Sean Penn Fun Facts, Quotes and Tweets
15th June 2016
Quote: "My dad wanted to name me Steak, the food, because he loves it so much. But my mom was never going to go for it... What they told me is that I hopped in her stomach, I didn't kick, so they went with that." Sean Penn's actor son Hopper on his odd name. His father was also inspired by pal Dennis Hopper.
18th January 2016
Quote: "To over-demonise any human being is not in our best self interest. Like it or not, we're married to 'em. They're of our time. They're affecting us. So like a marriage, you know, you might want a divorce. If all we aim to understand is that this is a very bad person, then let's not understand anything else." Sean Penn attempts to explain why he interviewed Mexican fugitive El Chapo for Rolling Stone magazine.
16th October 2015
Fact: Sean Penn proved he's still a big fan of his ex-wife Madonna by showing up at his second Rebel Heart tour stop in a month on Wednesday night (14Oct15). The Oscar winner joined the pop star's New York support act Amy Schumer in the audience at a show in Vancouver, Canada. Penn last caught Madonna in concert last month (Sep15) in New York City.
16th August 2015
Fact: Madonna has proved there's no love lost with her ex-husband Sean Penn after sharing a throwback photo of the former couple from 1988 on Instagram.com. The image, posted on Friday (14Aug15), featured Penn kissing the singer on the cheek. She captioned it, "It's almost our birthdays! 2 Leo's love #rebelhearts (sic)." The pop icon turned 57 on Sunday (16Aug15), and thanked fans for their wellwishes, tweeting, "Thanks to all my #rebelheartfans for all your birthday wishes!!!!". The Milk actor will mark his 55th birthday on Monday (17Aug15). The pair was married from 1985 to 1989.
20th March 2015
Quote: "Typically on movie training, it's no live fire but this was all... It's a facility in Arizona that is typically used just for federal agencies. It was real-live fire... I don't trust actors as much with a blank as I do soldiers with a bullet." Sean Penn on training with special forces experts for his new role in The Gunman.
19th March 2015
Quote: "My feeling was I knew what it was like to work with Alejandro and here's a guy who, in the first scene, his wife is shot and is dying throughout the picture and that's a level of stress that isn't just the two hours of reading the script; it's every day for five months. And I said, 'There's no f**king way I'm doing this!' Some time later I saw Brad Pitt across the room at the Toronto Film Festival... and he says, 'You son of a b**ch...' but they made a great movie." Sean Penn turned down the lead in Babel because he had no desire to work with tough director Alejandro Inarritu again after working with the filmmaker on 21 Grams. Pitt eventually landed the role.
19th March 2015
Fact: Sean Penn cheekily dodged a question about his relationship status with girlfriend Charlize Theron on U.S. breakfast show Good Morning America on Thursday (19Mar15) by pretending not to know who the interviewer was talking about. The actor insisted he had "no idea" whether he would wed for a third time and when the reporter asked if reports of a recent proposal were true, he quipped, "Asked who?". The couple is said to have become engaged late last year (14).
19th March 2015
Quote: "My ex-wife had gone to live back in Los Angeles and I stayed; I was single-parenting my son for most of that first year, following that, and within that time I felt that he and his mother should see each other more and so it was really that that brought me back." Sean Penn explains why he moved back to Los Angeles after spending years living in Ross, California, just north of San Francisco, with second wife Robin Wright. The couple, parents to daughter Dylan and son Hopper, divorced in 2010 after 14 years of marriage.
13th March 2015
Quote: "I don't really wanna hear the conversations. I wanna know the decisions... And I wanna see somebody cry and then see somebody get ecstatic and then see them cry." Sean Penn is an unlikely fan of U.S. dating show The Bachelor.
29th January 2015
Quote: "I'm in love with a woman and home is where the heart is, right?" Actor Sean Penn is preparing to settle down in Los Angeles with girlfriend Charlize Theron and her adopted son Jackson. For the past five years, the Oscar winner has been splitting time between his homes in the U.S. and Haiti, where his charity is based.
11th December 2014
Quote: "I have gone from one relationship to another because I didn't want to be alone, but now that I'm single I'm fine... There is no time for love." Sean Penn and Robin Wright's daughter Dylan Penn is happy to leave love behind to focus on her budding modelling career.
