Name: Sean Penn on Letterman, September 11, 1991
Uploaded: 2019-10-25T02:39:22.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Sean Penn on Letterman, September 11, 1991' from Don Giller on Comedy Buff. Published 2019-10-25. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Sean Penn on Letterman, September 11, 1991' from Don Giller on Comedy Buff. Published 2019-10-25. Transcript available.

How many films have you done since you've been acting professionally?
I think about nine.
Started early, as a kid, really.
How old was your first film appearance?
My first film was Bad Boys with Sean Penn, and I was, I think I was 18 or 19.
Kind of a prophetic film for Mr. Penn, wasn't it?
No, no, no.
But, I mean, he's doing time, or he will be soon, don't you think?
Do you know him very well?
Sort of.
I think he's great, and so I would send him letters, but I usually don't hear
much back from him.
He'll be reading them to his cellmates from now on.
No, don't say that.
I'm sorry, but it's sad.
It's sad, but he, well, anyway, is he a nice man to work with?
Yeah, he was great.
He was really nice.
Was he intimidating or scary?
No, he was very sweet, and he worked hard, and I watched him, and he just, he
was very, you know, concentrated.
I got a lot from being around him.
I didn't feel intimidated by him, but.
Well, no, I always enjoyed what he was able to do in films.
I just think it's a shame that this other problem had to rear its ugly head,
don't you?
Yeah.
I don't know.
Well, no, no, what do you mean that you don't know?
I don't mean to be making fun of him.
I know.
I'm just sort of commenting on the circumstances.
I know, but I mean, this last thing, I mean, all right, you know that he gets
upset if his picture gets taken, right?
It's sort of known that that bothers him.
So this guy on his movie set takes his picture.
Right.
And then he said, this is what I heard, he said to the guy, don't do it, right?
This is Sean talking now to the photographer.
Yeah, yeah, he said to the other guy, don't take my picture.
Right.
You know, he was getting upset.
And so what did the guy do?
Took his picture.
Right.
So what happened?
Sean punched it.
There you go.
Now that you've explained it, I understand perfectly.
It makes sense to me.
But I think the problem here is we have to encourage people to mollify their
behavior regardless as to what extreme it may reach.
Don't you think?
That's true.
I mean, okay, so, but I think he had a history of punching people before he
punched this guy.
He did!
So he should think to himself, hmm, if I punch one more guy, maybe I'll go to
jail.
No, that guy should have thought to himself, he punches people out, I better
not to...
But other people shouldn't have to be responsible for the actions of Sean Penn.
I guess that's true.
I have to stick out for him because I think he's great, you know?
See, well, see, I don't have any complaints with his acting ability.
I've seen several films in which, including Bad Boys, which I thought was a
very powerful, gripping performance, and others that I've enjoyed as well.
I just think that it's a shame that if he understands that he has this problem
that he doesn't take care of it.
Okay, I understand your point.
Yeah.
Allie Sheedy.
Allie Sheedy.
She had a point about Sean Penn.
The point was?
That if you were a photographer, you know that if you were to take a picture of
Sean Penn, he's probably going to punch you.
You know that in the past, anybody who takes a picture of him, he punches you.
So if you take a picture of him, it's really your fault.
That's right.
That he punches you.
That's right.
You're running the risk then.
If you go ahead and you violate that little personal coda, you might get your
lights turned out.
That's right.
So it's really the fault of the photographer.
Exactly.
Exactly, Paul.
Once again, you have put it so beautifully.
Well, thank you.
I think Allie put it for all of us.
By the way, Paul, I didn't know you played tambourine.
I play a little tambourine.
And castanets.
And castanets as well.
It's a stretch, but you know.
Very nicely done.
Thank you very much.
Now, let's just talk a little bit about your family.
I guess people know the family you're from, or about you and your brothers and
so forth a bit?
Some do, yeah.
All right, we'll tell those who don't.
You apparently do.
Yeah, I know a little bit about it, yeah.
Your brother is one of your brothers, Sean.
