When strangers accost Robin Wright Penn in the street, usually they’re shouting, ‘Run, Forrest run!’ in a strained Alabama accent or they want to talk about The Princess Bride. Filmed back when she was still Robin Wright, the flaxen-haired, 20 year-old model from San Diego, it’s a witty subversion of the fairy tale adventure. Penn’s role, however, was disappointingly traditional, demanding only that she look beautiful, which obligingly she did. Forest Gump (1994), on the other hand might be the kind of all-American Oscar-hoover that brings European critics out in a rash, but at least it gave Penn more room for manoeuvre. And she was undeniably moving as Forest’s tragic sweetheart, Jenny.
As well as these memorable supporting roles in much-loved hits, Penn has given impressive performances in mediocre or little-seen films (She’s So Lovely, Breaking And Entering, The Pledge, Sorry Haters) and done her fair share of rom-coms and weepies (White Oleander, Message In A Bottle) but oddly, after 25 years in the business, she’s never had a leading lady role worthy of her talents.
Until now. The Private Lives of Pippa Lee has come along at exactly the right time and her performance as Pippa leaves no doubt that she’s the best person for the part. An adaptation by Rebecca Miller of her own novel, it’s a thoughtful, inventive film about a women who’s chosen to bury her own identity in the role of wife to her older, more successful husband. Robin explains all to LWLies.
LWLies: So how did you wind up making The Private Lives of Pippa Lee?
Wright Penn: They were considering an actress or actresses that were more 50-55 years of age, because clearly that’s what’s written, and my agent of almost 20 years knew about the project and I gather these actresses passed on it…? I’m not quite clear on that. He said, ‘Have you considered thinking about Robin? I know she’s 15 years younger…’ And she [Rebecca Miller] was interested. She knew of my work and then he shared that with me and I was like, ‘I looove Rebecca Miller!’ And we met, I loved her. We were gonna shoot within two months, it was a very quick prep and run, but then we couldn’t find someone to play Herb [Pippa Lee’s husband] in time to use the financing that we were given. So then we had to wait a whole other year, because she’s got kids, they live in Ireland, they were in school, so she’s like, ‘I can either shoot this summer or next summer.’ Then we had a full year of getting to know one another, researching. I had my archive right there, in Rebecca, knowing her and spending quality time with each other, talking about Pippa and the lives of, y’know…
LWLies: What made you want to do it?
Wright Penn: Oh my gosh! I read the script and right away I couldn’t put it down because I thought, ‘What a tour de force role!’ The subtlety involved, which I think I have an inclination towards. I love that sort of…beautiful torture [laughs] and it was so prolific, in every sense of the word, emotionally, spiritually, the written word, there were so many depths. And such a liberating end and such an arch role to play… Ahh! [sighs ecstatically] Then I read the manuscript, the book had not been released yet, so I got to read the manuscript post screenplay and I fell in love even more. I mean it was just like putting all of the accoutrements on your costume, I felt so engaged with who this character was and her story.
LWLies: Was it ever an issue, playing a character who’s older than you? I know women are supposed to be pretending to be younger than they are in Hollywood, apparently.
Wright Penn: Oh God, no!
LWLies: Did anyone say, ‘This is a bad idea, Robin. It’ll be bad for your career’?
Wright Penn: No. I mean I just think this is what we do, right? Don’t we embody other beings? And, gawd, it makes it so much more fun when they’re interesting characters.
LWLies: There’s something very serene and regal about the way you play her. I wondered if you based it on anyone or where you got the mannerisms from?
Wright Penn: Um… I watched Rebecca Miller. [laughs] I mean not that she’s Pippa by any stretch, but there were a lot of mannerisms that I observed that I felt pertained to Pippa. Because it was more her actions were the ‘adjective’ that I was looking to execute in a weird way. The thing with the eyebrows – I don’t know if it’s noticeable – but like the lifting of the eyebrows, like everything is such a surprise in life and yet nothing is a surprise, Blake Lively, who plays me young in the film, came on to the sound stage and we were doing camera tests together for the lighting, to work out how we were gonna light the movie for past and present. I literally only met her for like a minute because we were busy doing our own things, changing in and out of costumes and working with the DP, and I was watching her do her camera set-up and she kept doing this sweet thing with her eyebrows, she’s got such a great little face – she’s like a doe.
LWLies: You two look very similar as well – that’s one of the great decisions made by the filmmakers, casting the two of you.
Wright Penn: We were so lucky, we both kinda have that squinty-eyed smile, colouring and blah, blah, blah. So I kind of took that eyebrow thing from her because Rebecca said, ‘What about that?’ You need to have some kind of attribute that will be there when you’re older, there should be an inkling of who we were when we were young. That was all I could think of – I didn’t really know Blake and I hadn’t really watched her and that was so key in this description of somebody like Pippa who lives under the veil and yet the veil is not an unknowingness. She’s experienced everything in life and yet she’s still an innocent in a weird way.