31st July 2014
Fact: Singer Nick Jonas has recruited Sean Penn and Robin Wright's model daughter Dylan Penn to star in the music video for his new solo single, Chains. Penn plays the Jonas Brothers star's love interest in the promo.
16th May 2014
Fact: Movie star Sean Penn showed his support for girlfriend Charlize Theron on Thursday night (15May14) when he joined her for the premiere of her new comedy. The new couple hit the red carpet and posed for photos before the screening of A Million Ways to Die in the West in Westwood, California.
11th April 2014
Fact: Actress Charlize Theron has been confirmed to star in boyfriend Sean Penn's upcoming movie The Last Face alongside Javier Bardem. Penn will direct the film, which will centre on two doctors (Theron and Bardem) working in refugee camps in Africa.
13th February 2014
Quote: "Divorce in and of itself, and with children, is devastating. Worse than that... One of the reasons why we got back together and broke up so much was trying to keep the family together. If you've got kids, it's a family, and you try again, and you try again. We did that for a long time." Actress Robin Wright on her numerous break-ups and reunions with ex-husband Sean Penn. The couple divorced in 2010 after 14 years of marriage. She has since become engaged to actor Ben Foster.
18th December 2013
Quote: "That's been very foreign to me. But actually kind of funny, because it's all bulls**t." Sean Penn's model daughter Dylan addresses the rumours she is the latest love interest of Twilight hunk Robert Pattinson, insisting there's no truth to the reports.
18th December 2013
Fact: Sean Penn and Robin Wright's daughter, Dylan Penn, is eager to start her own career in the spotlight - the aspiring model has reportedly landed a deal to become the face of a new Gap campaign. The 22 year old will be featured in the clothing company's ads in magazines, retail stores and online campaigns from January (14).
18th October 2012
Quote: "Everyone says, 'Oh, so it's your dad,' but it's so not. My dad wishes he was brave enough to wear red lipstick." Actress Eve Hewson insists This Must Be the Place co-star Sean Penn's Irish rocker character is not based on her father Bono.
22nd April 2012
Fact: Actors Sean Penn, Olivia Wilde and Stephen Fry were among the stars who paid tribute to celebrated author Christopher Hitchens at a Vanity Fair memorial in New York earlier this week (begs16Apr12).
26th January 2012
Quote: "It's never been a pretty picture when I had too much time on my hands and no commitments." Sean Penn admits he's glad he has his Haiti charity efforts to keep him occupied now he's a single man again following the break-up of his marriage to Robin Wright.
26th January 2012
Quote: "I have an enormous amount of respect for her. She's a sensational person." Sean Penn on his ex-wife Robin Wright.
16th October 2011
Quote: "I've been down to the Mexican border and seen 80, 90-year-old men with their wives, Vietnam, World War II veterans on walkers waiting in 90 degree sun in a line 100 deep to cross the border on foot into Mexico to get medicines that they can't afford in this country." Actor and humanitarian Sean Penn is despairing about the state of healthcare in the U.S.
23rd September 2011
Fact: Brad Pitt has played Sean Penn's father and his ex-wife Robin Wright's former husband in back-to-back films. Pitt starred alongside Penn in Tree of Life and his new movie Moneyball features Wright.
22nd September 2011
Fact: Sean Penn is to be honoured with the Golden Icon Award at this year's Zurich Film Festival (12) in Switzerland. The Milk star will be celebrated for his career achievements at the prestigious festival, which kicks off on Thursday (22Sep11).
28th August 2011
Quote: "Frankly, I'm still trying to figure out what I'm trying to do there and what I was supposed to add." Sean Penn is still struggling to understand what his film Tree of Life was about.
11th May 2011
Quote: "Last weekend, I bumped into Sean and told him about this dream of mine and asked him who should I go to to make this happen and he said, 'Me!' I told him I'd get on the plane at any time and within a week it was confirmed for me." Actress Soleil Moon Frye is heading to Haiti with Sean Penn, who runs a charity operation in the country.
29th March 2011
Quote: "I have great moments when I feel very connected and loving toward humankind, but I never have a good moment toward human beings... I love humankind; I don't like humans. I don't get along with people very well. I never did." Hollywood actor and humanitarian Sean Penn is not a people person.
