Sean Penn: Outtakes From the Rolling Stone Interview

Your tabloid moment in the Eighties took place way before the Internet.
I'd have killed somebody. I don't think Entertainment Tonight started until the year of my divorce [from Madonna]. I think back about what it was like when I was in the middle of all that shit, and it was so lightweight compared to now.

James Franco said in an interview that you text-messaged Madonna right after your kissing scene in Milk was first filmed.
I don't know where that — I certainly might have. I don't know. It would not have stood out to me. It was just another day. She's a friend of mine.

What writers have been important to you?
David Rabe has been the most significant playwright. Fiction writers: Bukowski, Dostoyevsky, Steinbeck, Saroyan, Cormac McCarthy.

You know McCarthy, right?
I'd like to say I know him. I knew him 30 years ago. I haven't seen him since. I read everything he puts out. He's a great writer in a way we don't have them. I had a producing deal for a while with Child of God, and we were trying to get that done at one time.

Wow. That would be a tough one. [The book revolves around an Appalachian necrophiliac.]
[Chuckles] A little bit dark. It's funny to say to people, "It's Cormac McCarthy, but it's a little dark."

Is there a character you've played who has stuck with you the longest?
I've had things linger: accents, stuff that you get so in the habit of doing. I wondered about it with the Harvey Milk stuff. "Am I going to be walking like this?"

More Sean Penn:

• Peter Travers on the Roles That Defined Sean Penn
• 1983 Feature: Bad Boy. Slab Boy. Everyboy.
• 1996 Feature: Cool Jerk