Yeah.
And the other brother is?
Christopher.
Christopher.
Both actors.
Anybody else in the family?
Any other brothers or sisters?
No, that's it.
Just three.
So now this is an amazing thing, isn't it?
That out of this one family, you get three very, very talented people.
Um, I don't know.
Is it?
Yeah, I guess so.
Yeah, I think so.
Did you get along well with these guys?
Um, yeah.
We're still a very close family, so, yeah.
How old were you the first time Sean punched somebody?
I'm sorry.
Go ahead, punch me if you feel better.
Our first guest tonight is the writer and director of a motion picture that
opens on September 20th.
It's entitled The Indian Runner.
Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome, and it's a pleasure to have him with us
on the program, Sean Penn.
Sean.
Thank you very much for being on the show.
Would you like a soda?
I'd like to see him run again.
Yeah, it's pretty exciting, wasn't it?
Well, right by the dressing room.
Yeah.
Uh, you know, I remember a long time ago, you and I lived in the same
neighborhood.
Yeah, I saw you in the bank once.
Yeah.
You know, I used to go to the market, and, uh, I was living with a girl in a
house out there
and a couple of dogs at the time, and it would always be an exciting day or
week for us
when we would see you pull up at the market in your pickup truck.
Well, I can match that, because I, I, I still use your house as a tour stop
when I bring people around my old neighborhood.
Dave used to live there?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Um, you know, let's see, uh, not too long ago, your girlfriend, the mother of
your son, was here?
Child, uh, daughter.
Daughter.
And your brother has been here a couple of times?
Yes.
That's right.
Michael?
Mm-hmm.
Yeah?
Uh, your ex-wife has been here a couple of times?
Mm-hmm.
Yeah?
Now, is, is, there was a time when, when I would occasionally make jokes about
the difficulties
you were having on the show, and I was wondering if the reason, if the reason
you hadn't been
on the show before now was because you were, you were mad at me.
No, no, no, no, the reason I hadn't been on the show just because I think that,
that, that,
that, that, to talk about the business of acting is something difficult to
articulate was,
uh, it's much more tangible with directing, but in terms of that, I felt vindicated
when I saw
the Marlon Brando interview and he did an imitation of you.
Oh, yeah, but did you, what was that all about?
Martin Brand, or Marlon Brando was making fun of me?
Was that what that was?
Well, it's, you know, still part of the highest form of flattery now that he
did you.
Yeah, I guess, I guess so.
If you have to laugh, if you think, Christ, I can't stand it anymore today, I
have to, I have to get a laugh.
Right.
Who would, what video do you buy?
Um, well, you know what?
I, uh, I like David Letterman.
Do you ever watch David Letterman?
Yeah, I do.
Hi, Dave.
I've been an admirer of his for some time.
Dave doesn't do that.
Yeah, but I do it at the mention of his name.
Now, I want to talk about the directing and stuff in a second, but let's, let's
go back to that period of your life, if you don't mind.
You were having a lot of trouble.
I mean, a lot of trouble, and in fact, some of the trouble took you away for
about a month.
Was that right?
You were actually, you were in the, the L.A. County lockup for 30 days or so,
right?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Now, when you look back on that time of your life, how do you regard that?
What does that seem like to you now?
Do you think, I made some mistakes and I can learn from those, or it was just
bad luck, or what was I thinking?
I mean, what does it seem to you now that that was?
Well, I can't say that I have any particular regrets about any of, any of that
time period.
And in retrospect, it was a fairly short time period when it was so viewed by
the press and so on.
Yeah, yeah.
They came down on it.
But just, just one more transition in life, I suppose.
Now, do you, do you ever see yourself going through that kind of trouble again?
Oh, God, I hope not.
Yeah.
But it is the kind of thing where, where you get into a fight with one person,
and then all
of a sudden, situations are presented that would not have been there had the
first one not occurred.
Yeah, there's a snowball effect to any of that stuff.
