Sean Penn says he felt 'misery' making movies for years. Then Dakota Johnson knocked on his door

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

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

“I’d felt misery in making movies,” the two-time Oscar winner recalled during a recent interview. “At first you’re putting it off to, ‘Well, this script is a problem, and this director is a problem.’ But then I caught myself a few times working on great things with great people and just as miserable.”

That is until his neighbor, Dakota Johnson, knocked on his door with a script and an invitation to be her co-star. “No reservations at all. I felt like you would feel getting your first movie,” Penn recalled of his initial response to reading “Daddio,” which hits theaters nationwide Friday.

But the film that re-enchanted Penn with the art of making movies is by no means a typical Hollywood flick. Instead, “Daddio” is an austere portrait of an ephemeral, serendipitous human connection that feels rare nowadays, if not nearly extinct.

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

“I think we’re stripping whole generations of diversity of behavior and diversity of personality,” he said, conceding that he understands concerns about sensitivity, but only to a point. “Changing one’s vocabulary or altering it in certain circumstances becomes the full-time job and reflective thought is left behind.”

“Daddio” follows Girlie (Johnson), a woman who is returning to New York after a trip out of state. The film begins with her getting in a cab at JFK airport and ends with her getting dropped off at home. The 90 minutes in between are filled with ostensibly mundane but revealing conversations between Girlie and her cab driver, Clark (Penn).

“Daddio” is the feature debut of writer-director Christy Hall, who, perhaps 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 series, “Taxicab Confessions.”

Penn, like he does in many of his roles, brings a masculine energy that gives life to a brash and foul-mouthed cabbie, but one who ultimately proves to have a tenderness. Similarly, Johnson’s Girlie is a savvy, successful software engineer who appears to have it all together, but whose relationship with her father — or lack thereof — ultimately leads her to seek that love elsewhere.

“This movie is about the human condition, that there’s two sides to all of us. We’re always contending with our greater angels and our darkest demons. And I’m interested in characters that are always contending with both, because that’s actually the truth,” Hall said.

“Daddio” will undoubtedly test some viewers' attention spans, but others will find themselves drawn in by the candid 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 are vocal about their frustrations with Hollywood and said this project was, coincidentally, a kind of epiphany for each of them.

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

It’s only been a few months since she came off her press tour for “Madame Web,” which was a critical and commercial flop. Shortly after the film’s debut, Johnson affirmed criticism of the movie, saying she doesn’t anticipate doing another one like it.

“This notion of executives, not necessarily creative people, deciding what is going to work in an artistic sense doesn’t actually make sense to me at all,” she said. “I think that a lot of the studios, well streaming platforms mostly, 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 spent years through TeaTime, her production company, working with Hall to get the film financed. After years in limbo and studio execs asking why people would find a movie so devoid of action and drama entertaining, it was eventually picked up by Sony Pictures Classics.

Johnson hopes to savor the joy she feels coming off of this film, and to remember it the next time she’s fighting for a project.

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

Christy Hall, center, writer/director of the film "Daddio," poses with cast members Sean Penn, left, and Dakota Johnson, Friday, June 14, 2024, in Santa Monica, Calif. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

This image released by Sony Pictures Classics shows Sean Penn in a scene from "Daddio." (Sony Pictures Classics via AP)

This image released by Sony Pictures Classics shows Dakota Johnson in a scene from "Daddio." (Sony Pictures Classics via AP)

Christy Hall, center, writer/director of the film "Daddio," poses with cast members Sean Penn, left, and Dakota Johnson, Friday, June 14, 2024, in Santa Monica, Calif. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

Christy Hall, center, writer/director of the film "Daddio," poses with cast members Sean Penn, left, and Dakota Johnson, Friday, June 14, 2024, in Santa Monica, Calif. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

Christy Hall, center, writer/director of the film "Daddio," poses with cast members Sean Penn, left, and Dakota Johnson, Friday, June 14, 2024, in Santa Monica, Calif. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Seesawing results released early Saturday in Iran’s presidential election put the race between little-known reformist Masoud Pezeshkian and hard-liner Saeed Jalili, with the lead trading between the two men as a runoff vote appeared likely.

Iranian state television reported the results which did not initially put either man in a position to win Friday's election outright, potentially setting the stage for a second round of voting to replace the late hard-line President Ebrahim Raisi who died in a helicopter crash last month.

So far, no turnout figures have been offered— a crucial component of whether Iran's electorate backs its Shiite theocracy after years of economic turmoil and mass protests.

Voters faced a choice between the three hard-line candidates and Pezeshkian, a heart surgeon.

After counting over 19 million votes, Pezeshkian had 8.3 million while Jalili held 7.18 million. Another candidate, hard-line parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, had some 2.67 million votes while Shiite cleric Mostafa Pourmohammadi had over 158,000 votes.

