All thing’s considered, Sean Penn’s media tour for his new book “Bob Honey Who Just Do Stuff” (described as “repellent and stupid” by the Guardian) is going over better than the new book itself. Told from the perspective of an ornery entrepreneur and assassin who has “an ultraviolent skepticism toward the messaging and mediocrity of modern times,” Penn slams movements like #MeToo in the book and generally seems to infuriate and attack. Here’s an excerpt of a poem that’s an epilogue from the book (via The Wrap)
“There are no men nor women/only movements own the day/until movements morphy to mayhem/and militaries chip away/whether North Korean missiles/or marching Tehran’s way/Where did all the laughs go?/Are you out there, Louis C.K.?” “Once crucial conversations/kept us on our toes/was it really in our interest to trample Charlie Rose?/And what’s with this ‘Me Too’?/This infantilizing term of the day/Is this a toddlers’ crusade?/Reducing rape, slut-shaming, and suffrage to reckless child’s play?/A platform for accusation impunity?”
While Penn proves himself to be tone deaf in a lot of interviews, seemingly siding with Woody Allen, Charlie Rose, etc. the message he seems to be trying to get across is a kind of unity by the opposing polarized political ideologies of the United States. In a recent, somewhat insufferable WTF podcast with Marc Maron, Penn speaks often of the “we” and not the “I” and appears to take the approach of gently scolding the liberal media for not understanding the other side (while clearly trying to espouse liberal values). The first half of the interview is dense and rather hard to listen to. To be honest, you kind of want to tune out Penn.
In their rambling, hour-long conversation, Penn and Maron discuss his relationship with Marlon Brando, Nick Nolte, and performers of that ilk, the actor’s love/hate relationship with movies, how he’s possibly done with the profession of acting, period.
“I no longer have any interest in making movies, I have no interest in seeing movies,” he said.
And then suddenly, this comment leads him into a long tangent that finds him discussing Bradley Cooper’s upcoming directorial debut, the remake of “A Star Is Born” starring himself and Lady Gaga (due later this year on October 5).
The verdict? Penn adores it and says to have seen it multiple times though he says it should be a disaster on its face. “If I could do that today, what [Cooper] he did with that story, I’d be staying in the game. But I don’t have the perspective and maybe not the skill set. This is one of the most beautiful, fantastic… it’s the best, most important commercial film I’ve seen in so many years.”
Penn’s raves are non-stop suggesting it will break down barriers between all audiences. “I’m telling you the two of them [Cooper and Gaga] are miracles in it,” he enthused. “I would be heartbroken if the world [didn’t take to it]. If someone is very intelligent, they’re going to love this film. If someone is not very intelligent, they’re going to love this film. There’s a big ‘we’ maker in this thing and I’ll be heartbroken for the film if it doesn’t go through” (he also calls the movie “stellar” on the recent Happy Sad Confused podcast which you can also listen below).
Penn suggests if he could make something like that film, he’d stick around, but right now his focus is on books and frankly, less collaboration. “My nature now, wants to be creatively alone, socially together, but creatively alone.”
Of course Penn being Penn, later on in the interview, he suggests there is one more film he might direct, but fails to give any real details other than suggesting it may be an itch he needs to scratch before he’s gone.
You can listen to the podcast, which features indie filmmaker Lynn Shelton in the first half, below, but be forewarned, you’re likely going to want to fast forward to the good parts. Bonus: we’ve included the aforementioned Happy Sad Confused podcast with Penn that covers similar ground and also a little bit about working with Brian De Palma and Terrence Malick, but nothing really revelatory there. And of course, his recent rip on Steve Bannon.