How did Sean Penn`s career fall in the shitter ?

Well, he was never huge in the first place. It didn't help that people generally view him as an abuser. I've never personally found him sexy, even when he was young. I wouldn't say I thought he was ugly but I've never thought he's handsome.

Because he is a cunt and in all fairness he should have been cancelled decades ago.

Great actor but too self important and just a real bastard for the love of being a bastard.

He would have been better in The Irishman than De Niro.

I agree he would have been a better choice for The Irishman. The one role he has down pat is irish mobster--that's why he was so great in Mystic River.

He's hard to cast, because he's not only got that really ugly face (that was more attractive when he was younger), but he's got that hugemuscular body that was so hot when he was young, but is a bit strange now that he's 60. He's also not easy to work with--I think he's more professional than many Method actors; but he's still a Method actor, and they can be pains in the ass.

R5 He was fucking dreadful in Mystic River - all that over emoting. Of course he can be very good (Dead Man Walking, Carlito's Way, Casualties of War, Milk) but when he is bad he is awful. Dreadful person by all accounts. Loves using women as punching bags.

His girlfriend is a year younger than his daughter...

Everyone hates him, that’s how

He looks like he forgot to wear his dentures and has a pomeranian for a toupee. Yikes.

He's a mediocre talent who made some great film decisions early in his career. Once he opened up his personal life to the public, he exposed himself as an angry, needy person. He tried too hard to show himself as socially relevant (surprising he didn't show up in Puerto Rico a couple years ago after the hurricane). But final straw was the El Chapo thing. The guy never grew up from being an angry teenager.

He’s an abusive prick and an example of white hetero-gentile privilege.

He was too much of a fucking asshole and that says a lot because I currently hold that world record

His face is the very definition of craggy and he usually looks like hell. He is someone who hasn't aged well at all, especially when you look at his contemporaries like George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Tom Cruise, Colin Firth, etc.

He’s just an obnoxious guy...humorless and vain. And something of a bully too.

Did he and Al Pacino go to the same acting school? When you graduate, they stick cloves in your butt and simmer you in ginger ale.

I think Sean & Leila are LARPing Paris, Texas.

Nice bruises on her thigh.

OMG, @R7 he looks like that bizarre-looking Sterling "Winnie the Pooh" Holloway.

Vincent D'Onofrio (his girlfriend's dad) must be heartsick.

Yet he was the love of Madonna's life.

R18, and Leila's mother is Greta Scacchi, who went on to marry her first cousin.

r19....well, that explains a lot....

I still think Vincent D'Onofrio should revenge seduce Hopper Penn.

He's half Jewish, r11.

Yeah that El Chapo thing ruined him. He's also hideous now.

He really should have done something better with the momentum from Mystic River but he's too self important. He really was impressive when he started in the 80's. He would disappear into his roles very believably.

You guys are rough! The guy is an accomplished actor.

He’s won 2 Best Actor Oscars

Thus has nothing else to prove to anyone.

A 40 year career is impressive.

I feel bad for Vincent D’O. Awkward!

He exposed himself not so much as an asshole--he was always a public one--but an asshole who loves to hang out with left-wing authoritarian leaders. He attended a vigil for fucking Hugo Chavez (I have a strong feeling he'd love to do a Bernie documentary). Once you do stuff like that, you just look like a moron to most people. And he's old.

Vincent D'Onofrio is also supposedly a violent asshole, right?

Poor Leila going for what she knows best.

But R27, does he love Castro and Hugo Chavez? My Sean does.

R19 Holy shit! They had a kid together, too.

[quote] "We were friends for a long time before we got together in 1997 and I had never seen him in that way before. I was definitely scandalised by it and worried about how to tell people - especially my family.

Biiiiiitch, he IS your family!

Sean is the same age as both his current girlfriend's parents.

R27, link, please. I have never heard that about D'Onofrio.

He's an incredible actor and a very good director when he hasn't climbed up his own asshole. The Indian Runner is a very humanistic, sensitive movie* while the Crossing Guard takes itself so seriously it's painful to watch.

That said, he was tremendously ugly as a youth. He's so rugged now, he looks like he could have been handsome as a young man, and I tend to forget how ugly he used to be. I'll see a screenshot of him from his early years and I practically jump out of my skin.

*I tend to think this is how Penn likes to think of himself, but it isn't the reality of his personality.

Like Johnny Depp he got old and gross. Hardliving ages a girl.

Madonna gaping cunt stole all of his talent. He had left was to play retarded and gay.

What's the deal with Sean's hair? Is that one of those glue-on centerpiece wigs? He never seems to wash it and it never matches the sides of his hair, which usually appear to be real.

