TEN QUESTIONS WITH
The Oscar-winning actor, director and activist on meeting Putin and Zelensky — and hating red carpets
A Hollywood fixture since the 1980s, Sean Penn has won two Oscars, for his performances in Mystic River and Milk, and directed films such as The Crossing Guard, The Pledge, Into the Wild and Flag Day. Off screen, he’s known for his activism and often controversial interventions in world politics — with visits to Iraq, Cuba and Ukraine and the scenes of natural disasters — not to mention his marriages to Madonna and Robin Wright. Now the 63-year-old Californian is playing veteran paramedic Gene Rutkovsky in the Amazon Prime Video movie Black Flies…
You did ride-alongs with real paramedics to prepare for Black Flies. Were there any patients who got under your skin?
Two elderly women, who both had a respiratory problem. But on the way to hospital in the ambulance, it turned out they didn’t really have a respiratory problem. They were just lonely. It takes longer to figure out how to help that. Do I hug this old lady? Is she going to be appalled? What do you do? Whereas somebody gets shot or stabbed, you’ve got to get pressure on that and get them to help, right?
Did you really drive the ambulance in the film?
I did a lot of the driving – a lot of it is fast. It’s a big beast! They’re heavy friggin’ things!
Was it a particularly stressful shoot?
Well, I can’t say what impact it had on me, but I’m sure most frontline responders – police, ambulance drivers, whatever – will say the same thing: it’s very, very seamlessly accurate. The director [Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire] was very much a devotee of the pressure he puts on the actor, in terms of all the mechanics of what has to happen in a single shot.
In 2022, you were in Ukraine filming documentary Superpower, about President Volodymyr Zelensky and the country’s history, when Putin invaded. What was that experience like?
That courage... My experience in Ukraine was life-changing, in the sense that I wake up every morning loving life. Just like, there’s no more time. It’s a sacred duty to appreciate the gift of it. Because life doesn’t have to be a grind, right? We are privileged. I go to bed every night pretty excited about tomorrow. But that took me a long time to get to. I don’t even know why. I had a very happy childhood, great parents. I’ve talked to many specialists and they all want it to come back to my parents!
What was your impression of President Zelensky?
This guy was singularly dete
