Geena Davis and Susan Sarandon Have Thelma & Louise Reunion at 90s Con: The Movie 'Changed My Life'

It's a Thelma & Louise reunion!

Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis came together this weekend during 90s Con 2024 in Hartford, Connecticut to speak about the enduring legacy of their 1991 film.

"Thelma & Louise changed my life. Really, it sent me in a different direction," said Davis, 68, during a Sunday panel alongside Sarandon, 77, and Mira Sorvino — moderated by PEOPLE's Editor-in-Chief Wendy Naugle.

The feminist empowerment tale, directed by Ridley Scott, follows the titular Thelma (Davis) and Louise (Sarandon) who go on the run after Louise shoots Harlan Puckett (Timothy Carhart) and escapes with Thelma, kicking off a run of crimes.

Thelma & Louise features a supporting cast of Harvey Keitel, Michael Madsen, Christopher McDonald and more, including Brad Pitt in what is widely considered his breakout film role.

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Davis said up until Thelma & Louise premiered and blew up in popularity, she "knew what to expect" when fans would come up to her after her roles in Beetlejuice and The Fly. 

"But then after that movie came out, it was completely different in that people wanted to talk to me about it and how many times they saw it or who they saw it with and how it impacted them," the actress recalled.

Thelma & Louise was up for five Academy Awards in 1992, including Best Director for Scott, 86, and Best Actress for both Sarandon and Davis (Jodie Foster took home the latter trophy that year, for her performance in Silence of the Lambs). Thelma & Louise screenwriter Callie Khouri won in the category of Best Original Screenplay.

"It was pretty unusual both of us were nominated for an actor, because usually somebody goes into supporting, because it is an easier category to win it, too," Sarandon said Sunday at 90s Con. "They say that, which I didn't realize at the time, but the fact that both of us were nominated all along, every place that we were nominated, that was really cool."

Davis also said she "had never met" Sarandon before they did Thelma & Louise together, but she "was so excited that we were going to be working together."

"I'm just dazzled by Susan the second I meet her. I'm just like, 'Oh my God,' " she continued. "And we opened the script and I remember it was like the first page where Susan says, 'This first line I have here, I don't think we need it. Why don't we just take that out?' "

"And we did," Sarandon said, of their two-on-one meeting with Scott.

"And I look at Ridley and he's like, 'Oh yeah, whatever.' And through the whole thing, they're just talking through a little. And I was like, 'How have I gotten to this point in my life and I never spent time with a woman who doesn't apologize for what she says?' " Davis continued.

She added, "Right then, I knew I was in a whole different world, and it changed my life."

After headlining some of the most progressively female-centric films of all-time, including Thelma & Louise and A League of Their Own, Davis founded the Geena Davis Institute on Gender In Media in 2004 to champion real-world-reflective gender balance in the media — as well as for minorities and other underrepresented groups. Davis won an honorary Oscar in 2019 for her work fighting for gender-parity in media.

"My simplest advice to creators is: whatever you’re already going to make, before you cast it and before you shoot it, just go through it and see if there’s any characters that can become female — or any type of diversity — and change the first name," she previously told PEOPLE.

“That’s a fabulous way to make it gender-balanced,” she said. “That’s one of the reasons we’re having so many more female characters now.”