Sean Penn loves taking risks in his personal life. The Oscar-winning veteran talks about his next The Gunman and why he performs breathtaking stunts himself
What drew you to this story and the character of JimIJ
It appealed to me in a way that a lot of action movies didn’t because the consequences of violence were present throughout, and yet that didn’t seem to create a ponderous weight on the energy of the picture.
How important was it to have the backdrop of Democratic Republic of CongoIJ
What was important was that the epicentre of that narrative drive had a history of suffering intervention, be it political intervention or corporate intervention. And certainly DRC has had both, and continues to have it. There was also some real life parallels related to the mining interests that had happened there. That made it the appropriate choice.
Has being an actor made it difficult for your voice to be heard for your activism workIJ
I’ve found it harder and easier. Criticism will come more quickly, so will reverence. Generally, both are inaccurate, but I think that I approach work — whether it’s creative work or any work I do — very much as a functionary... it’s really clinical on both.
As ambassador-at-large for Haiti, what would you want to be tackled urgentlyIJ
I’d like to see politics redefine its quality of life for the people and for everybody to put their swords down and get to the table, it’s very tricky there. But I think if you want good things to happen for a country like Haiti, then you need to provide the circumstances where the Haitians can do that.
You need governance, but you also need a middle class, you need agriculture that they need to be able to export. I think that’s probably the biggest issue, the job creation that could come with the kind of things that Haiti has all the potential in the world to export.
What roles are you finding yourself drawn toIJ Any superhero franchises in your futureIJ
I don’t know what I would be interested in doing next. There are some good movies made on that (superhero) stuff, let a few of them be made a year. But I’d like to see this business not drown itself in sup.
Do you think that the movie can gear up any political discussion as it showcases a lot of such issuesIJ
I don’t see the movie as having high aspirations to create political discussion. But it may have an opportunity, with the kind of movie that it is, to have some of those ideas to filter through. I remember a conversation I had once with John Casa. We agreed on a few facts like movies are a very powerful thing. He said that he loved all movies — good or bad, but if one doesn’t put a few thoughts to it, it misses the boat.
In the movie, your character has been shown doing something wrong in the past and then carrying the guilt throughout. Do you in your real life, too, have the same thoughtIJ
Yes that’s true. I carry the same thought in reality, too.
The Gunman is a fast pumping film. Do you enjoy that kind of highly physical movies, where you spend a lot of time running or being hit or jumping aroundIJ
Yes, there was a lot to do in the movie. I did enjoy the whole experience. There was lot of engagement that has to be done with the other actors and performers during the shoot. We dealt with a lot of that physical stuff that I never had an opportunity to do in the previous movies I have done. I enjoyed it. It’s a lot of choreography and the hope is to maintain that spontaneity and that choreography and that nobody gets hurt.