Sean Penn Bashes the 'Ubiquitous Fraud' He Encountered in Hollywood Trying to Make 'The Last Face'
Sean Penn Bashes the 'Ubiquitous Fraud' He Encountered in Hollywood Trying to Make 'The Last Face'
True to his outspoken nature, Sean Penn has much to say about the current state of Hollywood. The actor/filmmaker/El Chapo interviewer spoke to The Financial Times about his new movie "The Last Face," which is about to world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival, and called the film industry a "ubiquitous fraud," among other bon mots. Penn's new film stars Charlize Theron and Javier Bardem as two aid workers in Liberia.
READ MORE: Sean Penn's 'The Last Face' First Look: Charlize Theron & Javier Bardem Topline Cannes Entry
Hollywood is now "more interested in selling movies than making them," Penn laments. "Movie studios were started by visionaries who loved movies," he points out, though that's no longer the case. As for "The Last Face," Penn believes its future success depends on how well it does on the Croisette: "I've got an 'everything is riding on it' deal going to Cannes this year," he says. "I think [the movie] will disappear if it gets a poor reaction and I think that would be a terrible shame because it's very relevant now and the performances are transcendent…I've given it all I've got."
READ MORE: Sean Penn Fires Back at Critics of His El Chapo Interview: "An incredible hypocrisy"
When asked why he hasn't directed more often — "The Last Face" is only his fifth time behind the camera, and his first since 2007's well-received "Into the Wild" — Penn says that "you have to know that whatever obstacles there are, you're going to stay in love with that film for two years. It's like a woman. If you wake up in the morning and you don't want to breathe in the back of the person next to you then it's time to go. So you sleep with a lot of movie ideas until you wake up next to one that you want to breathe in."
Adèle Exarchopoulos ("Blue Is the Warmest Color"), Jean Reno ("Léon: The Professional") and Jared Harris ("Mad Men") co-star alongside Theron and Bardem in "The Last Face." Read the full article in The Financial Times.
For more from Cannes, watch the "Toni Erdmann" trailer:
http://video-cdn.indiewire.com/videos/HXZmNduj-7nth5MbI.mp4
This Article is related to: News and tagged Charlize Theron, Javier Bardem, Sean Penn, The Last Face