LWLies: The other great thing about this film is that Pippa Lee is only one of several really great female characters, all played by really great actresses. If you hadn’t played Pippa, which other character would you have liked to have a crack at?
Wright Penn: Oh God, any of them. They’re just genius. Rebecca is an original, she really is, and for a female writer/director to create these multifaceted characters throughout her movie, not just the lead, is mention-worthy. Oh my God, I would have jumped to play any of them – I would have played Herb, are you kidding?!
LWLies: I thought Julianne Moore’s character looked particularly fun, though.
Wright Penn: Oh my God how genius was she? Just genius! She is one of the best, definitely.
LWLies: Do you consider this to be a Women’s Picture or a film for women in any sense?
Wright Penn: Well you hope it’s for the masses, but that’s unrealistic in any venue within the field. Probably… I mean, of course it’s a memoir and it happens to be a female perspective. Keanu Reeves is in this movie… So… It just depends on personality types, really, just like any film, it just depends what resonates with you. This is a diary. So I don’t think you necessarily have to be male or female to have had this experience or to enjoy watching. It reminds me of a documentary. You know what I watched recently? Grey Gardens, the documentary, because the HBO premiere was coming of the dramatisation with Drew Barrymore and Jessica Lange – which is fantastic – but watching the documentary, I was like, ‘This is very similar to Rebecca’s stuff, this documentary style, it’s so real.’ I know it’s stylised and it’s in the film format and blah blah blah, but it feels emotionally like a documentary when you watch her stuff.
LWLies: Does it concern you that if it had a male protagonist it would be marketed in a more mainstream fashion to a wider audience? That seems a shame to me.
Wright Penn: Yeah, I think that’s kind of the nature of the beast though, in society in general. It’s a man’s world and the women’s world is kind of an entity unto itself, I don’t know if they mesh very well in that context, but yeah, I guess economically, when you think about it, not just monetary, it’s a drag. But then again maybe it’s special. It is separate and apart-from and its own animal
LWLies: There’s a scene early on in the film where Mike Binder’s character calls Pippa, “the model of an artist’s wife” as though she doesn’t have her own identity. You’re a woman with a successful career in her own right who also happens to be married to a very successful man. I wondered if you ever felt belittled in that way?
Wright Penn: No, but I’ve never cooked butter-flied lamb – do you know what I mean? I raised my kids because I wanted to. I don’t ever see myself as… in that position, shall we say.
LWLies: Yeah but you are often referred to as Mrs Penn. He’s not often referred to as your husband.
Wright Penn: Yeah, but isn’t that inevitable? That’s the back story of fame and notoriety and that is what it is. That’s life, with husbands and wives, and sometimes it goes the other way. It doesn’t bother me because that’s the reality. It’s a fact. There’s nothing upsetting about it, it is what it is. If somebody’s more well-known it’s pretty understandable why but I don’t think it diminishes the other.
LWLies: I suppose the reason I’m reaching is because you, Rebecca and Pippa Lee all have famous husbands. I was wondering if that was something you and Rebecca shared in reference to this story?
Wright Penn: No, not at all in that context. It was more… When you read the book you see that this character chose to live under – I won’t use the word ’shadow’, because that’s such a cliché – but to live under the leader in a sense. It’s like, ‘I position you as leader, because I will die if I become my own leader out there in the world without you as my protector.’ She did this for her survival. She seriously would have killed herself or someone would have killed her otherwise given, quote un-quote, the lifestyle that she was leading. She needed somebody to lead her, for her survival instinct and then she finally wakes up and thinks, ‘No I don’t, I am my own leader, I can lead myself.’ So it’s a very, very different thing to living with our very famous men in this crazy industry that we’re in, right? That’s a simple fact and has nothing to do with the other. It’s a different spiritual dissection to me.
LWLies: Does working with a female director make any difference to your experience?
Wright Penn: I’ve worked with three, Rebecca was my third. The first female director, was my oldest and best friend of like 25 years and I’ve done two movies with her that she wrote and again, the greatest experience I’ve ever had. Not to say I don’t like working with men. Working with Anthony Minghella was another one of my greatest experiences ever, but I think Anthony Minghella was kind of a girl too. He was so in touch with his girl, y’know? He really was. Men and women, biologically, we’re different, we’re different breeds. We speak differently, we think differently, we operate and execute differently. And it’s this beautiful balance that we can have with each other. But it is different with a female director. I’ve been blessed by working with female directors with great roles, meaty parts and really intense stories to be involved in and yeah, like anything, it’s like when you get with your girlfriends, it’s a different kind of understanding. It’s not a different language; it’s a different understanding of language.
LWLies: There’s a press consensus that you’re as beautiful and talented as any other actress of your generation, but that you’ve wilfully chosen roles that have moved you away from the limelight. Does that ring true to you? Or is it something the press made up?
