Julia Roberts and Sean Penn reunited for Variety & CNN’s Actors on Actors season 23.
Roberts, 58, and Penn, 65, appeared on the Saturday, December 6, episode of the series, where they discussed their respective roles in After the Hunt and One Battle After Another and their individual careers.
“I’m thinking back to New York — the Mayflower Hotel during the shooting of The Pope of Greenwich Village,” Penn recalled of meeting Roberts. “You were Eric’s little sister. I’d heard about you, but you must have been a teenager.”
Penn appeared in 1984’s The Pope of Greenwich Village alongside Julia’s older brother, fellow actor Eric Roberts.
“Yes. I still am,” Julia responded.
Julia Roberts Gushes That Husband Danny Is the Thing That Brings Her ‘Joy’
Julia and Penn have more in common than just decades of friendship and her brother, but also Julia’s husband, Danny Moder.
“I think you’re phenomenal,” Penn gushed. “My mom always used to light up when you would come around, and then you’ve got this great husband, who’s my favorite cinematographer.”
Julia further joked that she and Penn share a “love” for Moder, 56.
“I remember him telling me you were doing a movie and Danny was handholding a camera,” Penn added. “He’s focused on his work and getting in a corner, followed by the description, ‘That was the sexiest thing on earth.’”
The two actors also previously worked together on the 2022 Starz limited series Gaslit, where they portrayed married couple Martha and John Mitchell.
“Sean Penn is just the best in the game,” Julia told Entertainment Weekly in April 2022. “And he took it on with such predictable vigor. To watch him go through the transformation and so fully inhabit John Mitchell, and for us to talk about the Mitchells and their relationship, was a thrill for me.”
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The Steel Magnolias actress explained how she and Penn were focused on accurately portraying the married couple, based on the real-life counterparts involved in the Watergate scandal.
“Sean and I were both interested in how to excavate the little details of their relationship so that you could appreciate that these two people really did love each other,” Julia said. “It was almost like there were two of each of us: our characters when they were together, and then our characters when they were with other people. It was pretty fascinating, the things he accomplished. I was really in awe all the time.”
Creator Robbie Pickering also praised Penn’s performance in the show, which earned him a Hollywood Critics Association Awards nomination for Best Actor in a Broadcast Network or Cable Limited or Anthology Series.
“I think the most underrated aspect of any great Sean Penn performance is his vulnerability and his humanity,” Pickering said. “I was fortunate that Sean Penn just really wanted to show the warmth and humanity of this guy, as well as the evil of him.”
Actor-Director Duos Who’ve Worked Together Over and Over Again
Julia and Penn were friends for many years before teaming up for Gaslit.
“You roll the dice when you act with someone who was your friend before, because you don’t know what that process is like or what it’s gonna be like,” Roberts told Entertainment Tonight in April 2022, to which Penn replied, “There is that personal part where it’s an adored friend and an adored actress and talent. I think to work with someone … who raises your game in terms of material, but also in terms of the professional commitment to that material, it is that kind of job working with Julia.”
Penn underwent quite a dramatic transformation to get into character for the series, including wearing prosthetic hair and makeup.
“He has to wear [it] and he has to make it real,” Julia explained. “He was so patient with it. He was never hot or itchy or [saying,] ‘Get this off me.’ He was always present.”
