Susan Sarandon has been in the business for a lot of years; as lovely and youthful as she still is, it’s difficult to remember that she’s been acting since the early ’70s, and back then things were very different in Hollywood.

The actress opened up about an ugly incident which happened when she was new to the business, comparing it to the “casting couch” stories that seemed to run rampant back then. Unfortunately, it was not uncommon for an actress to be sexually harassed or even assaulted, as the general consensus was that if she really wanted a part, she’d work for it.

“I just went into a room, and a guy practically threw me on the desk. It was my early days in New York, and it was really disgusting. It wasn’t like I gave it a second thought, it was so badly done,” she said, adding that it ended up not being “successful” for either of them.

The 66-year old, who had a 20-year romance with actor Tim Robbins before their split in 2009, is now dating a much younger man–35-year old Jonathan Bricklin, a ping-pong entrepreneur. Sarandon has partnered with Bricklin to open a ping-pong club called Spin and is getting serious about the hobby; she spoke about it a bit with Anderson Cooper recently.