Wright Penn: It’s something the press have made up and I’m not surprised. It’s a simple deduction to do stuff like that. It’s easy for them. They add it all up and go, ‘Ah! That’s what it is. Phew! Now I can move onto the next redefinition of someone.’ But it couldn’t be further from the truth.
LWLies: How would you describe your career path, then?
Wright Penn: I think it’s one project at a time, what moves you and what resonates and more importantly, can I bring something to that story? Because we are in a visual medium where you are sharing with strangers. You are telling a story and if you can’t tell that story, don’t read it to the people. That’s kind of what I feel in my heart. Y’know at a certain point you go, ‘No, actually, I’m not the best person for this part. Somone else could tell the story better,’ or something like that. It’s not a game, it’s a sharing experience.
LWLies: That shows a refreshing lack of ego.
Wright Penn: Yeah… I don’t thing I’ve ever been connected in that way. I mean of course there are roles that you see them and go, ‘Oh my gosh! That would have been amazing to do something like that!’ you know? Oh my God, all the great Meryl Streep roles that she did way back when! Sophie’s Choice, or Frances that Jessica Lange did, Kramer Vs Kramer, Silkwood, incredible! And man she’s amazing! So you kind of um… Its easy to be a cheerleader for that too, like yeah! We’re all doing this together even though we’re not in it together. I think we’re all doing the same thing.
LWLies: A high tide raises all the boats.
Wright Penn: Yeah.
LWLies: Are there any films that you didn’t get to make for any reason, and regret not making?
Wright Penn: Not really. I remember I found out I was pregnant and I couldn’t do… I’m blanking on the name…
LWLies: The English Patient.
Wright Penn: Yeah that’s just off the top of my head. There aren’t many because why you missed out on them was because something better came along – I get to have a child, or something like that.
LWLies: Obviously, raising your children has been your priority. Do you think that now they’re older you see yourself taking on more time-consuming, leading roles and travelling more?
Wright Penn: Yeah, definitely, yeah. I hope, I hope, I hope.
LWLies: A new phase then.
Wright Penn: I hope so! I mean I know we’re in a terrible recession now. Everybody’s like, ‘I wonder if I can get a job.’ But yeah, absolutely interested in working more.
LWLies: Are there any things that particularly appeal?
Wright Penn: I would love to do a romantic comedy like Annie Hall style, that kind of thing, I would really like to do that. Something as witty and clever, just the banter and dialogue like that would just be a hoot.
LWLies: What happened to The Last Face? Is that still happening?
Wright Penn: It’s not. We just couldn’t get the cast together when the financing was there and vice-versa and you run the gamut and hopefully someone will make it someday, because it’s a beautiful, beautiful story. It’s one of the best scripts I’ve ever read. Again, this is my friend who’s a writer director that I’ve worked with twice.
LWLies: Does that happen a lot that the funding doesn’t come together?
Wright Penn: Yeaaaah, it does. It’s par for the course. I don’t know if in your field you think, ‘Oh I wish I could have done that interview or written that article.’
LWLies: You have the pet projects you keep on the back burner for a while.
Wright Penn: Yeah definitely, I think we all go through that, but I think what keeps you driven is the passion for the art, the passion for what it is you want to share and speak about.
LWLies: Have you had any moments where you’ve really felt the impact you’ve had with a film or role?
Wright Penn: Absolutely, I mean that happens. It does happen. It always happens with Forest Gump and Princess Bride. Those that are sort of classics that all ages watch and have built up quite a following. There are also little films I’ve done or characters I’ve played, where people say, ‘I really connected with that’, and I think, ‘Oh good!’ Because that’s what we’re here to do. I think that’s why we’re in this craft. You know it’s not masturbatory, I really feel like it’s sharing.
LWLies: What else is in the works?
Wright Penn: Trying to get things going, trying to get cast for a certain project that gets going this summer and then I’m doing something with – did you see Waltz With Bashir? I’m working with that director [Ari Folman]. It’s half live action and half animation. It’s really an incredible and original story. We’re shooting that in January and then I’m gonna do a play on Broadway in the spring.
LWLies: And what’s the Ari Folman film about?
Wright Penn: [randomly affects a posh British accent] I don’t think I can say actually.
LWLies: When are you going to play an English character and put that accent to good use?
Wright Penn: [switches to a Dick Van Dyke cockney] Well I think I need to sort of play someone like that, you nah what I mean? I don’t know where she’s from, but I quite like it
LWLies: That’s sort of my neck of the woods, cockney, but I think it needs some work.
Wright Penn: [continuing dodgy accent] Oh I know I’m sort of picking up on that. My dad is English, so I grew up with that. He’s from Cheshire.
LWLies: Your cockney accent is a bit dodgy. I think your posh one is better.
Wright Penn: Yeah be’er innit.
