Sean Penn, the two-time Oscar-winning actor, recently opened up about a long period of disillusionment with his craft. For 15 years, Penn felt a profound sense of misery while making movies, unable to pinpoint the exact cause. He initially blamed problematic scripts and directors, but even when working on projects with great people, the misery persisted. This disillusionment led him to believe that his love for filmmaking might never return.
However, a serendipitous encounter with his neighbor, Dakota Johnson, changed everything. Johnson approached Penn with a script and an invitation to co-star in a film titled “Daddio.” Penn’s initial reaction to the script was one of unreserved excitement, reminiscent of the enthusiasm he felt when he first started in the industry. “No reservations at all. I felt like you would feel getting your first movie,” Penn recalled.
“Daddio,” which is set to hit theaters nationwide on Friday, is not your typical Hollywood film. It is an austere portrayal of a fleeting, serendipitous human connection, a theme that feels increasingly rare in today’s world. The film’s unfiltered frankness is something Penn deeply appreciated, as he believes that contemporary art and societal conversations often lack this quality. “I think we’re stripping whole generations of diversity of behavior and diversity of personality,” he said, acknowledging the importance of sensitivity but cautioning against letting it overshadow reflective thought.
The film follows Girlie (played by Johnson), a woman returning to New York after an out-of-state trip. The story begins with her getting into a cab at JFK airport and ends with her being dropped off at home. The 90 minutes in between are filled with seemingly mundane but revealing conversations between Girlie and her cab driver, Clark (played by Penn).
“Daddio” marks the feature debut of writer-director Christy Hall, who has a background in theater. Hall began working on the script in 2014, inspired partly by her nostalgia for the reality series “Taxicab Confessions.” Penn brings a masculine energy to his role as a brash, foul-mouthed cabbie who ultimately reveals a tender side. Similarly, Johnson’s character, a savvy and successful software engineer, appears to have it all together but is driven by unresolved issues with her father.
“This movie is about the human condition, that there’s two sides to all of us. We’re always contending with our greater angels and our darkest demons. And I’m interested in characters that are always contending with both, because that’s actually the truth,” Hall explained. “Daddio” may test some viewers’ attention spans, but others will be drawn in by the candid and compelling conversations between the two main characters about sex, daddy issues, and being the “other woman.”
Both Penn and Johnson share a common frustration with Hollywood, and this project served as a kind of epiphany for each of them. “I just want to be really in love with what I’m working on and inspired,” Johnson said. She recently came off a press tour for “Madame Web,” a film that was both a critical and commercial flop. Johnson affirmed the criticism of the movie and expressed her reluctance to participate in similar projects in the future.
“This notion of executives, not necessarily creative people, deciding what is going to work in an artistic sense doesn’t actually make sense to me at all,” Johnson said. “I think that a lot of the studios, well streaming platforms mostly, are run by people who don’t even really like movies or watch them.”
Johnson was immediately captivated by the script for “Daddio” and spent years working with Hall through her production company, TeaTime, to get the film financed. After years in limbo and studio executives questioning the film’s appeal due to its lack of action and drama, it was eventually picked up by Sony Pictures Classics.
Johnson hopes to savor the joy she feels coming off this film and to remember it the next time she’s fighting for a project. “I think that humans are craving human connection,” she said. “Maybe it’s because of social media or what we have been sort of dealt in terms of entertainment in the last 5, 10 years. I think algorithms have really [expletive] us in that way. It doesn’t give us the content that I think we subconsciously crave.”
For Penn, “Daddio” has rekindled his love for filmmaking, offering a renewed sense of purpose and joy. The film’s focus on genuine human connection and unfiltered dialogue has not only re-enchanted Penn with the art of making movies but also provided a much-needed reminder of what drew him to the craft in the first place.
As “Daddio” prepares for its nationwide release, both Penn and Johnson are hopeful that audiences will connect with the film’s raw and honest portrayal of human relationships. For Penn, the experience has been nothing short of transformative, proving that sometimes, all it takes is the right project and the right people to reignite a long-lost passion.
Source: Associated Press
