Susan Sarandon on Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders

With Tuesday’s New York primary, the Democratic race has been heating up between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders — and for their celebrity supporters, too.

Last month, Susan Sarandon got into a bit of hot water (and a Twitter battle) when the actress, a devoted Sanders supporter, was forced to clarify she would not vote for Donald Trump should Sanders lose the nomination to Clinton.

When EW sat down with Sarandon recently we asked her a different question: Is it sexist to believe women should be supporting Hillary Clinton in this year’s presidential battle?

“Yes, of course,” she said without hesitation. “It’s sexist to imagine that a woman is doing anything based on her gender. I mean, you have the right to choose everything.”

Sarandon added, “I think it really does women a disservice to think they would be influenced by gender and not the issues.”

The 69-year-old star has been criticized for her support of Sanders, something she chalks up to a “shaming of women.”

“That’s been hugely disappointing, especially when it’s done by people who you think are feminist icons. That they would be that out of touch of where we are today,” Sarandon said. “This is why young girls have had this discussion of even using the word feminist. And now are starting to come around and are rebranding the word feminist, which had such a negative connotation for so long. Those gals are way past, ‘This is what you do because you’re a woman. Don’t you want to support a woman?’ Then I would be supporting Sarah Palin across the board.”

According to Sarandon, women her age “are afraid to be vocal” about politics, “because they don’t want to deal” with the attacks.

Watch Sarandon discuss the current political climate in the video above.