Susan Sarandon and Hacks' Hannah Einbinder were detained outside Netanyahu's UN speech. Sarandon has done this before
One of them won her first Emmy a year ago and used the speech to make a point. The other has been arrested at protests since the Vietnam War era and says it is still costing her movie roles.
Susan Sarandon and Hacks star Hannah Einbinder were taken into custody by the NYPD on Thursday, September 24, at a protest near United Nations headquarters as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the General Assembly. Comedian Caleb Hearon was also detained, The Hollywood Reporter reports, among roughly 100 protesters picked up for blocking First Avenue near 39th Street.
Photos of both actresses being led away in cuffs spread on X before Netanyahu started speaking. Protesters were chanting for his arrest, according to posts shared at the scene. Inside the hall, some delegates walked out, and Netanyahu opened by asking where they had been "when the Iranian tyrants butchered and maimed tens of thousands of unarmed Iranian civilians," per The New York Times. Variety notes it was not yet confirmed whether the actresses were formally arrested or only detained, and neither the NYPD nor their reps had commented.
Cynthia Nixon was first reported among those in custody too. Her reps told THR she attended the protest but was not detained, and the outlet corrected its story.
Einbinder saw the cost coming
Einbinder won her first Emmy in September 2025 for playing Ava on Hacks and used the acceptance speech to say "free Palestine." Backstage she explained why, as a Jewish performer, she felt she had to. At Cannes she was asked whether speaking out could hurt her career:
"I am under no impression that my one small career could ever measure up in comparison to even one human life." — Hannah Einbinder at Cannes
More recently she defended Mark Ruffalo after Paramount Skydance accused him of antisemitism over his opposition to the studio's Warner Bros. Discovery deal.
From Vietnam to First Avenue
For Sarandon, 79 and an Oscar winner for Dead Man Walking, a police van is not new scenery. By her own account and the record, Thursday adds another line to a long list:
- High school. She has said she was arrested protesting the Vietnam War.
- 1999. One of 219 people arrested in New York during protests over the police killing of Amadou Diallo, per ABC News.
- June 28, 2018. Among 575 people arrested at the Hart Senate Office Building protesting family separations at the border. Her post from that day: "Arrested. Stay strong. Keep fighting."
- September 24, 2026. Taken into custody on First Avenue during Netanyahu's UN address.
The price she says she has paid is professional. UTA dropped her as a client in November 2023 after her remarks at a pro-Palestinian rally in New York. At a Venice Film Festival press conference this month she was asked about it again:
"I've still had movies taken away recently because there are agencies that are telling people not to hire me still." — Susan Sarandon at Venice
In 2018 that walk to the van ended in a misdemeanor charge for unlawful demonstrating. The 2026 version has no paperwork attached yet.
Previously we wrote: Billie Lourd's kids are getting to know Carrie Fisher through Star Wars — in one scene, Leia is actually their mom
