Skip to main content

Oscar-winner Susan Sarandon joins ‘Ray Donovan’ cast in major recurring role

susan sarandon film cloud atlas reincarnation
Image used with permission by copyright holder
Ray Donovan will be welcoming a second Oscar winner to its cast, as yet another movie actor has decided to join the ranks of television. It’s been confirmed that Susan Sarandon will play a recurring role in the upcoming fifth season of the Showtime series, reports Deadline.

The series stars Liev Schreiber as the title charcter, a professional “fixer” in Los Angeles. To put it simply, very wealthy and/or famous people who are in trouble call him when they need to make problems go away. He always gets the job done, but oftentimes, it’s in pretty questionable ways.

Sarandon will play Samantha Winslow, the “strong and focused” head of a motion picture studio. It’s unclear how her character arc will interact with Ray: Might she be someone who calls Ray to do some fixing? Or maybe she’ll be the latest candidate for an illicit love affair.

Sarandon joins others who have had recurring guest-starring roles on the popular series, including Hank Azaria, Katie Holmes, Ian McShane, and Lisa Bonet. The series also stars Oscar winner Jon Voight as Ray’s troublemaking father, Mickey. Both Schreiber and Voight have received Golden Globe nominations for their roles, with Voight picking up one win. Azaria also won an Emmy for his guest-starring role.

As a five-time Oscar nominee and one-time winner, for Dead Man Walking, Sarandon has a lengthy and impressive résumé in Hollywood. Though her work has mainly been on the big screen, she has done a number of TV miniseries, including The Secret Life of Marilyn Monroe (2015), and has made many appearances on TV series over the past five decades. Some of her most notable work has been on Mike & Molly, The Big C, 30 Rock, the TV movie You Don’t Know Jack, Rescue MeMalcolm in the Middle, and Friends. And, of course, who can forget her role as Justin Timberlake’s mother in the series of viral hit music videos from Saturday Night Live?

Sarandon’s most recent project is the Ryan Murphy-created anthology series Feud, in which she stars as Bette Davis opposite Jessica Lange, who plays Joan Crawford.

The fifth season of Ray Donovan will debut this summer. If history repeats itself, we can expect the inaugural episode some time in late June or early July.

Christine Persaud
Christine has decades of experience in trade and consumer journalism. While she started her career writing exclusively about…
7 great free action movies you should stream right now
Guns are pointed at John Wick

There's nothing wrong with a gripping and compelling Oscar-winning drama that's full of complex characters ... but sometimes you just wanna watch stuff get blown up. You wanna see high-speed car chases. You wanna practically feel the shrapnel fly past your face. Artful films like Oppenheimer and The Iron Claw certainly have their place, but that place isn't here. Instead, we're diving into some of the best action movies you can stream right now for free.

Thanks to ad-supported streaming services like Amazon Freevee, Tubi, Pluto TV, and more, there's a huge selection of great free action movies streaming right now. Whether you want to watch a guns-blazing revenge movie, giant animals attacking unsuspecting victims, or even a kinetic video game adaptation, we've got you covered. So, what are the best action movies streaming right now completely for free? Read on to find out.

Read more
10 best Netflix shows with more than 5 seasons, ranked
A woman puts a crown on a man in The Crown.

Netflix is home to many great shows. It's also the most prolific and well-known streaming service of them all, with a large catalog of original and acquired content. However, the King of Streamers is also famous for being quite trigger-happy. Indeed, Netflix is no stranger to canceling its shows, even if it spent millions producing them; if they don't yield immediate results, the streamer will pull the plug without blinking an eye.

Still, many original shows have beaten the cancellation curse and had a successful life, at least by streaming standards. These shows are Netflix's best efforts that actually got to enjoy a full life cycle, receiving more than five seasons. None might come close to the 100-episode mark, but these beloved series prove to hopeful showrunners everywhere that there is indeed life on Netflix after season 5.
10. Virgin River (2019-present) - 6 seasons

Read more
7 best Neil Gaiman adaptations, ranked
The titular Endless surrounded by his supporting cast in The Sandman.

Neil Gaiman is among pop culture's most famous and revered writers. In fact, he's one of the few whose mere name can provoke some sort of reaction in the average person, even those who aren't avid readers. Gaiman is behind some of the most recognizable titles in the modern age — seminal comic books like The Sandman and novels like Coraline all come from his brilliant mind.

Logically, many of Gaiman's works have been adapted for the big and small screens. From great shows on Amazon Prime to underrated fantasy films, the best shows and movies based on Gaiman's literary work are popular with fans and critics alike. They effortlessly capture the magical complexity of Gaiman's oeuvre, ranking among their respective genre's best efforts.
7. MirrorMask (2005)

Read more