SERIOUSLY GOOD
Robin Wright Penn, expert at intense drama, wouldn't mind a little comic relief
Why is Robin Wright Penn laughing?
The actress is known for playing serious women in serious movies - like the drama "Sorry, Haters," opening Wednesday. She's married to serious-as-hell Sean Penn. And she knows that in her business, "seriousness" is marketable only about one month out of the year.

But Wright Penn - 39 years old and best known to audiences for her sweet portrayal of Buttercup in "The Princess Bride" (1987) and her bittersweet Jenny in "Forrest Gump" (1994) - waves away any hint of heaviness with a wry smile and a self-mocking sense of humor.

"Choosing these kinds of intense roles is becoming sort of a bad habit," she says of a recent run that includes the HBO film "Empire Falls"; a stunning segment of the short-film collection "Nine Lives"; "White Oleander," and "Unbreakable."
"Playing the average manic-depressive woman who's hitting 40 - yep, that'd be me," she snickers. "Bring it on!"

"But I think what it is, really, is that [Hollywood] sees you do certain roles and says, 'Okay, that's her, let's cast her again and again as the same thing.' Then you wind up saying, 'I'd like to do something else,' and they whine, 'But whyyy?"
Yet fans of her serious side will be happy to know her latest turn in this arena is a tour de force: In "Sorry, Haters," Wright Penn plays an edgy New York career woman with "personality issues" whose chance encounter with a Muslim cab driver (Abdellatif Kechiche) brings out the worst in both of them.

Mainly a two-character drama, "Sorry, Haters" is not what it seems at first glance; it deals with many issues, including how 9/11 made people feel powerless, the disturbing attachment some people have to grieving, and the way New York can trample dreams both large and small.
"I read the script and thought, 'This is really good, but it scares the s- out of me,'" she says. "But it was so invigorating. And to film it all in 15 days in New York, hanging out on the curb between takes ... There was no downtime to doubt yourself."

Wright Penn was born in Dallas and raised in San Diego, the daughter of a single mother who sold cosmetics. She began modeling at 15, and joined the soap opera "Santa Barbara" in 1984 before "The Princess Bride" showcased her long locks and storybook looks. With her next major film, 1990's "State of Grace," about the Irish Mob in Hell's Kitchen, Wright Penn turned her attention to more dramatic projects. But 1994's blockbuster "Forrest Gump" (in which she played Tom Hanks' doomed love) brought more opportunities for high-profile work - which she promptly turned down.

"I could have done [blockbusters] ... I was offered "Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves' [she backed out because she was pregnant] and the third 'Batman' movie [a role that eventually
Robin Wright Penn as Phoebe, a troubled New Yorker in the new post-9/11 drama 'Sorry, Haters'
went to Nicole Kidman]. But I believe that you burn out with those things. And I didn't want to be bored."

Her personal life has certainly not been boring, at least since Sean Penn came into the picture. She recounts the first time she laid eyes on the Oscar-winning actor, director and political activist:

"We were both in the Mayflower Hotel coffee shop on Central Park West in about 1984," she says. "I was in town for the Daytime Emmys. I was with Dane Witherspoon [whom she would marry in 1986], and Sean was with a friend, and he was drunk as a skunk. It was closing time, almost 2 a.m. And my husband stepped out for a few moments, and Sean's friend stepped out, and Sean and I just stared at each other for 20 minutes. He asked if he could bum a smoke, then went back to his table.

"My husband came back in, and it was back to reality. I had no idea who Sean was - I hadn't seen his movies. Then we ran into each other years later for 'State of Grace' - I was divorced, and he was recently divorced [from Madonna]. And he remembered our encounter in the coffee shop, what I was wearing, what my ring looked like. And I thought he was so sneaky, I didn't think he'd notice those things. And I just knew."
They started dating, and had two children: Dylan, now 14, and Hopper, 12. After a brief breakup in the mid-'90s, they married in 1996. She starred in two films he directed, "The Crossing Guard" and "The Pledge," and they starred together in "She's So Lovely" and "Hurlyburly." The couple moved from L.A. to northern California in the mid-'90s, and share a commitment to social and political issues. Amazingly, Penn is the romantic one of the pair.

"Sean is a hopeless romantic. Maybe that's what has kept us together, because I'm not - I'm a realist," she says. "It's a good thing he's a flower buyer."

Next up for her is a film - a drama, of course - by Anthony Minghella ("The English Patient," "Cold Mountain") called "Breaking and Entering," and a documentary she's directing about female surfers. But she still feels like the serious stuff gets too much of a workout.

"These heavy movies, you carry them with you," she says. "Some days, when it would be great to chill and be a mom and just crash, I'm so wired, I can't turn it off.
Sean Penn is the romantic one in their marriage, says the actress.

"I would love to do a comedy again, it would be so much fun. Do people know that? Let's tell 'em!"


NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
By JOE NEUMAIER
Originally published on February 26, 2006