic about having a candidate who lives and professes a progressive platform because I care about the environment, and I care about women and children and the middle class.”

Sarandon additionally derided the media for boosting Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump’s credibility with voters.

“The press is responsible for making Trump who he is,” she said. “Things have just not stuck on him, and I blame a lot of the circus that was created by the press and not treated seriously for allowing him to get as far as he has.

“We’re just not reporting in-depth, responsible, grown-up kind of journalism. For being such a powerful country, we need to be better informed and more responsible in how we go about choosing candidates.”

Sarandon sparked debate in Democratic circles last month by arguing it is “insulting” to ask women to vote for Clinton because of her gender.

Sanders trails the former first lady by about 10 percent in voter support nationwide, according to the latest RealClearPolitics average of polls.