For a man who doesn’t smile very often, Sean Penn is as close to beaming as it gets. It’s the day after the premiere of his new film Black Flies at the Cannes Film Festival and he’s still buzzing from the thunderous ovation it received. “I think the greatest thing that can happen for somebody in movies—as an actor, anyway—is when the core world of it [sweeps you up],” he says. “I’ve never been involved in a movie that succeeded more that way. And it allowed me to be just a pure audience [member] watching it.”
Given that Penn has been making movies since the early 1980s, when he co-starred alongside Tom Cruise as a military cadet in Taps, that’s quite a claim. Over time, he’s worked with some of the greatest filmmakers alive: Brian De Palma (Casualties of War, Carlito’s Way), Terrence Malick (The Thin Red Line, The Tree of Life) and Kathryn Bigelow (The Weight of Water), to name but three. And he’s won several Oscars for his anguished father in Clint Eastwood’s Mystic River and as a trailblazing gay San Francisco mayor in Milk.
You get the feeling this 63-year-old has seen it all. “Mind if I smoke?” he asks, blazing up an American Spirit (rest assured, vaping is not something Penn will ever entertain) when he enters the sixth floor terrace building of the Cannes Palais. Granite-faced, with piercing blue eyes and a wispy beard, his hair is short and tousled, a mix of grey and sandy-blonde. The voice is a nicotine-stained low rumble, seasoned by the Californian sun. “I will enunciate,” he promises.
Denne historien er fra Reader's Digest May 2024-utgaven av Reader's Digest UK.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent ? Logg på
Denne historien er fra Reader's Digest May 2024-utgaven av Reader's Digest UK.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent? Logg på
EVERY SECOND COUNTS: TIPS TO WIN THE RACE AGAINST TIME
Do you want to save 1.5 seconds every day of your life? According to the dishwasher expert at the consumer organisation Choice, there’s no need to insert the dishwashing tablet into the compartment inside the door.
May Fiction
An escaped slave's perspective renews Huckleberry Finn and the seconds tick down to nuclear Armageddon in Miriam Sallon’s top literary picks this month
Wine Not
In a time of warning studies about alcohol consumption, Paola Westbeek looks at non-alcoholic wines, how they taste and if they pair with food
Train Booking Hacks
With the cost of train travel seemingly always rising, Andy Webb gives some tips to save on ticket prices
JOURNEY TO SALTEN, NORWAY, UNDER THE MIDNIGHT SUN
Here, far from the crowds, in opal clarity, from May to September, the sun knows no rest. As soon as it’s about to set, it rises again
My Britain: Cheltenham
A YEAR IN CHELTENHAM sees a jazz festival, a science festival, a classical music festival and a literature festival. Few towns with 120,000 residents can boast such a huge cultural output!
GET A GREEN(ER) THUMB
Whether you love digging in the dirt, planting seeds and reaping the bounty that bursts forth, or find the whole idea of gardening intimidating, this spring offers the promise of a fresh start.
Under The GRANDFLUENCE Suzi Grant
After working in TV and radio as an author and nutritionist, Suzi Grant started a blog alternativeageing.net) and an Instagram account alternativeageing). She talks to Ian Chaddock about positive ageing”
Sam Quek: If I Ruled The World
Sam Quek MBE is an Olympic gold medalwinning hockey player, team captain on A Question of Sport and host of podcast series Amazing Starts Here
Stand Tall, Ladies
Shorter men may be having their moment, but where are the tall women?