And particularly when you get caught up in, in, on any level in the legal
system, as it were,
then once you've got some, a, a tail on it, then you tend to get in trouble.
Yeah.
Have you yourself ever been beaten up?
Yeah.
Really?
You have been beaten up?
Oh, yeah, yeah.
How many fights do you think you've been in?
As, as an adult.
Now, I'm not talking about high school stuff, but as an adult.
Not counting the one here tonight.
I'll tell you why I'm asking.
I'll tell you why I'm asking.
I was in two fights.
Yeah.
And I lost both of them, and they both, they just scared me silly, and I said
to myself,
well, that's it for fighting.
Well, I think fighting's an upsetting experience.
Yeah.
Do you, do you feel badly after you've had, or after you would have one of
those?
Well, even if it's justified, you feel nauseous afterward, even if you win.
Yeah.
Yeah.
But, um, if you have any sense of, uh, caring about people at all, you do.
Yeah.
Um, but, uh, but a lot of, a lot of that stuff was fairly, I mean, I'm not
going to tell you
I'm going to heaven, but I would say that a lot of that stuff was pretty well
blown out
of proportion.
Yeah.
I can imagine.
What, what little I know of life in the public eye, I can imagine that it was
blown out of
proportion.
Um, and, and when you, it looks like you have gotten the better of a person
than everybody.
There are going to be lawsuits, and it's going to be in the newspapers, but if
you're ever
in an encounter where you're on the short end of things, you never hear about
it,
right?
Yeah, I don't tend to be one to get into lawsuits that I insigneate.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Waste of time.
All right.
Well, anyway, I, I appreciate your indulgence on this topic, but I think if
people are, you
know, curious about that sort of thing.
Mm.
Yeah.
Um, and, and as far as, uh, Madonna goes, do you, do you, have you seen her
lately?
Do you have, uh, a friendly relationship with her now, or, uh?
Well, I'll, I'll tell you a secret.
The fact of the matter is, as I was talking about before, uh, so things being
blown out of
proportion, that was all a rumor she and I had never met.
See?
There you go.
I knew it had to be something like that.
Uh, we'll do a commercial, and then we'll be back here with Sean Penn.
We have a man tonight who claims to be the world's most versatile man.
James E. Macy, Massey, uh, senior.
Uh, now when did you, uh, what was the, behind the decision to stop acting?
Have you stopped acting altogether, or just stopped acting temporarily?
Uh, well, I'd say, uh, you know, never say never, but, uh, I, I just got to a
point where
I realized I wasn't enjoying it at all.
And, and then, uh, having directed a movie, had such a good time doing that,
that I think
I'll try and stick with it.
Yeah.
What, what about acting do you think you began not to enjoy so well?
I just found it, uh, sort of, uh, emotionally torturous.
I think all actors have a different way of working depending upon who the, who
the actor
is, and there's some wonderful actors for whom, uh, it's a very accessible
process, and for
me, it, uh, it was, uh, like tearing oneself apart.
Mm-hmm.
Uh, do you, do you think that there would have been an easier way for you to
accomplish the
same quality of work?
I don't think so.
I think what you latch onto and the thing that, that you go after, and, and for
me,
it was acting with the, uh, uh, uh, uh, the, the challenges that are most
fascinating to
you, and it was, and then making the choices that you make as an actor is then,
uh, the way
to achieve those choices, uh, was very difficult for me, and you don't want to
change, change
them because it's difficult.
Now, when you're directing this movie, uh, Indian Runner, and, and you see a
scene transpiring
and you think to yourself, well, that's good, but if it were me, I, I would
have, I would
have behaved a different way in front of the camera, and then do you think, oh,
damn, I'm
sorry I made this choice?
No, well, I, I have a hell of a cast in the movie, and they, uh, were much more
suited for
the parts they were playing than I would have been.
Um, so, no, I think that, uh, I responded less as an actor and more as a writer
most of
the time watching this stuff and being, uh, excited and surprised by what I was,
uh, seeing.
