14 DAY TRIAL // Over the weekend, Sean Penn caused quite a media frenzy when he showed up in Cannes at a Haiti fundraising and insulted everyone present, accusing them of abandoning the cause. A new interview with Today explains why he got so passionate about it.
Penn sat down with Ann Curry to talk about Haiti and his charitable actions there, but also about his hot temper and why he believes people think him a tyrant when he's working.
Video of the interview is below, embedded at the end of the article.
Right from the start, Curry asks the Oscar-winning actor and director, who has been spending the past couple of years helping the people in Haiti get back to a resemblance of their life before the earthquake, about Haiti and why he's so upset – frustrated at times – about it.
Penn explains that the entire campaign has been very “emotional” because, with every new activity or project he starts, he imagines it will end in success – but that doesn't happen on a regular basis.
Asked about what victory in Haiti would look like, Sean chokes up.
“Victory looks like a brilliant young Haitian kid, who had no better choice than to go to the United States and get an education, make a decision to go home,” he says.
“It looks like where people have a chance, where kids get to say 'I was born here, I can get the education here, and I can do it',” the actor, visibly emotional, further says.
Much has been said and written about Sean Penn's temper and he's the first to admit that he has clear issues when it comes to controlling his anger: it's just that he tends to lose it whenever he sees people come to Haiti for fame and press, instead of motivated by a real desire to help out.
“Most of the people I’m angry at are usually international volunteers who are coming over to stamp themselves with a do-gooder label… I don’t control my temper well, I guess,” Penn explains, smiling.
“I’m not going to accuse myself of being moral… I recognize a lot of the things that are less than good in me, and similarly there is a very powerful thing that comes when something is good despite me,” the actor adds.
In the same interview, he also talks about his brilliant career in Hollywood so far and how he believes his strength as an actor comes from being willing to give everything up at the drop of a hat. Ann Curry tells him he's an idealist.