Why Susan Sarandon wants to direct porn

Susan Sarandon beliebves that women have a better eye for exploring the meaning of sex on screen. Photo / AP

Susan Sarandon wants to direct pornographic films aimed at a female audience.

At an event to promote women in film at the Cannes Film Festival, the 69-year-old actress outlined her belief that women have a better eye for exploring the meaning of sex on screen.

And The Rocky Horror Show star raised eyebrows by saying she wants to direct sexually explicit films after retiring from acting as she thinks the pornography industry is too male focused in its output.

"I have threatened in my eighties to direct porn," Susan tells British newspaper The Times.

"I haven't watched enough to know what the problems are. Most pornography is brutal and doesn't look pleasurable from a female point of view. So I've been saying when I no longer want to act, I want to do that."

Part of the star's confidence in her ability to make the career change successful is her experience of altering scripts when filming her own sex scenes.

In particular, Susan cited her intervention in Tony Scott's 1983 film The Hunger, that features a scene in which her character rips off a bloodstained T-shirt and makes love to a female vampire played by Catherine Deneuve.

"It was Tony Scott's first film and I intervened in the script," she says.

"First of all it was written that I was drunk and I said, 'Seriously? You have to be drunk to get into bed with Catherine Deneuve? I don't think so. Isn't it more interesting if it is voluntary?'"

She went on to explain her views of what made particular sex scenes special by adding, "What makes a sex act really interesting is how that first touch happens, how that first kiss comes, so in The Hunger Tony allowed me to come up with an idea about the T-shirt and then the kiss. Those moments need to be looked at."

Susan's views on sex and cinema are far from her first outspoken comments at Cannes, where she and Thelma and Louise co-star Geena Davis received an award celebrating their roles in the feminist road trip movie marking the 25 years since its release.

Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis collect some awards in Cannes. Photo / Getty Images

She has also commented that the acclaimed film would not be made by producers today, and repeated allegations made by Ronan Farrow, that his father, the director Woody Allen sexually abused his adopted daughter Dylan.

Woody has always denied any claims he sexually abused his daughter.

- With AAP