In an interview done earlier this year, Sean Penn, long considered to be the greatest thespian of his generation, talked candidly about giving up acting. It wouldn’t be the first time Penn turned his back on his craft: in 1991, he got behind the camera to write and direct The Indian Runner. Fortunately, he returned to acting and appeared in such films as Carlito’s Way, The Game and Dead Man Walking. Last Christmas, he starred as the coked-out casting director in Hurlyburly and a pragmatic sergeant in The Thin Red Line. Now he's back in the unlikely vehicle of a Woody Allen comedy, playing a self-involved Depression-era jazz musician in Sweet and Lowdown.

Penn, who lives in Marin County, California, with wife Robin and their two children, has relaxed considerably from his 20s, when he seemed to regularly turn up in the newspapers (and the courts) for brawling with photographers who stalked him. Penn, who was a poster boy for that kind of bad behavior during his marriage to Madonna in the 1980s, even wound up in jail for a short stint. Though he's acted in a dozen movies since he announced he was devoting himself to directing, he still feels ambivalent about being in front of the camera, as he recently explained to drDrew.com.
 

drDrew.com: You play a jazz musician in Sweet and Lowdown. Was it fun to learn how to play guitar?
Sean Penn: No, it was a chore and a lot of work. When the movie was over, I put the guitar down and didn't want to touch one again.

drDrew.com: How long did it take for you to learn the instrument?
SP: A few months. It was a crash course, (playing) all day every day. I had a lot of songs to learn in a short time, so I just had to keep the guitar in my hand. It's funny, I always wanted to learn to play guitar, but I had to learn so much advanced stuff so fast without any kind of musical foundation. Maybe I'll go back to it eventually.

drDrew.com: How have your feelings about acting changed?
SP: I don't take a lot of enjoyment from it. At the same time, however, I've tried to make a point of doing things that push me one way or the other. I feel that my tool kit has grown and I can build a character better, but I don't get excited about it anymore. I try to do the best I can, but it's a job, as opposed to directing, which I find thrilling. Acting is always a struggle, and now it's more of an emotional struggle because I don't enjoy it so much.

drDrew.com: At the same time, you've been working with directors like Woody Allen and Terrence Malick. Do you take the acting jobs for the chance to watch these guys work?
SP: Absolutely. You're absorbing stuff on the set everyday. Of course, there's not much you can copy. But when you're working with a great director, a guy who is really bright, hopefully some of that gets in.

drDrew.com: Why haven't you directed more movies?
SP: I found that I was not a very prolific writer. It's hard to come up with what you want, then spend years developing it and hustling for money. Financially, movies bleed you. That's why I keep acting; it's largely a financial matter, trying to keep afloat during the downtime when I'm trying to make my own movies.

drDrew.com: What do you wish you'd known in your 20s that you know now?
SP: My wife Robin.

drDrew.com: How have you changed since those early years?
SP: I get tired more easily, and I get tired of being tired more easily. I'm also a father and that changes things a lot.

drDrew.com: Like what?
SP: It makes me more concerned about flying, which I do a lot. I've become very vulnerable to a lot of things because of my kids, things you don't see coming. The worst lawsuits I could face prior to being a parent are nothing in the face of that.

drDrew.com: What’s the most surprising thing about being a parent?
SP: It made everything better. And then there are the surprises of it: just when you think you know what it is, then, oh my God, they do some kind of magic. My wife and I find ourselves lying in bed, chuckling at the various exploits of these two kids. They're the most interesting people in your life.

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