"Mostly they're just doing a bunch of monkey-f*ck-rat movies, most actors and actresses."

Quote :

Sean Penn is not pleased with Hollywood.

In a new interview with Esquire, Penn, who appeared in this fall's indie drama This Must Be the Place, rips into today's film industry -- including his fellow actors.

"I just did this picture that I enjoyed doing. Gangster Squad. But I do think that in general the standard of aspiration is low," he told the magazine. "Very low. And mostly they're just doing a bunch of monkey-f*ck-rat movies, most actors and actresses. And I blame them just as much as I do the business. I know everybody wants to make some money, everybody's got a modeling contract, everybody's selling jewelry and perfume. I'm blinded by it. Bob Dylan said in an interview one time -- somebody asked him, Are you really this reclusive? He says, No, I'm not reclusive, man. I'm exclusive. Exclusivity is like intimacy."

This Must Be the Place earned just $137,000 in the United States, with $11,000,000 in Europe.

Penn's comments come amid complaints from stars and directors for what they call the industry's unwillingness to take artistic chances on serious films. Spike Lee remarked this summer that studios are only interested in potential billion-dollar franchise tentpoles, and Rashida Jones, who co-wrote and produced her own indie starring vehicle, this summer's dramedy Celeste and Jesse Forever, took issue with an audience that only seems to go out for such epic films.

“It’s a two-way street," Jones told The Hollywood Reporter. "Hollywood, yes, I would say there is some feeding of some, as my character says in the movie, 'pretty garbage-y stuff,' but we’re also eating the garbage. So people have to show that there’s a mature, complex moviegoing audience that wants to see -- we have to see, we have to demand the better stuff.

“I’m not against an action movie, I’m not against a big-budget movie,” Jones continued, “but the ones that I like are the ones where it’s obvious where they took the time to develop characters, develop jokes, develop storylines. Like, don’t waste my time and don’t insult me, is how I feel."

For his part, Penn thinks that the industry was once capable of producing such nuanced films, and laments their passing.

"When I was growing up and somebody like Robert De Niro had a movie come out, it was a cultural event," he said. "Because he had such a confidence and a single mission that was so intimate. But when people start using themselves as instruments of a kind of consumerist mosh pit, they're helping that take over. I mean, you are a soldier for it or you're a soldier against it. That's all there is to it. And we have so little of that intimacy left, it's no wonder that interpersonal relationships have become text relationships. It's a texting orgy. When is somebody gonna sit there, with their mate or their child, and just look them in the eye and say, 'I love you?' When is that life??"

Sean Penn is a shit head, but he's right.

Now, where's Robin at?

Why doesn't he just go produce his own film the same way Ben Affleck did Argo? Ben actually netted some respect for that after a series of shitty movies.

Instead of bitching and moaning :x

Or try out the film industry down in Mexico. Maybe Hugo Chavez will play a lead character.

I thought he was busy helping Argentina conquer the South Atlantic. That intrepid continental.

Have any journos asked him whether he still believes critics of Hugo Chavez should be jailed or does advocating naked Stalinism get a pass these days?

He and Saddam Hussein should co-host the Oscars. If only it could be.

Special appearance by Castro's double.

Penn needs to do GOD BLESS AMERICA 2: RED, WHITE, AND RED.

Could someone explain to me the Sean Penn hate? I'm not being ignorant, it's a genuine question. :) I had a look around on the net once to see why people have lost respect for him, but couldn't find anything about what he did...

Great, great actor. Poor choice of friends. A rich Hollywood actor who supports dictators. Hey, ya wanna go to Cambodia or whatever and give money to people, fine. Cuddling with Saddam Hussein? WTF.

Penn sits in his Hollywood mansion (sans Robin Wright), bitching about America's human rights violations and abuses, and then flies to Mexico in his private jet to share high-fives and laughs with Hugo Chavez. Class act.

I'd wager he's also had a thing or two to say about carbon pollution™ whilst jetting about in his CO2-farting private plane. It's the peasants who need to pay to save the planet, donchaknow.

Oh, and if they don't like it, "There should be a bar by which one goes to prison..."

Control wrote:

Sean Penn is a shit head, but he's right.

Now, where's Robin at?

It's quite amusing for him to mention Bob Dylan. The same mr. Zimmerman who accepted what was likely a truckload of money to appear in an underwear commercial.



Most artists whore themselves out at one point or another, and so has Sean Penn. It's a bit rich for him to pretend he is above this.

It's usually not the actor who chooses to be involved in "monkey-fuck-rat movies". It's the agent who dictates if they should do something that pays a bit more money and commercialises the actor in order for more roles to come their way.

Of course, agents knock back a lot of crap because they do have the best interest of the actor at heart, but sometimes the best interest of the actor is clouded by what may secure the actor's career financially and ensure a few extra years of work for the agent.

Unfortunately though, there seems to be a lot more "monkey-fuck-rat movies" than what there should be, hence why some actors get involved with them - it's still a chance to work.

FieldsMan wrote:

It's usually not the actor who chooses to be involved in "monkey-fuck-rat movies". It's the agent who dictates if they should do something that pays a bit more money and commercialises the actor in order for more roles to come their way.

Of course, agents knock back a lot of crap because they do have the best interest of the actor at heart, but sometimes the best interest of the actor is clouded by what may secure the actor's career financially and ensure a few extra years of work for the agent.

Unfortunately though, there seems tobe a lot more "monkey-fuck-rat movies" than what there should be, hence why some actors get involved with them - it's still a chance to work.

I'm not sure what Penn is on about TBF. Auteur cinema has been more or less dead since the early 80s.
The Arnie and Sly action vehicles of the 80s have just been replaced by superhero movies.

The irony of it all is this is from Penn's publicity campaign for GANGSTA SQUAD, which looks just like another monkey-fuck-rat movie glamourising violence (does Penn see himself as some kind of union gangster, like Harvey Weinstein?), criminality (thank you Tarantino, Scorsese and David Chase) and cynically markets the film towards working class black (plus white and latino) kids by sountracking the trailers with hip-hop. All of which has a knock-on effect on society. Further desensitising us, starting with the most vulnerable.

Salomé wrote:

Control wrote:

Sean Penn is a shit head, but he's right.

Now, where's Robin at?

It's quite amusing for him to mention Bob Dylan. The same mr. Zimmerman who accepted what was likely a truckload of money to appear in an underwear commercial.



Most artists whore themselves out at one point or another, and so has Sean Penn. It's a bit rich for him to pretend he is above this.

Also amusing that he mentions DeNiro, who's just been in it for the money for quite some years now.

Largo's Shark wrote:

The irony of it all is this is from Penn's publicity campaign for GANGSTA SQUAD, which looks just like another monkey-fuck-rat movie glamourising violence (does Penn see himself as some kind of union gangster, like Harvey Weinstein?), criminality (thank you Tarantino, Scorsese and David Chase) and cynically markets the film towards working class black (plus white and latino) kids by sountracking the trailers with hip-hop. All of which has a knock-on effect on society. Further desensitising us, starting with the most vulnerable.

No kidding. It looks like THE UNTOUCHABLES for the twitter generation. Everytime I'd go to the movies this trailer would play and I would roll my eyes. Looks so fucking stupid.



Also, as much as I like Penn, he looks horrible in this. Only good thing is Emma Stone.

Not a fan of Ryan Gooselick?