I generally, I generally have a, I mean, when I went into it, I went into it
with a bottom
line in terms of the storytelling, uh, of the movie, and, uh, and then I'll try
to let
the, uh, the other people, be it crew or cast, and make the embellishments for
me.
Yeah.
But isn't there, uh, some part of it, like if it were me, if I was an actor or
something,
maybe once a week or once a month, I'd race home, and I'd close the doors, and
I'd just
scream as loud as I could, I'm in a movie!
You know, it would, it would be exciting to know
that people are paying money and sitting there eating stale popcorn, looking at
my goofy face
on the big screen.
That would be, no, no, no, granted, that's not all there is to it, but that
would be a thrill.
Now, was there a certain part of you that, uh, you're, are you going to miss
that?
Well, I guess you can always go back to it, can't you?
Well, I think for me, it was a little bit different.
It was, it was, uh, going home once a week and saying, oh, I'm in a movie.
I see, so it's just kind of the other side of that.
Yeah.
Uh, all right, let's talk about the, uh, the movie that you have, uh, directed
here.
What, what should we know?
I guess we're going to look at a clip of it here.
Uh, well, first of all, let's talk about how you got to be from an actor to
writing your
own script to getting to, uh, direct your movie.
Uh, I mean, people know you're a great actor, but that doesn't necessarily
follow that, oh,
great, we can trust him with a 10, 12, uh, 15 million dollar budget.
So how does that happen that you get to be the director here?
Well, I had been writing for a long time, and then when I decided I wanted to
direct
something, I wrote this particular one specifically to direct it.
Uh, um, it, it happened in a, much easier than it, than, than it might again,
or might have
been any other time, and it had really to do with a producer named Tom Mount
and, uh, Don
Phillips, who, uh, Don initially read the screenplay and, and, and wanted to do
it and
brought it to Tom, and he was in a position to finance it, and it just went.
Uh, but that's unusual.
I think it just went to the right people at the right time.
Yeah, and, and because it's unusual, because it's the first time, was there
added pressure
for you?
Did you, did you ever really, really get concerned about, oh, man, what have I
done here?
Or stepped off a curb?
No, I, I was confident that, in, in terms of the story that I wanted to tell, I
had the
images in my head, and I knew how to, to achieve them, whether or not that
translates to another
story, but, uh, and, and that was really the only, uh, uh, prerogative, in a
sense.
And, and this is based on the, the Bruce Springsteen song, um...
Highway Patrolman.
Highway Patrolman.
And you heard the song once, and, and all of a sudden you think to yourself,
this works
out to be a pretty good film.
Is that essentially how it goes?
Well, the song hit me on it, it was a very strong, visceral level, and I
thought that,
uh, that, that it was cinematic in a, in a way, and then over the years, the,
the pictures
just coming, kept coming into the head, and eventually it added up to what I
would have
considered a long form, and so I banged it on a typewriter and went and shot it.
Okay, okay, and, and you had no trouble getting the rights from Bruce to do
this?
Well, I had, I wrote the script on spec without asking ahead of time, because I,
I know that
he had been approached many times for, for the ideas of things, and I thought
it would
be a better situation to just go ahead and take the chance.
I wanted to write it whether I got it done or not.
And so I went ahead, and so when he was in a position to approve or disapprove
of it being
done, uh, I, I was able to give him a script that he could, he could make a
decision.
And he thought, okay.
Yeah.
Yeah, I'd like to be in a film with him.
He and me, me and Bruce, maybe a buddy picture.
Me and Bruce joined the army, something like that.
Um, so, Sean, now we're gonna see, uh, we're gonna look at it now?
Yes.
Okay, do you know what we're gonna take a look at here from the film?
Yeah, it's a, it's a scene, uh, towards the, towards the end of the story,
where the, uh,
older brother is, uh, confronted his younger brother on, uh, some, some, uh,
issues of weakness
in him that he thinks that he recognizes.
This is the essential conflict, a good brother and a bad brother, right?
In a black and white sense, yeah.
Okay, all right, here we go, uh, Indian Runner, uh, directed by Sean Penn.
