Wednesday, April 22, 2009

I Thought Robin Wright Penn Was Cool But I Was Wrong

I have a gift subscription to Interview magazine. It's really cute because the person who gave it to me doesn't even know it's slightly pornographic. I squint when I look at it until I get to the interviews. Today I read all about the actress who plays Hermione Granger. What a doll. I like her. I say that so you won't think I hate celebrities indiscriminately.

Remember Robin Wright Penn from the soap opera Santa Barbara? And then there was The Princess Bride and Unbreakable. I loved those movies. Now she's married to Sean Penn and does mostly artsy indie thinky sad movies. I have always assumed she's cool. She is interviewed in Interview by Francis Ford Coppola, who asks pretty interesting questions. I mean, I'd eavesdrop on a conversation between the Godfather and Buttercup if I could.

So I'm reading this article and I want to be intrigued. I expect to be intrigued. And Robin Wright Penn spouts off the same type of bashizznet I hear all the time from Gwyneth Paltrow. Poor Robin's dancing instruction ended when she moved from LA to San Diego. Even Coppola was confused, "You couldn't take dance lessons in SanDiego?" I guess it's the something something quality of the arts something blah.

Then Robin describes her teenage self as a quirky outsider without any friends. Also and incidentally, she was homecoming queen. Isn't it always the quirky outsiders with no friends who become homecoming queen?

The article ends inevitably with these two talking about acting and taking risks. I don't act (except for my role as a clumsy, lovable, honey-seeking bear in 3rd grade), but I don't disparage acting. I want to know the secrets of acting so I can just act poised. Surely Francis Ford Coppola and Robin Wright Penn have something useful to tell me about their craft. Get this. Robin tells Francis (with regard to acting) the story of a person walking on a beach and there's these two sets of footprints ya see, and looking back over the hard times there's only one set of footprints and the main person is all "where did the other footprints go during the hard times I was alone that is so sad" but really that's when they were being carried.

And Francis Ford Coppola, who had Michael Corleone assasinate the heads of the 5 other families during his nephew's baptism in total awesomeness, replies, "I'm 70 and I've been doing this for 45 years and I just recently got this understanding."

I'm sorry, but even the most humorless Mormon isn't that lame.


  1. For real? The footprints in the sand story? Wow.

    I subscribed to Interview and probably a lot of other slightly pornographic magazines when I was 13ish.

  2. no kidding

    reminds me of some lyrics from
    Boom Boom Pow that go

    I'm so 3000 & 8
    You're so 2000 & late

    squint your ears while listening to that song.

  3. "Isn't it always the quirky outsiders with no friends who become homecoming queen?"

    You had me LOL with that one!

  4. Sean Penn is going to be in a movie about a guy from Beaver, UT. Just a random tidbit that might be as interesting (probably more) than that article.

  5. I always think the quirky ones are going to be interesting, and they rarely are. disappointing. Come on, the footprints poem?
    But you have made me want to take a look at that magazine!

  6. I did assume she had to be a little bit crazy, to still be married to Sean Penn, who quite blatantly does whatever he wants with whomever he wants just because he's a super awesome actor. Or is that over? I don't know what day it is.

  7. She was probably trying to decide between sharing that story and the one about the starfish, which I also read on the back of a Goldfish bag.

  8. Where would the rest of the world be without "forwards" so that they can be in the know like all the Mormons who had all the volumes of "Especially for Mormons?"

    What did Mormons do before EFM??

  9. Anonymous9:23 AM

    I sat next to Robin in a spa on Oahu two years ago. She was itty bitty and gorgeous. Then I was on the beach with my fam, and she and Sean and their kids camped out next to us. It was kind of weird!

  10. I was a huge Santa Barbara fan. I remember when it premeired and all of my other pre-teen soap opera watching friends and I nearly died of excitement. She was "Kelly" and spent a lot of time crying about her childhood boyfriend Joe and wearing bathing suits. They all wore a lot of bathing suits actually - since that's what people in CA do.

    I also LOVED her in Forrest Gump. To this day I still have no idea how Sally Field could win an Oscar for her role as Forrest Gump's mother - but Robin Wright's breathtaking performance as troubled Jenny didn't even get a nod.

    But beyond that I haven't given her much thought. For a long time I didn't even know if she was in movies anymore. But you are right - based on some of her more recent roles, you would expect her to be more edgy and interesting. I guess it was all acting...

    And awkward, outsider homecoming queens...give me a break!

  11. I really like your blog. This post was especially entertaining.

  12. Linds--The movie that Penn shot about that guy in Beaver was 25 years ago (they weren't too clear about that in the radio show.)

    We did, in fact, elect a quirky outsider to be our homecoming queen.

    But she was also incredibly gorgeous. And we were so Grunge.

  13. Deep. (You, not them.)

    You're much cooler, by the way.

  14. First post from a long time lurker but this got me laughing. I'm of the opinion if you want to learn everything wrong, listen to the Hollywood acting community.

  15. that's horrible, but damn I love Princess Bride!

  16. Sad. I always thought she would be fantastically cool, too.

  17. One year at the Sundance festival I watched a short about a little boy who was crossing a draw bridge to get to his father, the bridge operator, just as a commuter train was approaching. Know where this is going?

    During Q&A after the show someone asked the film maker (who was obviously not a native Utahn) where he came up with the idea for the film, and he actually had the nerve to provide an answer!


  18. More evidence that good acting is correlated to something other than intellect.

  19. I actually like reading stuff like this--just when I start inflating that celebrity bubble--POP! It's very good for the soul.

  20. Me too, not a general celebrity hater, but wanting to commiserate about Ms. Robin Wright-Penn for so long. I feel less alone today. When I see that she is in a movie (always one with promise, that an artsy guy lke me would want to see) I groan with disappointment. Watching her act is like sucking on cardboard. Really, they could just subtitle her parts and it would have the same effect.

    That movie she was in with Jack Nicholson, "vanished" or something, he was great and there she was being outperformed by the set of bad teeth they gave her. Her range includes stoic and teary. She has been very clever about choosing interesting roles and thereby getting a leg up on the whole "interesting" misconception about her. Princess Bride was what it was because of clever writing wrapped in good actors, we all (the guys) fell in love with her then. That's how we know we actually gave her a shot now that we have fallen out of love.

  21. Did the Interview mention that she and Mr. Penn have recently split? Perhaps she wasn't cool enough for him, or vice versa. She's now back to Robin Wright.


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