Sean Penn & Dylan Penn Break Down Their Scene Together in 'Flag Day'

At first, I was pretty apprehensive.

We never have worked together in a professional setting.

Working with your family can sometimes be difficult,

but it ended up working out.

Hi, I'm Sean Penn, the director of Flag Day.

I'm Dylan Penn, and I play Jennifer.

And this is Notes on a Scene.

How's school?

It's okay.

So I had been sent the script by a friend of mine,

an actor, Mark Rylance.

I was just struck by it from the very beginning

and immediately saw Dylan's face

on the character of Jennifer.

The story takes place over about 25 years,

and it's this incredibly tight bond of love

between a father and a daughter.

This is at a point where they have not seen each other

for a period of years, and she has run away

from her mother's house and come and found her father.

How's school?

It's okay.

There is a moment in the beginning of this scene

which is everything, which is the moment that,

because she hasn't seen her father in many years,

he has dark sunglasses on, and when he takes them off,

she's seeing his new age for the first time.

What I loved about her as an actress is that thing

that all actors believe is most important,

and it's how they listen.

And she listens without signaling anything,

the way we listen in real life if we're really listening.

They know if there's a lie present.

Any, any thoughts about college?

My view of the movie was always this, right here,

is the movie to me, and so anywhere from in here

to the frame as you see it is really the essential core

of the visual dynamics of the movie

on all of the characters,

but most importantly, with Jennifer.

One of the things that Dylan is so strong in

is not having the kind of contrivance

so many actors have that in any way

tells you what she's thinking.

She's just thinking it.

So when you get in tight, you pay more attention.

Any, any thoughts about college?

I guess you got time.

Actually, I wanna study journalism.

The hair and makeup for this time period

was huge in adding to the feeling of that angsty teenager,

but I think, specifically in this scene,

this wardrobe is not representative of her.

She's actually growing out of this phase

of wanting to hid herself.

So I think what's really ironic

is that she has this gothic look,

the earrings, the red stripe in her hair,

and it's really just a guardedness.

It's another way to hide herself, but in this scene,

she's emotionally so vulnerable.

Dad, what do you do?

What do you mean what do I do?

I mean for a living, what do you do for a living?

You know what I do for a living.

I'm an entrepreneur.

My skill is opportunities.

In terms of the dynamic between parents and children,

the one thing that you learn increasingly over time

is that what your kids want of you is your authenticity.

What do you do for a living?

You know what I do for a living.

I'm an entrepreneur.

My skill is opportunities.

We did match cuts on a 80 millimeter,

and that was so that we would be able

to bridge the performances between each of us.

If you're shooting two camera, you can have those overlaps,

you can talk like real people talk.

I've come to be very distrustful of digital photography.

I think that there are clearly some great works

that are being done, but in terms of my aesthetic

and the way that I tell stories, it tends to betray me.

So in this movie, rather than doing it digitally,

we pushed it to the other end and went with Super 16.

What's the problem, Jennifer?

Are you mixed up in drugs?

No?

So what's the problem?

I just gotta get out.

I thought maybe I could come live with you.

What I love about it is it has its own grain.

It's not a synthetic grain that's being created

for a digital image, and that organic thing, I do trust,

and I trust how it lets time pass.

A lotta times they've talked about film

as being not the medium of movement, but the medium of time,

because unlike the Mona Lisa, where you can go

and look at it for as long as you wanna look at it,

to a degree, a filmmaker can tell you

how long you gotta look at something and from what angle.

And so that's time passing.

That, that kinda comes outta the blue.

You know, sme things in life are about timing.

Conventionally, one would create environmentals.

You know, other customers mumbling in the background,

and what we did with this is we started with a level

of that, but really, really significantly dipped it out,

and just let this live in the world

of just the two characters,

that I think really effective for a scene like this.

Right now, I'm, I'm growing the business, businesses,

and it takes all the time God sends.

I've, I've just got a lot of-

Yeah, I understand.

Typically, if you're directing two actors,

and you're not one of them, if you spend a lot of time

on the coverage of one and you don't offer the same

to the other, you get into ego concerns,

the kind of emotional politics of it,

and in this case, it was very simple.

I knew when I had done at least what for me

was the bottom line of what I had to do,

I would be able to focus on her.

And then in terms of like my own notes

or something that I wanted to bring,

there was a lot of room to play,

and I felt like the script was kind of more used as a guide,

rather than every dialogue has to be exactly

what it's in the script.

So this scene, especially, I think a few of the lines,

I missed, because we were just really in it together.

I do very much believe in proactive direction of actors,

even with a director who's principally relying

on your instincts and what you bring as a character,

but there are exceptions, and this was a great exception.

You know, here's a very long scene,

and it was the first scene that we shot together,

we did not rehearse this, and I did not direct it,

because when she came to work, she was gonna surprise me,

I was gonna hopefully surprise her,

and we were just gonna go through it,

and I didn't have much to say.

Basically, what you're seeing in the scene

is the performance that Dylan brought, and that's thrilling.

[John] I've, I've just got a lot of-

Yeah, I understand, it's-

You know, I mean, I gotta keep the, the plates spinning.

I gotta keep the balls

in the air. Dad

it's okay, Dad.

It's really, it's fine.

I read the script before I ever read Jennifer's book

or then talked to Jennifer, so my initial relationship

with this story was a big poetic license

on what she had written in her beautiful memoir,

you know, trying to feel some ownership

of the material personally, to then,

when I talked to Jennifer, bounce things off of her,

and she was unusually encouraging of poetic license.

So we were able to use what really happened

to clarify things, to correct things.

She was a great partner in doing that.

As someone playing a real person, I felt the same thing.

I met her two and a half weeks before we started shooting.

The biggest thing that she told me was,

I'm not looking for someone to mimic me.

I just want my story to be told.

So I think that allowed me as an actor

to have a lot of freedom and not feel

the pressure of being Jennifer.

It was just the pressure of telling her story right.

Balls

in the air- Dad,

it's okay, Dad.

It's really, it's fine.

I just want a fresh start, you know.

I can say for myself that I'm a terrible insomniac,

I always have been, but if both of my kids

are sleeping under my roof, which still happens

on occasion when they come out to visit,

these are the only times I go straight to sleep.

So having both of them slaves to the location,

because they were in the movie,

was relaxing to me, and I like having them close.

And then some when seeing them express themselves

so beautifully on film.

As I said, I was reluctant to do it,

and then as soon as I stepped on set,

I felt so at home, so I would definitely do it again,

but I think I'd wanna reverse it and direct him next.

[laughs]