What Was Up With Susan Sarandon’s Coachella Monologue as an Elder Sabrina Carpenter?

By Chris Willman

Chris Willman

Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic

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Who could’ve guessed that the biggest water-cooler moment from night 1 of Coachella 2026 would not be a musical cameo or a particularly galvanizing moment from one of the evening’s headliners, but… a seven-minute monologue by a legendary Hollywood actress in her late 70s? Talk about stunt casting at its most unexpected. Susan Sarandon was brought in to play an elder version of Sabrina Carpenter, midway through that pop superstar’s set. Whatever else may transpire over the weekend, this will surely stand as the festival’s most puzzling, polarizing, dig-it-or-hate-it moment… although “moment” may be too modest a word for an epic scene that its detractors felt seemed to go on just shy of forever.

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