29th March 2011
Quote: "It's beautiful... That's the thing. You get the air cleaned up in this city, and it'd be extraordinary. And the whole country's like this - more so, even. That's why I never have doubt - never have a doubt - that this country can be successful. It's too tangible, too containable to not do it. And the change is going to come (because) of this earthquake." Hollywood star and humanitarian Sean Penn is determined to restore earthquake-hit Haiti to its natural beauty.
29th March 2011
Quote: "For the first six months, I was country director of this thing, and I was basically pretending I knew what the hell I was doing - yelling a lot and getting things done with blackmail. Now I've got a lot of really experienced, great people around me, and they can do the same things, cutting through stuff just as fast, but in slightly more legitimate ways." Actor and activist Sean Penn has learned to calm his hot-tempered ways since spending time in Haiti to spearhead the relief effort following last year's (10) devastating earthquake.
29th March 2011
Fact: Reported new couple Sean Penn and Scarlett Johansson were among the guests at Reese Witherspoon's Saturday evening (26Mar11) wedding in Ojai, California. Renee Zellweger, Matthew MCConaughey, Tobey Maguire, Robert Downey, Jr., Alyssa Milano, Isla Fisher and Salma Hayek were also among the well-wishers.
25th January 2011
Fact: Former Talking Heads star David Byrne and singer/songwriter Will Oldham have teamed up to score Sean Penn's new movie THIS MUST BE THE PLACE. The film is named after a Talking Heads song.
5th January 2011
Quote: "There's no end point. This is where I'll be when I'm not working, for the rest of my life." Sean Penn is devoted to becoming a lifelong aid worker in earthquake-ravaged Haiti.
24th November 2010
Fact: Oscar-winning actor Sean Penn is to receive a lifetime achievement award at the Dubai Film Festival at the event's opening ceremony on 12 December (10).
19th October 2010
Quote: "One of the people who I respect so much is Sean Penn. I think most people feel the same way about him. I respect him on many levels, but just the way that he doesn't talk about what he hears, but rather, what he sees." Supermodel Naomi Campbell is impressed by the Oscar-winning actor's dedication to help rebuild Haiti following the earthquake which devastated the Carribean nation in January (10).
6th August 2010
Fact: Sean Penn is in talks to bring the life story of MAX PERKINS, the eccentric literary editor who oversaw the release of works by F. SCOTT FITZGERALD and Ernest Hemingway, to the big screen. The Oscar winner will star as the former editor-in-chief of New York publishing house Scribner in the forthcoming film GENIUS, an adaptation of 2008 biography Max Perkins: Editor of Genius, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
14th July 2010
Fact: August is going to be a big month for actors Sean Penn, David Duchovny and Antonio Banderas - the trio turns 50 within 10 days of each other. Duchovny hits 50 first on 7 August (10), followed by Banderas on 10 August (10) and Penn on 17 August (10), a day after his ex-wife Madonna turns 52.
13th July 2010
Quote: "It's an awful lot like directing a movie but the stakes are a lot higher. I had a lot of help." Sean Penn on his qualifications for helping to set up relief camps for more than 1.5 million Haitians still homeless after an earthquake ravaged the nation in January (10). The actor/activist has been a regular visitor to Haiti and a major part of the relief effort.
3rd June 2010
Quote: "She is a ghost to me now. We spent all those years together... Now she's just gone." Sean Penn suggests he has moved on from his marriage to actress Robin Wright. The movie couple ended its 13-year marriage last summer (09).
24th March 2010
Fact: Sean Penn's estranged wife Robin Wright is to make her Broadway debut in a revival of Lanford Wilson's Pulitzer Prize-winning play Talley's Folly. The show is scheduled to open in the spring of 2011.
18th February 2010
Quote: "How old would you feel if I said Spicoli will be 50 in August?" Sean Penn and his Fast Times At Ridgemont High character hit the half century this summer (10).
3rd December 2009
Quote: "He's obviously someone I'm friends with. We were all on the (Cannes 2008) jury together... and we had a really great time, and then... It was one of those things where you're like, 'Oh, my God! I'm that person who's caught in this s**ty rumour brigade.' You can't win. You don't say anything and everyone's like, 'It's true.' You say something, and you're keeping the story alive. It's bad, bad news." Natalie Portman felt trapped after false tabloid reports linked her to Sean Penn.
17th November 2009
Fact: Actress Robin Wright PENN is starting over after filing for divorce from Sean Penn in August (09), with a head-turning new hairstyle. Penn was unrecognisable after dying her blonde locks brown before the New York screening of her new film THE PRIVATE LIVES OF PIPPA LEE on Sunday night (15Nov09).
