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'I
was brought up in a country that relished
fear-based
religion, corrupt government,
and an entire white population living on stolen property that they
murdered for
and that is passed on from generation to generation.'
But
it was not only his work as an actor and director that put Sean Penn in the
spotlight. Also in politics - even he is not a member of a political party doesn't
call himself a pacifist -
his attitude was controversial and he did not always get applause for it.
In the year 2002 it was quite clear, that the USA would begin a war against Iraq.
And Sean Penn did take a firm stand - in his own special way ...
In October
2002 he caused a sensation with his bought ad-page in the Washington Post.
In his article/ad he begs the President of the United States to 'help
save America before yours is a legacy of shame and horror' (see Washington
Post ad - text or
a
copy of the original ad ).
After
this, many of his collegues, journalists and fans believed, it would have
been better, if he 'kept his advice on weapons to himself and sticks with
the bombs he knows best - his movies ...'
But Sean Penn didn't care about other peoples opinion and started an
interest for the country Iraq and the Middle East, which lasts until today (please
see detailed information about Sean Penn and the
Iraq here).
Sean
Penn visiting a children hospital in Iraq
If
the primary statement of the film is
that if you have good abs it's OK to
kill people, I pass.
When
Sean Penn did an episode as direcor in the documentary film '110901 -
SEPTEMBER 11' it seemed to be clear, that politics would dominate from now
on his work in film. But far from it! He carried on to do remarkable parts
in remarkable films.
The
seats are reserved - will he show up?
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Together
with a fine cast such as Tim Robbin, Kevin Bacon, Laura Linney and Marcia
Gay Harden he was Jimmy Markum in Clint Eastwood's Film 'Mystic River'.
Most deserved in 2004 he won a Golden Globe for this part and - at last
- an Oscar.
Surprisingly he even showed up at the Oscar-event - to demonstrate his
respect for the director Clint Eastwood.
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Then
followed the highly acclaimed '21 grams'.For
his part Sean
Penn won for the second time the 'Coppa Volpi' in Venice as
Best Actor (see awards)
Director
of
'21 grams', Alejandro González Inárritu,
gladly remembers working with Sean Penn:
'Ninety-eight per cent of his work is so well done, that even
his bad takes are, I will say, betten than the average good takes of
any actor. (...) He has the intuition, he can smell what you want.'
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Coppa Volpi - with the
cigarette
always near by ...
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Another highly
acclaimed film was 'The Assassination of Richard Nixon'. Sean Penn worked
realy hard for its realization and played himself the main part of the
privately and socially failed Sam Bicke. For many Sean Penn Fans is this his
best played figure (so far ...).
'If
I one day win the lottery I would do three or four films all four or five
years - not only one.
And
there would be no more time for acting.'
For
the thriller 'The Interpreter' with Nicole Kidman
director
Sydney
Pollack and his team had the great honour to be the first team to film in
the UN in New York. For sure this made it quite easy for Sean Penn to say
yes to the part of Tobin Keller ...
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All
The King's Men
World premiere -
September 22, 2006
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In
2004 then followed All
The King's Men
with
Jude
Law, Kate Winslet, Anthony Hopkins, Mark Ruffalo, James Gandolfini,
Patricia
Clarkson und Kathy Baker.
It's
a remake of a film from 1949, after the well known novel by
Pulitzer-winner Robert Penn Warren. Sean Penn plays charismatic
Willie Stark, who, after a spectacular ascent as politician takes
a plunge.
A
role, which is realy written for the leading actor. And before someone
saw the first meters of film, already Oscar
rumors for Sean Penn and the film were
getting loud ... The premiere film however in the meantime is
rescheduled for November 2006 - so we have to wait for the Oscar's
2007
... .
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When
the filming for 'All The King's men' was finished, Sean Penn said - as he
does, once in a while - , that he now needs a longer break from acting. So
we realy don't know, when, for example we will hear about filming 'In
Search of Captain Zero'.
In this film Sean Penn plays cult-author and ex-surfer Alan Weisbecker and
he produces the film as well.
And
what about Sean Penn's great love - directing? His latest project 'The Pledge' is now five years back ... time to be in the 'directing
a movie every five years' schedule! So we learned in February 2006, that
Sean Penn is to direct Into the wild - he adapted
Jon Krakauers book and will direct
the movie. We
are looking forward to it!
Private
Live
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And
even in is private live he finally seems to succed. With
Robin
Wright Penn,
likewise a very successfull actress (Forrest Gump, Message in a
bottle) he is together since
1991 -
a long time for a "Hollywood"-couple! They
had their problems in between, but - who hasn`t? They have two
children (a daughter, Dylan Frances and a son, Hopper Jack, namend
after Dennis Hopper und Jack Nicholson) - and in 1996 they got
married.
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Anarchy
in a caravan - that's Sean Penn
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When
his house burned down during one of these devastating fires in
California (Sean and Robin had just split up for
a while and
Sean was living in a caravan on the burned down ground for a while
...) the family decided, to leave Tinseltown and moved to the San
Francisco Bay Area. Sean Penn about the house burn:
"I
had a house burn downonce, and everything in life burned
except my family, and it was so
liberating. I didn't have a bad moment about it. It sort of
reinvigorated my interest in a lot of things. I wonder if there should
be some kind of anarchy."
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So now, there is
only one problem left - smoking! Sean Penn's father, Leo Penn, died of lung
cancer, aged 77. Sean's friend, composer Joseph Vitarelli, remembers the
funeral: `Leo died of lung cancer. And Sean and I were smoking at his
funeral, outside, round a corner. I mean, we really needed a cigarette that
day ...`.
So then Sean Penn quit smoking at his 40. birthday .... or let`say, he cut
it down ... or, ehm ... tried, to cut it down ... whatever ... Up to then he
was one of Hollywoods strongest smokers with a minimum of four (!) packets
of cigaretts a day.
Dennis
Hopper with the Penn-Family
Sean
Penn 's
motto
is a quote of E. L. Doctorow:
'The responsibility of the artist is to
know the time in which he lives'.
So therefore we can be sure, that time and again as actor and director, as
writer and journalist, he will show up and fight the good fights for
us....
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