Sean Penn slams backlash against straight actors playing homosexuals as ‘timid and artless’
Sean Penn is slamming the backlash against straight actors playing homosexuals as “timid and artless”.
The ‘Mystic River’ actor and director, 63, earned critical acclaim and his second Oscar for best actor thanks to his portrayal of the openly gay politician Harvey Milk in 2008’s ‘Milk’, and has now said he has been “miserable” on movie sets ever since.
He told The New York Times about how he could not star in the film today amid hot debate over heterosexuals playing queer characters: “No. It could not happen in a time like this.
“It’s a time of tremendous overreach. It’s a timid and artless policy toward the human imagination.”
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Opening up about how his work on ‘Milk’ was the “last time I had a good time” on a film set, Sean added: “I went 15 years miserable on sets. I was faking my way through that stuff and that was exhausting.
“Mostly what I thought was just, ‘What time is it? When are we going to get off?’… I was sure it was done, but I didn’t know how I was going to keep my house running or travel freely or things like that if I stopped.”
But Sean has kept acting despite falling out of love with the process, with one of his most recent roles as a grizzled New York paramedic in 2023’s ‘Black Flies’.
He admitted he has found new meaning in his job after his friend and fellow actor Dakota Johnson, 34, sent him the screenplay for their new film together, ‘Daddio’.
The film is a two-hander that stars only Sean and Dakota – with the actor playing a cabbie who taxis a young woman played by Dakota to the airport.
They end up in a wide-ranging discussion, with Sean’s character a street philosopher from New York City’s Hell’s Kitchen.
He added: “I felt like this could be a pleasant experience and that’s gonna matter to me now, maybe more than in the past.”