Iranian law requires that a winner gets more than 50% of all votes cast. If not, the race’s top two candidates will advance to a runoff a week later. There’s been only one runoff presidential election in Iran’s history: in 2005, when hard-liner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad bested former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani.

As has been the case since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, women and those calling for radical change have been barred from running, while the vote itself will have no oversight from internationally recognized monitors.

There had been calls for a boycott, including from imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi. Mir Hossein Mousavi, one of the leaders of the 2009 Green Movement protests who remains under house arrest, has also refused to vote along with his wife, his daughter said.

There’s also been criticism that Pezeshkian represents just another government-approved candidate. In a documentary on the reformist candidate aired by state TV, one woman said her generation was “moving toward the same level” of animosity with the government that Pezeshkian’s generation had in the 1979 revolution.

Raisi, 63, died in the May 19 helicopter crash that also killed the country’s foreign minister and others. He was seen as a protégé of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and a potential successor. Still, many knew him for his involvement in the mass executions that Iran conducted in 1988, and for his role in the bloody crackdowns on dissent that followed protests over the death of Mahsa Amini, a young woman detained by police over allegedly improperly wearing the mandatory headscarf, or hijab.

The voting came as wider tensions have gripped the Middle East over the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip.

In April, Iran launched its first-ever direct attack on Israel over the war in Gaza, while militia groups that Tehran arms in the region — such as the Lebanese Hezbollah and Yemen’s Houthi rebels — are engaged in the fighting and have escalated their attacks.

Meanwhile, the Islamic Republic continues to enrich uranium at near weapons-grade levels and maintains a stockpile large enough to build — should it choose to do so — several nuclear weapons.

Despite the recent unrest, there was only one reported attack around the election. Gunmen opened fire on a van transporting ballot boxes in the restive southeastern province of Sistan and Baluchestan, killing two police officers and wounding others, the state-run IRNA news agency reported. The province regularly sees violence between security forces and the militant group Jaish al-Adl, as well as drug traffickers.

Karimi reported from Tehran, Iran.

In this photo provided by Iranian Students' News Agency, ISNA, reformist candidate for the Iranian presidential election Masoud Pezeshkian casts his ballot as he waves to media in a polling station, in Tehran, Iran, Friday, June 28, 2024. Iranians are voting in a snap election to replace the late hard-line President Ebrahim Raisi. (Majid Khahi, ISNA via AP)

A man casts his ballot during the presidential election as he holds a picture of the late President Ebrahim Raisi in a polling station, in Tehran, Iran, Friday, June 28, 2024. Iranians were voting Friday in a snap election to replace the late President Ebrahim Raisi, killed in a helicopter crash last month, as public apathy has become pervasive in the Islamic Republic after years of economic woes, mass protests and tensions in the Middle East. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

A woman fills out her ballot during the Iranian presidential election in a polling station at the shrine of Saint Saleh in northern Tehran, Iran, Friday, June 28, 2024. Iranians were voting Friday in a snap election to replace the late President Ebrahim Raisi, killed in a helicopter crash last month, as public apathy has become pervasive in the Islamic Republic after years of economic woes, mass protests and tensions in the Middle East. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei waves to media after casting his vote during the presidential election in Tehran, Iran, Friday, June 28, 2024. Iranians were voting Friday in a snap election to replace the late President Ebrahim Raisi, killed in a helicopter crash last month, as public apathy has become pervasive in the Islamic Republic after years of economic woes, mass protests and tensions in the Middle East. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

A woman prepares to casts her ballot during the presidential election at a polling station inside the Iranian embassy in Baghdad, Iraq, Friday, June 28, 2024. Iranians are voting in a presidential election to replace the late President Ebrahim Raisi, killed in a helicopter crash in May along with the country's foreign minister and several other officials. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei arrives to vote for the presidential election, in Tehran, Iran, Friday, June 28, 2024. Iranians voted Friday in a snap election to replace the late hard-line President Ebrahim Raisi, with the race's sole reformist candidate vowing to seek "friendly relations" with the West in an effort to boost his campaign. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

A woman prepares to casts her ballot during the presidential election at the Iranian consulate in Basra southeast of Baghdad, Iraq, Friday, June 28, 2024. Iranians are voting in a presidential election to replace the late President Ebrahim Raisi, killed in a helicopter crash in May along with the country's foreign minister and several other officials. (AP Photo/Nabil al-Jourani)

In this photo provided by Iranian Students' News Agency, ISNA, hard-line former Iranian senior nuclear negotiator and candidate for the presidential election Saeed Jalili casts his ballot in a polling station, in Tehran, Iran, Friday, June 28, 2024. Iranians are voting in a snap election to replace the late hard-line President Ebrahim Raisi. (Alireza Sotakabr, ISNA via AP)