Sean Penn says he was ‘unhappy’ making films for years. Then Dakota Johnson knocked on his door

SANTA MONICA, California – SANTA MONICA, Calif. (AP) – Sean Penn says he hasn’t felt joy making a film in 15 years.

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

“I felt unhappy making films,” the two-time Oscar winner recalled during a recent interview. “At first you’re holding off on, ‘Well, this script is a problem, and this director is a problem.’ But then I found myself sometimes working on great things with great people and equally unhappy.”

That’s up to your neighbor, Dakota Johnson, knocked on his door with a script and an invitation to be his co-star. “No reservations. I felt like you would feel when you got your first movie,” Penn recalled of his initial response upon reading “Daddio,” which hits theaters nationwide on Friday.

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

Part of what Penn appreciated about the script was the unfiltered directness of its characters, something he thinks is missing from a lot of contemporary art and broader social conversations.

“I think we’re eliminating entire generations of behavioral diversity and personality diversity,” he said, admitting that he understands sensitivity concerns, but only to a point. “Changing vocabulary or altering it in certain circumstances becomes a full-time job and reflective thinking takes a backseat.”

“Daddio” follows Girlie (Johnson), a woman who is returning 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 ostensibly mundane but revealing conversations between Girlie and her cab driver, Clark (Penn).

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

Penn, as he does in many of his roles, brings a masculine energy that brings to life a brash, foul-mouthed taxi driver who ultimately proves to have tenderness. Similarly, Johnson’s Girlie is an experienced and successful software engineer who seems to have everything under control, but whose relationship with her father – or lack thereof – ultimately leads her to seek that love elsewhere.

“This film is about the human condition, that we all have two sides. We are always struggling with our higher angels and our darker demons. And I’m interested in characters who are always struggling with both, because that’s the truth,” Hall said.

“Daddio” will undoubtedly test the attention span of some viewers, but others will be drawn in by the frank and compelling conversation between these strangers about sex, daddy issues and how to be the “other woman.”

Penn and Johnson have more in common than their neighborhood. Both are open about their frustrations with Hollywood and have said that this project was, coincidentally, something of an epiphany for each of them.

“I just want to be really passionate and inspired by what I’m working on,” Johnson said.

It’s only been a few months since she left her press tour for “Lady Teia,” which was a critical and commercial failure. Shortly after the film’s premiere, Johnson affirmed the criticism of the film, saying that he does not intend to make another one like it.

“This notion of executives, not necessarily creative people, deciding what will work in an artistic sense doesn’t make sense to me,” she said. “I think a lot of the studios, especially the streaming platforms, are run by people who don’t even like movies or watch them.”

Johnson said he “attacked” the “Daddio” script when he first read it because he loved it so much and spent years through TeaTime, his production company, working with Hall to get the film financed. After years in limbo and studio executives asking why people would find a film so devoid of action and drama entertaining, it was eventually picked up by Sony Pictures Classics.

Johnson hopes to savor the joy he gets from seeing this film and remember it the next time he’s scrambling for a project.

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