Leila George starred in James Franco's lesbian vampire LifeTime movie, alongside Tori Spelling.

I see someone just got back from happy hour...hint, hint^

I just got back from a play, r36. I had a cup of bad coffee and dropped my cigarettes in a puddle.

"bad coffee," or tee many martoonis?

What play, r36? And, stop smoking. Aren't they like $20 a pack now?

You sure are interested in me. Maybe you should start a thread to fantasize about me.

Because Sean Penn caught up with Sean Penn.

R32 The Indian Runner is by far the best and only decent film Sean Penn has directed. His most recent with Charlize Theron & Javier Bardem (the name of it escapes me) is one of the worst pieces of shit I've ever seen.

[quote] He looks like he forgot to wear his dentures and has a pomeranian for a toupee. Yikes.

That's an insult to Pomeranians.

Anyway, Sean Penn has been a guilty pleasure for me. He was sexy, IMO. The over-acting, you either like it or you don't. You could say DeNiro overacts, too.

He seems really mean, though. Ugh.

Both he and Madonna have succeeded in aging into absolutely odious cunts.

They should get back together.

He's interesting to me because like two of the actors he idolized, Pacino and Hoffman, he did his best work when he was young, and became a big fat ham and lost his looks when he got older. And like Pacino and Hoffman, he was given major awards recognition when he was starting to slip.

Because he’s a short, unattractive asshole with no power or charisma.

Leo DiCaprio and Leila George look like siblings. What part of Italy has people who look like D’Onofrio/Scacchi/DiCaprio and why does the exported image of Italians look so different than them?

I wonder if Penn has had to keep a lower profile for a while because of safety issues after the El Chapo shit and whatever else he’d gotten himself into.

Does Sean have friends or is he just mean to coworkers & women he says he’s in love with & photographers?

An acquaintance saw him ranting, raving, and losing his sht over nothing in a market. I can only imagine what a drag it is to work with him.

r48, the lights in those places make people crazy.

Is he still a gakked out sot or did he clean himself up after losing his South American connections?

Remember those strange photos of him and Robin Wright being happy shown pictures by their daughter`s boyfriend?

No one wants to work with the stinky old fart....

[R49] Appeared only slightly intoxicated, i.e.; a -hole in his almost natural state.

Previous thread in Sean & Leila:

I did enjoy INTO THE WILD, that film he made about Christopher McCandless. It was sad.

Does he get along with his brother, Michael?

Isn’t he the one that died?

r56, No, the fat one died. Michael is the musician married to Aimee Mann. I think they're both junkies. I've always wondered if Michael is as mean as Sean. He looks mean.

What's odd about him is that he's so respected for his talent, and yet he has al;most zero fans among the general publ;ic. Can you imagine anyone saying, 'It has Sean Penn in it? Oh let's go see THAT!"

I think Chris is the one who died.

Chris was also the only likable Penn. Like r57 said, Michael seems mean. So does Sean. There was something very warm and innocent about Chris (just watch Footloose). Sean doesn't radiate any of that nowadays. He's also not sexy anymore.

The other thing is Sean doesn't have a lot of box office hits. He hasn't really established himself in the same way as Brad or Leo have. He's made a lot of flops lately and, like r10 said, the El Chapo thing was strange and very distracting from his film career.

Sean Penn & Chris Penn played brothers in "At Close Range," also starring Christopher Walken.

r42, I think you're thinking of "The Gunman". And yes, if you are, we had the same reaction. I couldn't believe how bad that film is.

I watched "The Gunman" because Mark Rylance is in it. I'd watch him read a telephone book. He did a promotional video before the film opened and said that Sean Penn would not leave him alone until he took the role.

Bad box office, ugly face, serial abuser.

A lot of times a red head turns blond, because they get white hair instead of gray and it just looks blond.

The only movie I ever liked him in was Milk, probably because he was playing a good human being (probably someone will come along and disillusion me about Harvey, but until then....)

R40, that was one of the FUNNIEST comments I’ve read in this place, in quite a while.

Thank you!!!

cause he eats women's poop?

He strung John Cassavetes along, during the last years of his life, pretending to commit to She’s So Lovely and then backing out to take other jobs. Eventually, after John died, Penn and Nick Cassavetes cobbled together their version of She’s So Lovely, which is just so goddamned awkward and slapstick and full of bad wigs that it’s amazing production wasn’t shut down halfway through. Robin was great in that, though.

Robin & Sean in Hurlyburly

He went "full 'tard."

