The politically passionate Sean Penn has no interest in running for office, yet he's a potent demagogue on the big screen.
September 30, 2006 (Press Release) --
The politically passionate Sean Penn has no interest in running for office, yet he's a potent demagogue on the big screen.
In a new adaptation of Robert Penn Warren's novel All the King's Men, Penn stars as Willie Stark, a firebrand inspired by Depression era populist Huey Long, the slain Louisiana governor and U.S. senator.
With a wild bush of hair, an at times indecipherable Southern drawl and the flailing arms and bellow of a fire-and-brimstone preacher, Penn imbues Stark with fearsome energy that's surprising in an actor better known as a follower of the Robert De Niro school of quiet menace.
"At first, the most intimidating part of it was probably the size of the character, not just physically, but in other ways. Vocally," Penn said in an interview at the Toronto International Film Festival, site of the premiere of "All the King's Men," now in theaters.
Penn, 46, studied footage of Long. He traveled Louisiana to take in the bridges, roads and other public works Long built. He talked with people who recall Long as a Robin Hood taking back from the rich and redistributing to the poor. He observed evangelical clergy in Long's old haunts to duplicate their cadence.
And he sampled the cuisine.
"Eating a lot of Louisiana food, bit by bit, getting some of the physical size to it," Penn said. "Somewhere about the day before we started shooting, I felt ready to go. It's pretty much like that for me. Terrified until then."
While Penn has bitterly criticized President Bush, toured Iraq to observe the war and helped rescue workers with searches for survivors after Hurricane Katrina swamped New Orleans, he said he would not become one of those actors who goes into politics himself.
"You know what the honest truth is? I don't want to," Penn said. "It's hard enough to go out there and party at a film festival and shake so many hands and smile, you know? I mean, forget it."
"All the King's Men" -- which co-stars Jude Law, Kate Winslet, Anthony Hopkins, Patricia Clarkson and Mark Ruffalo -- follows the rise of an idealist from local rabble-rouser against the political establishment to governor who's hero to the downtrodden to Machiavellian power broker who uses dubious methods in his quest for the common good.
When "All the King's Men" writer-director Steve Zaillian finished the script, Penn was the first person he thought about for the role.
Source: http://search.msn.com
Posted by DAVID GERMAIN
In a new adaptation of Robert Penn Warren's novel All the King's Men, Penn stars as Willie Stark, a firebrand inspired by Depression era populist Huey Long, the slain Louisiana governor and U.S. senator.
With a wild bush of hair, an at times indecipherable Southern drawl and the flailing arms and bellow of a fire-and-brimstone preacher, Penn imbues Stark with fearsome energy that's surprising in an actor better known as a follower of the Robert De Niro school of quiet menace.
"At first, the most intimidating part of it was probably the size of the character, not just physically, but in other ways. Vocally," Penn said in an interview at the Toronto International Film Festival, site of the premiere of "All the King's Men," now in theaters.
Penn, 46, studied footage of Long. He traveled Louisiana to take in the bridges, roads and other public works Long built. He talked with people who recall Long as a Robin Hood taking back from the rich and redistributing to the poor. He observed evangelical clergy in Long's old haunts to duplicate their cadence.
And he sampled the cuisine.
"Eating a lot of Louisiana food, bit by bit, getting some of the physical size to it," Penn said. "Somewhere about the day before we started shooting, I felt ready to go. It's pretty much like that for me. Terrified until then."
While Penn has bitterly criticized President Bush, toured Iraq to observe the war and helped rescue workers with searches for survivors after Hurricane Katrina swamped New Orleans, he said he would not become one of those actors who goes into politics himself.
"You know what the honest truth is? I don't want to," Penn said. "It's hard enough to go out there and party at a film festival and shake so many hands and smile, you know? I mean, forget it."
"All the King's Men" -- which co-stars Jude Law, Kate Winslet, Anthony Hopkins, Patricia Clarkson and Mark Ruffalo -- follows the rise of an idealist from local rabble-rouser against the political establishment to governor who's hero to the downtrodden to Machiavellian power broker who uses dubious methods in his quest for the common good.
When "All the King's Men" writer-director Steve Zaillian finished the script, Penn was the first person he thought about for the role.
Source: http://search.msn.com
Posted by DAVID GERMAIN
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