Thelma & Louise stars Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis recreated the film’s famous last kiss scene during a special drive-in 30th-anniversary screening held at The Greek Theatre in Los Angeles Friday evening. The two stars, who both earned Oscar nominations for the film, were joined by Oscar-winning screenwriter Callie Khouri for a Q&A session about the movie. MGM and Cinespia hosted the event, which raised funds for the L.A. Regional Food Bank and Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media.
Thelma & Louise hit theaters in 1991 and stars Davis and Sarandon as two friends on the run from the law after they kill a man who attempts to rape Thelma. Harvey Keitel plays the Arkansas State Police investigator on their trail, while Brad Pitt plays a young drifter who joins the women in his first major Hollywood role. The movie was nominated for six Oscars, winning for Khouri’s original screenplay. It was directed by Ridley Scott and was a box office smash. In 2016, the Library of Congress added it to the National Film Registry.
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Sarandon and Davis posed for pictures with the famous Ford Thunderbird from the film, courtesy of the Petersen Automotive Museum Foundation. The two stars, who have won Oscars for other movies, said they became friends the moment they met. “We bonded in an ocean of testosterone,” Sarandon said, reports ABC7. “She’d say, ‘See how fun it is to work with women,’” Davis chimed in.
“I’d never written anything before and I wasn’t, like, thinking, oh, this movie will get made and I’ll win an Oscar and go on to have a long career. I didn’t have any of those thoughts in my head,” Khouri said. “So to see it unfold the way it did was just jaw-dropping to me.” Thelma & Louise was Khouri’s first screenplay to hit the screen. She later created the hit ABC/CMT series Nashville.
Thelma & Louise left a remarkable impact, thanks in part to its incredible ending. It was also rare at the time for a major Hollywood movie to focus on the relationship between two women. “What was so striking was the intense reaction to the film,” Davis told The Hollywood Reporter earlier this month. “Thelma and Louise end up driving off a cliff, and still viewers felt exhilarated by their story. It made me realize how few opportunities we give women to come out of a movie feeling inspired and empowered by the female characters. It changed everything about how I chose roles moving forward.”
