Sean Penn says he felt “misery” making films for years. Then Dakota Johnson knocked on his door

SANTA MONICA, Calif. (AP) — Sean Penn he said he hadn’t felt joy making a film in 15 years.

At the time, the actor didn’t really know why, but at one point he became so disillusioned that he resigned himself to the reality that his love for acting might never return.

“I had felt misery while making films”, said twice Oscar winner recalled during a recent interview. “At first you push it away and say, ‘Well, this script is a problem, and this director is a problem.’ But then I found myself repeatedly working on great things with great and equally miserable people.

Until his neighbor, Dakota Johnson, knocked on his door with a script and an invitation to be his co-star. “No reservations at all. I felt like it would feel like your first movie,” Penn recalls of his first reaction to reading “Daddio,” which opens in theaters nationwide Friday.

But the film that re-enchanted Penn with the art of movie-making is by no means a typical Hollywood film. Instead, “Daddio” is a stark portrait of a fleeting, serendipitous human connection that seems rare these days, if not almost extinct.

Part of what Penn appreciated about the script was the unfiltered frankness of its characters, something he says is missing in a lot of contemporary art and broader societal conversations.

“I think we’re robbing entire generations of their diversity of behavior and diversity of personality,” he said, admitting that he understands concerns about sensitivity, but only to a point. “Changing one’s vocabulary or altering it in certain circumstances becomes a full-time job and reflective thinking is left aside.”

“Daddio” follows Girlie (Johnson), a woman who returns to New York after a trip out of state. The film begins with her getting into a taxi at JFK Airport and ends with her being dropped off at home. The middle 90 minutes are filled with seemingly mundane but revealing conversations between Girlie and her taxi driver, Clark (Penn).

“Daddio” is the feature debut of writer-director Christy Hall who, unsurprisingly given that the film is driven by dialogue, has a background in theater. Hall began working on the script in 2014, inspired in part by her nostalgia for the reality TV series “Taxicab Confessions.”

Penn, as he does in many of his roles, brings a masculine energy that brings a brash and crude taxi driver to life, but is ultimately revealed to have a tenderness. Likewise, Johnson’s Girlie is a savvy and successful software engineer who seems to have everything figured out, but whose relationship with her father—or lack thereof—ultimately leads her to seek that love elsewhere.

“This film is about the human condition, about the fact that there are two sides to each of us. We are always grappling with our greatest angels and our darkest demons. And I’m interested in characters who are still struggling with both, because that’s actually the truth,” Hall said.

“Daddio” will undoubtedly test some viewers’ attention spans, but others will find themselves drawn to the frank and compelling conversation between these strangers about sex, daddy issues and being “the other woman”.

Penn and Johnson have more in common than their neighborhood. Both express their frustrations with Hollywood and say that this project was, coincidentally, an epiphany of sorts for both of them.

“I just want to be really in love with what I’m working on and be inspired,” Johnson said.

It’s only been a few months since she finished her press tour for “Madame Web” which was a critical and commercial failure. Shortly after the film’s debut, Johnson confirmed her criticism of the film, saying she had no plans to make another one like it.

“This notion of executives, not necessarily creatives, deciding what’s going to work artistically, doesn’t make sense to me at all,” she said. “I think a lot of studios, and especially streaming platforms, are run by people who don’t even really like movies or watch them.”

Johnson said she “attacked” the script for “Daddio” when she first read it because she loved it so much and had spent years through TeaTime, his production company, to work with Hall to secure financing for the film. After years in limbo and studio executives wondering why people would find a film so devoid of action and drama entertaining, it was finally picked up by Sony Pictures Classics.

Johnson hopes to savor the joy she feels coming out of this film and remember it the next time she fights for a project.

“I think humans crave human connection,” Johnson said. “Maybe it’s because of social media or what’s been thrown at us in terms of entertainment over the last 5 or 10 years. I think the algorithms have really (completed) us that way. It doesn’t give us the content we subconsciously crave, I think.