Well, there you go.
Let's see here.
September 20th, the, the film opens all across the country, New York, L.A., how
does it work?
No, it's a, uh, they call it a platform release, where it's two theaters in Los
Angeles, two
in New York, one in Toronto, and then two weeks later, 12 more cities, and then
it's up
to the movie.
I hope it doesn't matter.
Are you nervous now about this?
No, well, I've taken it to a couple of festivals at this point, so, uh, the,
the big, sitting
in a theater and, and watching it with a group for the first time has already
happened, and
I, you know, I certainly hope the best for it, but, uh, I'm a little bit on
with it.
Well, uh, good luck, and congratulations, and, uh, again, thank you very much
for being
here tonight.
I really, really appreciate it, and it's, uh, we look forward to it for a long
time.
Sean Penn, kids.
We'll be right back.

Sean Penn on Letterman, September 11, 1991

How many films have you done since you've been acting professionally?
I think about nine.
Started early, as a kid, really.
How old was your first film appearance?
My first film was Bad Boys with Sean Penn, and I was, I think I was 18 or 19.
Kind of a prophetic film for Mr. Penn, wasn't it?
No, no, no.
But, I mean, he's doing time, or he will be soon, don't you think?
Do you know him very well?
Sort of.
I think he's great, and so I would send him letters, but I usually don't hear
much back from him.
He'll be reading them to his cellmates from now on.
No, don't say that.
I'm sorry, but it's sad.
It's sad, but he, well, anyway, is he a nice man to work with?
Yeah, he was great.
He was really nice.
Was he intimidating or scary?
No, he was very sweet, and he worked hard, and I watched him, and he just, he
was very, you know, concentrated.
I got a lot from being around him.
I didn't feel intimidated by him, but.
Well, no, I always enjoyed what he was able to do in films.
I just think it's a shame that this other problem had to rear its ugly head,
don't you?
Yeah.
I don't know.
Well, no, no, what do you mean that you don't know?
I don't mean to be making fun of him.
I know.
I'm just sort of commenting on the circumstances.
I know, but I mean, this last thing, I mean, all right, you know that he gets
upset if his picture gets taken, right?
It's sort of known that that bothers him.
So this guy on his movie set takes his picture.
Right.
And then he said, this is what I heard, he said to the guy, don't do it, right?
This is Sean talking now to the photographer.
Yeah, yeah, he said to the other guy, don't take my picture.
Right.
You know, he was getting upset.
And so what did the guy do?
Took his picture.
Right.
So what happened?
Sean punched it.
There you go.
Now that you've explained it, I understand perfectly.
It makes sense to me.
But I think the problem here is we have to encourage people to mollify their
behavior regardless as to what extreme it may reach.
Don't you think?
That's true.
I mean, okay, so, but I think he had a history of punching people before he
punched this guy.
He did!
So he should think to himself, hmm, if I punch one more guy, maybe I'll go to
jail.
No, that guy should have thought to himself, he punches people out, I better
not to...
But other people shouldn't have to be responsible for the actions of Sean Penn.
I guess that's true.
I have to stick out for him because I think he's great, you know?
See, well, see, I don't have any complaints with his acting ability.
I've seen several films in which, including Bad Boys, which I thought was a
very powerful, gripping performance, and others that I've enjoyed as well.
I just think that it's a shame that if he understands that he has this problem
that he doesn't take care of it.
Okay, I understand your point.
Yeah.
Allie Sheedy.
Allie Sheedy.
She had a point about Sean Penn.
The point was?
That if you were a photographer, you know that if you were to take a picture of
Sean Penn, he's probably going to punch you.
You know that in the past, anybody who takes a picture of him, he punches you.
So if you take a picture of him, it's really your fault.
That's right.
That he punches you.
That's right.
You're running the risk then.
If you go ahead and you violate that little personal coda, you might get your
lights turned out.
That's right.
So it's really the fault of the photographer.
Exactly.
Exactly, Paul.