27th October 2009
Quote: "After 20-something years, to start over - that's huge! But I have no regrets. I just moved, I'm trying to get settled. I've got to get back into life and start over again." Newly single Robin Wright PENN on splitting from longtime husband Sean Penn.
1st August 2009
Fact: The subject of Sean Penn's acclaimed 2008 film MILK, Harvey Milk, Sidney Poitier and sci-fi boffin Stephen Hawking are among those who will receive Presidential Medals of Freedom this year.
23rd April 2009
Quote: "He was not on top form. He told me to go skydiving. That's all, just, 'Go skydiving'". Zac Efron on an uncomfortable meeting with movie idol Sean Penn and the advice the double Oscar winner gave him.
26th February 2009
Quote: "If you wanna come see me anytime, like, on the show instead of just talking on the phone, I'm gay - you like the gay people... If you're gonna do talk shows, do the gay ones." Comedienne-turned-talk show host Ellen Degeneres encourages Oscar winner Sean Penn to be a guest on her show while chatting to him over the phone on Wednesday (25Feb09).
24th February 2009
Quote: "I wanted to keep things focused on the professional team around this movie." Sean Penn on why he never mentioned his wife Robin Wright PENN and members of his family during his Oscars acceptance speech on Sunday (22Feb09).
17th February 2009
Quote: "I had no chance. It was ridiculous. But just to share the same space as these people - I mean, wow!" SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE star Dev Patel on losing out on a BAFTA award to Mickey Rourke, alongside fellow nominees Brad Pitt, Frank Langella and Sean Penn.
9th February 2009
Quote: "When you've got a mug like mine, you're not getting scripts that are calling for smiles that much." Sean Penn on his intense onscreen image.
6th February 2009
Quote: "My son's problem was seeing his father kiss (James) FRANCO, and my daughter's problem was seeing Franco kiss her father." Sean Penn on his children's reactions to his portrayal of gay San Francisco, California politician HARVEY MILK in MILK.
6th February 2009
Quote: "I haven't seen TOM (CRUISE) much over the years, but it's always a pleasure running into him. And he smoked in TROPIC THUNDER." Sean Penn is still a big fan of his TAPS co-star.
5th February 2009
Quote: "I'll probably be sitting out there clapping for Sean Penn." Mickey Rourke is convinced he will lose out on the Best Actor award at the upcoming Oscars.
29th January 2009
Fact: Star Wars alumni Carrie Fisher and Ewan McGregor teamed up on Monday night (26Jan09) to host a pre-Oscar party at the actress' Los Angeles area home for Sean Penn's hit film MILK. Guests included Mick Jagger, Helen Hunt and Melanie Griffith, and, from the cast, Penn, Josh Brolin, Diego Luna and Emile Hirsch.
26th January 2009
Quote: "I noticed that the two statues have rather healthy packages." Award winner Sean Penn notices the manhood of the Actors on stage at the Screen Actors Guild Awards.
7th October 2008
Quote: "He said to me: 'Dude, you look so much better these days because your face is all f**ked up! It's exactly what you need.'" Josh Brolin's MILK co-star Sean Penn thinks the actor suits old-age.
25th September 2008
Fact: Hollywood star Sean Penn is to be honoured by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA)/Los Angeles in November (08). The actor will be presented with the Stanley Kubrick Britannia award for excellence in film. The ceremony is due to take place at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza Hotel in L.A. on 6 November.
29th August 2008
Fact: Actor Sean Penn is $2,000 (GBP1,081) richer after winning a bet with West Wing producer LAWRENCE O'DONNELL for correctly predicting JOE BIDEN as Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama's running mate.
5th August 2008
Quote: "Who would have thought I'd play a SPICOLI-like character and then make out with Spicoli in the same year?" Actor James Franco on playing a stoner similar to Sean Penn's Spicoli character in Fast Times at Ridgemont High and romancing Penn in the HARVEY MILK biopic MILK.
9th April 2008
Quote: "He told me that people in my generation really need to have the courage to stand for something. I took that to heart - the idea of young people taking more responsibility." Emile Hirsch recalls what his Into The Wild director Sean Penn taught him.