And got Oscar nominated for it

He’s a fine actor and whilst never conventionally handsome was very attractive in the 80s.

But he’s 60 years old, he’s mean and onery and the work has dried up.

His best chance is to get a streaming/HBO series that takes on or go the Jeff Bridges route and play ranchers and sheriffs and aging country music stars and be in Taylor Sheridan movies.

Fuck Sean. So over his BS with the El Chapo shit, Chavez, and parading around parts unknown with his Super Penn cape.

Sean is a really talented man who also happens to be really fucked up. He is a violent, aggressive and dangerous asshole. He will beat the shit out of any woman who stays long enough to see what’s up, and if you doubt this, check out his new gf. She’s what? In her early 20s? Yeah, that’s because only someone that young, will put up with his bullshit. And surely it’s an added benefit that she comes from an acting family, because we all know that what it really means to come from creative stock: dysfunctional mess, with a high tolerance for bullshit no one else would tolerate, EVER.

Fuck this dude. Not into him. Not into men who beat the shit outta their wives and girlfriends, and scream 24/7 at their kids, etc., etc.

I hate the self-righteous prick. He was such a mean-spirited POS when he didn't even mention Robin Wright in his Oscar acceptance speech. She has a better career than he does and has aged VERY nicely. I thought Penn's best performance was in At Close Range.

Apparently, he writes novels now:

" I beat Madonna, I beat Robin Wright, I beat Charlize, now I beat me."

His heart is in the right place when it comes to social issues. But he’s so fucking humorless about it all.

[quote] I think you're thinking of "The Gunman". And yes, if you are, we had the same reaction. I couldn't believe how bad that film is.

The film with Charlize and Javier is The Last Face about two star crossed Doctors Without Borders physicians. Steaming dog turd doesn’t even begin to describe how awful it is.

His "girlfriend" was the captain of her high school hockey team....

I've never liked Sean Penn - he seems so sleazy and big headed. Have to admit he has done some great work over the years (Dead Man Walking, Carlito's Way, Milk, The Snowman and Falcon amongst others) but he seems vile as a person.

One of many examples who unfairly escaped the #MeToo purge.

Which Academy show was it when Eddie Murphy made a harmless joke about something and Sean being the humorless bully he is made a comment about the joke not being true or funny. Eddie just looked at him and laughed it off. But Sean has no sense of humor unless he’s telling the joke.

The answer the OP is trolling for is Harvey Milk.

r18, was he really ever that big to begin with?

While R82 is likely correct, the other reason is that Penn is a rough looking 50something and there aren't many roles for guys who look like that.

Pitt, Cruise, Clooney can all play the sexy older guy, but Penn looks like a nasty old man

I would still like to know what's going on with his hair or whatever that thing on his head is.

r81, it was Chris Rock, when he hosted the Academy Awards.

During his opening monologue he rode Jude Law about how he is cast in everything. And kept riding him.

Truth be told, at that time, I too noticed how every Hollywood movie seemed to have Jude Law in the cast, so, at first , I too thought it was funny.

I adore Chris Rock, but even I got kinda sick of it. Not on Jude Law's behalf, although I am a fan of his. It was because he kept at the "joke" throughout the show.

Penn presented an award and said something like, I don't find it funny to knock a talented actor for working, or something like that. It was a very pointed remark and everybody knew it was pointed at Rock.

But not necessary r86. Penn should have said something to Chris behind the scenes...he came across as self righteous and smug.

In Rock’s defense, Jude Law was *everywhere* circa 2004. He even popped up in the fucking Aviator for no reason at all

Does someone like that find anything funny? Like, is it possible he has a sense of humor but it's just completely peculiar?

For so many of us, humor is a natural defense mechanism and even survival instinct to surmount both daily injustices and major tragedy, it's a reflex to avoid falling into a pit of existential despair. Has he been so very fortunate that he never needed to use humor to buoy himself? Is his entire persona a counter reaction to Spicoli?

The Jude Law joke was funny. Sean was up his own ass.

I remember he came to the Toronto International Film Festival, and smoking is banned in public places. And, of course, this asshole was giving a press conference and pulled out a cigarette.

[QUOTE]This actor is a solid B list and has been for years. Sometimes he headlines a movie, but for the most part, he is the second lead. Solid actor and everyone knows who he is. He also has a very attractive daughter. Very much so. The daughter has a bit of a drinking problem and when she drinks she shares a story of what happened to her when she was 15 about to turn 16 and how she was hit on and eventually had sex with this A list movie actor who is a nominee/winner of some of the biggest awards in acting. A friend of her father's, they had a brief fling and supposedly this brief fling also broke up the A list actor's long time relationship. His significant other could handle the cheating, just not with a 16 year old.

