Sean Penn is soft-spoken and thoughtful as he sits on a hotel patio in Hollywood. A cigarette burns slowly between his fingers; his tea is cooling beside him. At 65, he’s mellow and pensive about a long career that’s won him two Academy Awards (for Mystic River and Milk ). In other words, he’s the polar opposite of the character he plays in Paul Thomas Anderson ’s One Battle After Another. Penn’s Colonel Steven J. Lockjaw is a ruthless military leader, hell-bent on finding the ex-revolutionaries ( Leonardo DiCaprio and Teyana Taylor ) who escaped his wrath 16 years earlier. With his bad alt-right haircut and ramrod posture, Lockjaw is a tightly wound, vengeful obsessive vibrating intensity from every fiber of his being.

Penn and I are meeting less than 24 hours after Charlie

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