Dear Gossips,

Sean Penn doesn’t give a lot of interviews. In late 2012 for the January 2013 issue of ESQUIRE, he told the magazine that he didn’t feel that he’d ever been loved and that he’d been frauded by love, presumably by Robin Wright. Click here for a refresher.

Two years later, it’s another interview with ESQUIRE UK and he’s just as candid, only this time his outlook on love is much different. He’s more inclined now to stay home, to stay in LA, close to Charlize Theron…because her son, soon “their” son, Jackson, is settled there. And it certainly sounds like all those marriage rumours are true too:

“Yes, I’d get married again. You say I’ve been married twice before but I’ve been married under circumstances where I was less informed than I am today, so I wouldn’t even consider it a third marriage, I’d consider it a first marriage on its own terms if I got married again.”

He goes on to talk about not expecting to fall in love again at 53. About the romance of it. About how it’s made him happier, softer… but not that soft. I mean, he still makes sure to take a shot at his “second ex-wife”:

“I’m very friendly with my first ex-wife. I would say that I’m on extremely good terms with the children I share with my second ex-wife.”

Those are the headlines you’ll probably read today. But this interview in its entirety is a great celebrity read, even the parts that don’t have anything to do with his love life. That’s not to say the HE is great. Or even likeable. Just that when Sean Penn commits to talking, he will talk. And he will share. And, whether you’re into him or not, it’s undeniable that he’s interesting.

My favourite sections of this piece are when he talks about acting. About the work. About his peers.

“One of the things I notice today: actors are less willing and ready to be directed. Because they’ve been given, by the embrace of the culture, a false sense of what their work is: their work is to express what they feel on that day. Bullsh-t! You know? Bullsh-t.”

I didn’t get the sense that he was saying this from the perspective of being a director either. Because later he explains what it’s like to act for Clint Eastwood and Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu and, despite his blow-hard arrogance, you can feel the respect there, the humility. Yes, in those moments, Sean Penn actually sounds humble.

Then he tells the story about how he was considering Babel and declined and Brad Pitt ended up taking it. The anecdote that he shares about how it was when he and Brad saw each other when the film was completed and screened at TIFF is amazing. I remember that TIFF too. I remember that party. It was at the Park Hyatt rooftop. It was Brad Pitt, Sean Penn, and Angelina Jolie summit.

So, yeah, every word of this profile is worth your gossip time. Because even though he’s loathe to admit, even though he refuses to believe it, Sean Penn is a true Movie Star. Click here to read the full Sean Penn article at ESQUIRE UK.

Yours in gossip,

Lainey