Once again, you have put it so beautifully.
Well, thank you.
I think Allie put it for all of us.
By the way, Paul, I didn't know you played tambourine.
I play a little tambourine.
And castanets.
And castanets as well.
It's a stretch, but you know.
Very nicely done.
Thank you very much.
Now, let's just talk a little bit about your family.
I guess people know the family you're from, or about you and your brothers and
so forth a bit?
Some do, yeah.
All right, we'll tell those who don't.
You apparently do.
Yeah, I know a little bit about it, yeah.
Your brother is one of your brothers, Sean.
Yeah.
And the other brother is?
Christopher.
Christopher.
Both actors.
Anybody else in the family?
Any other brothers or sisters?
No, that's it.
Just three.
So now this is an amazing thing, isn't it?
That out of this one family, you get three very, very talented people.
Um, I don't know.
Is it?
Yeah, I guess so.
Yeah, I think so.
Did you get along well with these guys?
Um, yeah.
We're still a very close family, so, yeah.
How old were you the first time Sean punched somebody?
I'm sorry.
Go ahead, punch me if you feel better.
Our first guest tonight is the writer and director of a motion picture that
opens on September 20th.
It's entitled The Indian Runner.
Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome, and it's a pleasure to have him with us
on the program, Sean Penn.
Sean.
Thank you very much for being on the show.
Would you like a soda?
I'd like to see him run again.
Yeah, it's pretty exciting, wasn't it?
Well, right by the dressing room.
Yeah.
Uh, you know, I remember a long time ago, you and I lived in the same
neighborhood.
Yeah, I saw you in the bank once.
Yeah.
You know, I used to go to the market, and, uh, I was living with a girl in a
house out there
and a couple of dogs at the time, and it would always be an exciting day or
week for us
when we would see you pull up at the market in your pickup truck.
Well, I can match that, because I, I, I still use your house as a tour stop
when I bring people around my old neighborhood.
Dave used to live there?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Um, you know, let's see, uh, not too long ago, your girlfriend, the mother of
your son, was here?
Child, uh, daughter.
Daughter.
And your brother has been here a couple of times?
Yes.
That's right.
Michael?
Mm-hmm.
Yeah?
Uh, your ex-wife has been here a couple of times?
Mm-hmm.
Yeah?
Now, is, is, there was a time when, when I would occasionally make jokes about
the difficulties
you were having on the show, and I was wondering if the reason, if the reason
you hadn't been
on the show before now was because you were, you were mad at me.
No, no, no, no, the reason I hadn't been on the show just because I think that,
that, that,
that, that, to talk about the business of acting is something difficult to
articulate was,
uh, it's much more tangible with directing, but in terms of that, I felt vindicated
when I saw
the Marlon Brando interview and he did an imitation of you.
Oh, yeah, but did you, what was that all about?
Martin Brand, or Marlon Brando was making fun of me?
Was that what that was?
Well, it's, you know, still part of the highest form of flattery now that he
did you.
Yeah, I guess, I guess so.
If you have to laugh, if you think, Christ, I can't stand it anymore today, I
have to, I have to get a laugh.
Right.
Who would, what video do you buy?
Um, well, you know what?
I, uh, I like David Letterman.
Do you ever watch David Letterman?
Yeah, I do.
Hi, Dave.
I've been an admirer of his for some time.
Dave doesn't do that.
Yeah, but I do it at the mention of his name.
Now, I want to talk about the directing and stuff in a second, but let's, let's
go back to that period of your life, if you don't mind.
You were having a lot of trouble.
I mean, a lot of trouble, and in fact, some of the trouble took you away for
about a month.
Was that right?
You were actually, you were in the, the L.A. County lockup for 30 days or so,
right?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Now, when you look back on that time of your life, how do you regard that?
What does that seem like to you now?
Do you think, I made some mistakes and I can learn from those, or it was just
bad luck, or what was I thinking?
I mean, what does it seem to you now that that was?
Well, I can't say that I have any particular regrets about any of, any of that
time period.