I saw the Mel Gibson movie (well, 1/3 of it). Not good.

I got the book when it came out because it sounded vaguely interesting, but never read it.

He's aged horribly. I tried to watch that movie with him and Mel Gibson. Couldn't get through 20 minutes of it. Don't really miss him.

Will someone explain his "hair" now?

Why does Penn have a dead puppy on his head?

r96, the hair experts here refuse to even come near the question. I'm very disappointed in them.

My hair looks more natural.

Damn, both Sean and Mickey were hot as fuck in the '80s. They exuded a strong sex appeal.

Mickey got involved in boxing and then bad plastic surgery. Sean became dour, humourless and an asshole.

I guess they got the faces they deserved.

R99 Mickey did. Sean Penn has always been repulsive to me in every respect.

she suffers from nicotine poisoniing to her brain and liver and gizzard.

That picture of Sean Penn is scary. Freddy Kruger scary.

It is like someone gave him the worst makeover ever. The hair doesn’t look real. He will be 60 soon and it is very hard to look good at that age.

Ratty korean wig alert R95. Even Robert Redford would be ashamed to wear that.

The girlfriend :

Sean Penn was at his height in the Madonna era, especially in At Close Range.

r105, that chair is kind of ominous, knowing what happened.

Watching that video I decided that I don't think that Sean Penn would be able to build anything resembling a career as an actor, if he were starting out today. Mary Stuart Masterson, neither. Walken's a pro show pony, though.

Spicoli was his only charming performance. What damaged him so young? He was OK in a few other movies but never any charm.

Two Oscars does not mean an okay actor.

R108, We resemble that remark!

r107, I think he went over-board trying to not be typecast onscreen and in life as the dumb stoner from the teen sex comedy, resulting in a complete lack of humor. I assume the Penn/Ryan household must've been a horror show.

I remember Penn did a cameo on Ellen's TV comedy series but he was just so serious and dour that any comic timing he had had vanished.

He takes himself way too serious. I wonder if he's a nicer person when drunk. He reminds me one of those grouchy uncles, we all have that nobody can stand. That smells like cigarettes and Crown Royal.

I've never met an asshole who was nicer when he was shitfaced.

Sean Penn being funny.

Maybe I was thinking of this one.

He's a sloppy asshole and he stopped making people money.

r115, I don't think that rises to even the low standards of comedy. All he does is kind of cutely cuddle up to Elvis Costello.

Okay, I watched the Mel Gibson movie last night. This was the kind of movie they made all the time in the 90s. These mid-budget dramas, historical or otherwise. It wasn't great, it wasn't awful, and the direction is uninspired. 25 years ago, Penn probably would have Oscar buzz for it. They just don't make movies like this anymore, at least, not in the US. So, the format feels dated in a strange way. I think it was most interesting on a meta level to have these two public bastards asking the question, "Can a monster every really redeem himself?" The conclusion that the film comes to is: yes! But I think if the film had gotten more traction there could've been a more interesting conversation on that subject: what have we collectively decided is unforgivable, do good deeds or traits compensate for ill actions and should they, and of course the tricky proposition of separating an asshole and the terrible things he may do in his day to day life from his work and standalone value, thereof.

Somewhere around Harvey Milk people caught on, finally, to that fact that he is a shit actor and then then remembered that there was nothing else about the man to like.

His performance in Mystic River was the stuff of Easter dinner...real ham.

Penn's career illustrates the adage that an actor should never become known more for what they do when they aren't working than what they do when they are.

no one cares about your politics. your get your money for ACTING. he didn't do enough of what he was paid for.

the only "image" concerns one should attend to outside of that are about ethics. beating people up and being an obnoxious prick are not ok.

R121, that’s not a fucking adage. And you sound like a Deplorable.

Remember when he bitched about Nic Cage being an action hero and not a master thespian, in the NYT?

If I worded that poorly you knows what I mean!

I liked Chris Penn more. More talented. Sean puts me asleep now. Boring and ugly.

He’s neither a shit actor nor untalented.

But he is ugly. I also think that he’s isn’t as leftist as he wants us to believe. He’s just sanctimonious and hypercritical.

Has he been in the loony bin?

His son Hopper is even worse. Robin how could you?

He’s going to be on CNN in a minute. I wonder how crazy his wig will be.

He was mean to Robin Wright. Serves him right.

Uh oh the whites of his eyes are pink like Maddow’s. Leila George, we hardly knew ya!

He’s a good actor but a terrible person. Below-the-line crews HATE him.