Actor-turned-director Sean Penn refrained from smoking during his return to the spotlight at the Toronto International Film Festival on Sunday, but could have used something to calm his nerves as he repeatedly lashed out at media for distracting him during a news conference.
Kept his cool, kinda
The intense movie star sucked on ice cubes and swore as he met with dozens of reporters to discuss his riveting new film, "Into The Wild," featuring a tour de force performance by newcomer Emile Hirsch.
A police officer stood guard outside the room - an unusual sight that one festival spokeswoman said was due to crowd control, and not because of Penn's controversial appearance at the festival last year.
No smoking at TIFF 2007
While promoting the 2006 drama, "All The King's Men," the actor lit up and smoked at the same hotel, violating a provincial law that forbids smoking indoors. Penn escaped punishment, but the hotel faced more than $600 in fines.
Shutter bugging him
This time around, Penn was cigarette-less but appeared to have trouble focusing on questions, halting the press conference twice to reprimand observers for distracting him in one way or another.
"You can stop taking pictures because I can't think," Penn told photographers as working cameras made clicking noises around him.
"It's the ugliest music in the world, all of that. OK?"
Later, Penn appeared annoyed by background chatter as he tried to focus on a reporter's question.
"What's everybody else talking about? Or are you just interrupting?" Penn said in a calm but forceful tone, his voice trailing off.
Instead of a cigarette, an assistant brought Penn a glass of ice cubes and pop at the start of the press conference.
"Into The Wild," which Penn wrote and directed (he does not act in the film) is based on the Jon Krakauer book of the same name, in which 23-year-old Christopher McCandless abandons his possessions, gives away $24,000 in savings and hitchhikes to Alaska to live in the wilderness.
Realism of utmost importance
Dressed in a black blazer, faded blue jeans and beige construction boots, Penn said a sense of authenticity was important to the film, which was shot at many of the locations McCandless visited.
Hirsch said he prepared for the demanding role (he appears skeletal by the final scenes) with intense endurance training that involved "rigorous, rigorous, rigorous running and hiking."
Sucking the marrow out of life
He also read the books that inspired McCandless - Jack London's "Call of the Wild," and Henry David Thoreau's "Walden" - and spent a lot of time alone.
"I found this kind of moral core that I feel like is within us all that just kind of had some of the dirt wiped off of it," Hirsh said.
"And that was something that I feel like McCandless discovered and loved."
The film also stars William Hurt, Marcia Gay Harden and Catherine Keener, but Penn said it was a challenge to find the right person to play the lead role, admitting that he wasn't too familiar with young actors.
"Frankly, what I was familiar with, and this might be just the embittered old generation looking back at the ... youngsters, but I felt that generally there was a shared weightlessness to most of what I was seeing," said Penn.
"Nobody that moved me, nobody that gave me great hope in the future."
"I wanted to photograph somebody while he was on the cusp of boy to man. I want to watch it happen. I wanted his talent and most of all, I wanted somebody who's weight was their heart."
All those things were captured by Hirsh, said Penn.
Chicken or egg. Director coaches actors, or actors give to directors?
Penn dismissed praise of his directorial turn, saying he's always resented it when people ask directors how they elicit great performances from their actors.
"Doesn't happen," he said, tossing in an expletive for emphasis.
"Directors don't get performances out of actors. Actors give great performances to directors."
"I'm just an organizer of a family and everybody builds this thing. And so, when you have that behind you, you don't look at it as is it hard to get something done? You get your family together and you will it to be done."
- Cassandra Szklarski, Canadian Press