16th January 2008
Fact: Sean Penn has found a new daredevil hobby as he copes with the break-up of his marriage to ROBIN WRIGHT-PENN - skydiving.
8th January 2008
Quote: "The season of trophies is truly a season in hell." Sean Penn, speaking at the Palm Springs International Film Festival on Saturday (05Jan08), isn't a fan of the awards season.
21st December 2007
Quote: "Most of the places we were going, you just couldn't drive any of the trucks there. So it was about finding a good tree stump when you weren't shooting." Actor Emile Hirsch didn't spend much time relaxing in his trailer on the set of Sean Penn's recent movie INTO THE WILD.
9th November 2007
Quote: "I'm probably shy, I've never gone to a party where I didn't drink alcohol. I have a great time, but I'm not comfortable." Sean Penn admits even Oscar winners feel nervous sometimes.
9th November 2007
Quote: "If you're not going outside the same old, same old, if you're not pushing the envelope, then you're not doing anything. A good movie is a political thing." Sean Penn takes his acting career very seriously.
9th November 2007
Quote: "It was gruelling at times. It was freezing, too, but Sean was there right behind me with the whip!" American actor Emile Hirsch reveals Sean Penn's directorial style, on new movie INTO THE WILD.
27th October 2007
Fact: Sean Penn will be honoured with the Best Director award for his latest movie Into The Wild at the 19th Palm Springs Film Festival in California in January (08).
17th October 2007
Quote: "It's not a real thing. I don't live in Hollywood, I never even talk to anybody from Hollywood." Actor Sean Penn insists he doesn't buy into the A-list lifestyle.
24th September 2007
Quote: "He's the least disappointing icon in American film." Sean Penn on his Mystic River director Clint Eastwood.
18th September 2007
Quote: "I almost got a T-shirt that read I survived Sean Penn." Emile Hirsch on coping with the rigours of shooting IN THE WILD for director Penn, who made the young actor get in shape, hike and kayak for scenes in the real-life wilderness movie.
8th August 2007
Quote: "I think we're past that point in human evolution where there's such a thing as winning wars." Campaigning actor Sean Penn doesn't believe America can 'win' the war in Iraq.
13th July 2007
Fact: Iggy Pop will voice a character alongside Oscar winner Sean Penn in upcoming animated movie PERSEPOLIS.
17th May 2007
Fact: A remake of the 1981 film TAPS, which marked the movie debut of Sean Penn and featured Tom Cruise's second big screen performance, is in the works.
11th February 2007
Fact: Sean Penn and Bruce Willis have added their weight to Robert De Niro's new movie WHAT JUST HAPPENED? De Niro plays a desperate moviemaker coming to terms with his broken marriage and failing career.
14th November 2006
Quote: "He is an orator. He should be the president." Robin Wright PENN is convinced her husband Sean Penn should replace US President GEORGE W BUSH.
18th September 2006
Quote: "If we were attacked, man, I'd be right next to (patriotic country star) Toby Keith in the trench. We were attacked in 9/11 and we were right to go to Afghanistan, then that was exploited and we were suckered into our own macho ego of this idea of being tough guys." Sean Penn insists he's as patriotic as anyone but he insists on asking questions.
18th September 2006
Quote: "All I've got to do to calm down is see Daniel Day Lewis in THE BALLAD OF JACK + ROSE and I know there's no such thing as the best living actor because something like that comes along and you get very humble very fast." Oscar winner Sean Penn on claims he's the best actor alive.
18th September 2006
Quote: "Unfortunately we didn't work together enough." Sean Penn regrets not appearing in more movies with his late brother CHRIS.
13th September 2006
Quote: "(Bush is) a Beelzebub - and a dumb one." Sean Penn is no fan of US President GEORGE W BUSH.
28th February 2006
Quote: <p>"It's so easy to dismiss a person as being crazy. But he is a serious brother. I have mad love and respect for Sean Penn." Film-maker Spike Lee admires Academy Award-winning actor Sean Penn. </p>
3rd January 2006
Quote: <p>"(She's) really the most tremendously pleasant sort of person to be around and work with - and she's not bad-looking either." Sean Penn on his 21 GRAMS co-star Naomi Watts. </p>
10th September 2005
Fact: <p>Former US champion figure skater NICOLE BOBEK makes her movie debut as Sean Penn's former love interest in new movie All the King's Men. </p>
Sean Penn
