The fine comic actor Anna Faris delivers an offhand but cutting zinger in the new film Keanu. Playing herself, she explains that she starred in the first four films in the Scary Movie franchise, but not the fifth. “Too old,” she squeaks, in her House Bunny voice. A week later, The Meddler comes along and gives 69-year-old Susan Sarandon one of the best roles of her career.

“Yeah, how about that? I guess people maybe realize that there are a lot of tickets being bought by people that are older,” says the Oscar winner, calling the Straight from her Manhattan home. “Hollywood isn’t exactly opening the floodgates to films with women in leads, let alone older women. But that’s okay! We’re doing fine.”

Oddly enough, The Meddler, opening Friday (May 6), comes in the wake of two other notable films that feature seniors living the single life in L.A. Blythe Danner starred in I’ll See You in My Dreams in early 2015, and Lily Tomlin followed with Grandma about four months later. In The Meddler, Sarandon’s recently widowed Marnie Minervini relocates to Hollywood in order to be closer to her scriptwriter daughter, Lori (Rose Byrne)—a situation taken from writer-director Lorene Scafaria’s real life. Marnie is based on Scafaria’s mother, Gail.

“Actually, before I even said I would do it, I got a five-minute sizzle reel with Gail doing, shot by shot, the first five minutes of the movie,” says Sarandon, with a chuckle. “Really, the voice-over, her going driving, singing, going to the mall, showing her apartment, looking at the balcony, the garage—the whole thing. When I saw that, I just had to do it; I just found her so open and lovely and sweet.”

Open and lovely and sweet, yes—Sarandon even wears Gail’s butterfly prints in the film—but she adds that the elder Scafaria wasn’t allowed on-set, presumably to forestall any actual meddling. If that conjures the image of a young filmmaker pouring comic scorn on her mom, and notwithstanding Sarandon’s bright and funny take on the material, The Meddler actually ends up being a rather touching look at grief, among other matters.

“It certainly could have been done much broader, but one of the things I established when I said I would do it was this idea of basing it in reality,” says Sarandon. “And she cast such wonderful people who all played it very, very straight—all those funny women, everyone from Cecily Strong to Jerrod Carmichael.”

Let’s not forget J.K. Simmons as a Harley-riding suitor named Zipper, just one more happy detail in this tale of American film rousing itself from the more conventional elevation of youth and narcissistic personality disorder.

“By the way, he said he would do the part and then he won the Academy Award,” dishes Sarandon. “And any other guy would have said, ‘No, I’m on to bigger and better things.’ I called Lorene immediately and said, ‘Is he still in?’ And she said, ‘Oh yeah, I checked, he’s still in.’ ”

“So,” she concludes, about her 61-year-old costar, “he’s a humble guy. And sexy.”