And in retrospect, it was a fairly short time period when it was so viewed by
the press and so on.
Yeah, yeah.
They came down on it.
But just, just one more transition in life, I suppose.
Now, do you, do you ever see yourself going through that kind of trouble again?
Oh, God, I hope not.
Yeah.
But it is the kind of thing where, where you get into a fight with one person,
and then all
of a sudden, situations are presented that would not have been there had the
first one not occurred.
Yeah, there's a snowball effect to any of that stuff.
And particularly when you get caught up in, in, on any level in the legal
system, as it were,
then once you've got some, a, a tail on it, then you tend to get in trouble.
Yeah.
Have you yourself ever been beaten up?
Yeah.
Really?
You have been beaten up?
Oh, yeah, yeah.
How many fights do you think you've been in?
As, as an adult.
Now, I'm not talking about high school stuff, but as an adult.
Not counting the one here tonight.
I'll tell you why I'm asking.
I'll tell you why I'm asking.
I was in two fights.
Yeah.
And I lost both of them, and they both, they just scared me silly, and I said
to myself,
well, that's it for fighting.
Well, I think fighting's an upsetting experience.
Yeah.
Do you, do you feel badly after you've had, or after you would have one of
those?
Well, even if it's justified, you feel nauseous afterward, even if you win.
Yeah.
Yeah.
But, um, if you have any sense of, uh, caring about people at all, you do.
Yeah.
Um, but, uh, but a lot of, a lot of that stuff was fairly, I mean, I'm not
going to tell you
I'm going to heaven, but I would say that a lot of that stuff was pretty well
blown out
of proportion.
Yeah.
I can imagine.
What, what little I know of life in the public eye, I can imagine that it was
blown out of
proportion.
Um, and, and when you, it looks like you have gotten the better of a person
than everybody.
There are going to be lawsuits, and it's going to be in the newspapers, but if
you're ever
in an encounter where you're on the short end of things, you never hear about
it,
right?
Yeah, I don't tend to be one to get into lawsuits that I insigneate.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Waste of time.
All right.
Well, anyway, I, I appreciate your indulgence on this topic, but I think if
people are, you
know, curious about that sort of thing.
Mm.
Yeah.
Um, and, and as far as, uh, Madonna goes, do you, do you, have you seen her
lately?
Do you have, uh, a friendly relationship with her now, or, uh?
Well, I'll, I'll tell you a secret.
The fact of the matter is, as I was talking about before, uh, so things being
blown out of
proportion, that was all a rumor she and I had never met.
See?
There you go.
I knew it had to be something like that.
Uh, we'll do a commercial, and then we'll be back here with Sean Penn.
We have a man tonight who claims to be the world's most versatile man.
James E. Macy, Massey, uh, senior.
Uh, now when did you, uh, what was the, behind the decision to stop acting?
Have you stopped acting altogether, or just stopped acting temporarily?
Uh, well, I'd say, uh, you know, never say never, but, uh, I, I just got to a
point where
I realized I wasn't enjoying it at all.
And, and then, uh, having directed a movie, had such a good time doing that,
that I think
I'll try and stick with it.
Yeah.
What, what about acting do you think you began not to enjoy so well?
I just found it, uh, sort of, uh, emotionally torturous.
I think all actors have a different way of working depending upon who the, who
the actor
is, and there's some wonderful actors for whom, uh, it's a very accessible
process, and for
me, it, uh, it was, uh, like tearing oneself apart.
Mm-hmm.
Uh, do you, do you think that there would have been an easier way for you to
accomplish the
same quality of work?
I don't think so.
I think what you latch onto and the thing that, that you go after, and, and for
me,
it was acting with the, uh, uh, uh, uh, the, the challenges that are most
fascinating to
you, and it was, and then making the choices that you make as an actor is then,
uh, the way
to achieve those choices, uh, was very difficult for me, and you don't want to
change, change
them because it's difficult.
Now, when you're directing this movie, uh, Indian Runner, and, and you see a
scene 