Sean Penn has declared Jennifer Lawrence “probably the last movie star” who can bring people to theatres by name alone.
The Mystic River star, 64, was discussing the film industry on a podcast with Louis Theroux when he was asked if Leonardo DiCaprio was still a bankable star.
Penn agreed that he was and argued that the Titanic star started out “before they stopped” making proper movie stars. “I think the movie star manufacturer ran out around Jennifer Lawrence’s time or something,” Penn said. “She’s probably the last movie star.”
Lawrence made her Hollywood debut in 2008, but her breakthrough role was two years later in Winter’s Bone which earned the actor her first Oscar nomination.
She went on to play Mystique in X-Men: First Class, reprising her role in three sequels, and was cast as the lead in the Hunger Games series.
In 2012, she starred alongside Bradley Cooper in Silver Linings Playbook and won her first Oscar for best actress.
Talking about the younger generation of actors, Theroux asked Penn who he would “consider a peer”. Penn replied: “I’m seeing performances from some young actors where I feel like I should quit and become an accountant, they’re so good.”
Penn said he hadn’t seen any of Timothee Chalamet’s work when Theroux suggested the Dune star was this generation’s Warren Beatty.
One actor who Penn did think was a bonafide star was Tom Cruise. “He is a guy who pursues excellence on a very high level. This is a very good actor who’s also an extraordinarily committed craftsman,” Penn said.
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Noting that Cruise did all his own stunts, Penn said: “He’s probably the best stuntman in the movie world. When it comes to the amount of skills he has and what he can do, and maybe he’s the most experienced in things because they’re choreographing things for him to do that nobody’s ever been able to afford to put another stuntman to test on.”
Penn said he would work with Woody Allen again in a “heartbeat” despite the historic sexual abuse allegations from the director’s adopted daughter.
“I’d work with him in a heartbeat if it was the right thing,” he said. Speaking about the allegations, he added: “I don’t know anyone well enough to say 100 per cent this didn’t happen, that didn’t happen.”
