INTERVIEW: ROBIN WRIGHT PENN

After bowing out of the Hollywood spotlight for several
years to raise her children, Forest Gump actor Robin Wright
Penn makes a grand return with The Private Lives of Pippa Lee.
In the film, which also stars Blake Lively, Winona Ryder and Julianne Moore, Penn plays Pippa Lee—a middle-aged
mother who seems to be living a picture perfect existence until her much
older husband (Alan Arkin) moves them into a retirement community. A
free-spirited woman before she tied the knot, Pippa is forced to examine
her life when she taps into her wild past by having an affair with a
significantly younger man (Keanu Reeves).

Q: What was the most difficult scene for you in this
film?

Robin Wright Penn: “Having an orgasm on screen.
Thank God it was short. Right? She’s quick.”

Q: What was it like to work with director Rebecca
Miller?

RWP: “She’s the best. It’s ideal when the
writer is the director anytime. But we also had the bible—the book. And
our homework was done for us basically. So when she was on set as
director, when she would refer to or draw comparisons, reference this
idea, that colour and the palette, you were like, ‘Oh yeah, page 36, I
remember!’ You could actually open the book and get to the minutiae.”

Q: What did you like best about the book?

RWP: “She thinks like a man. She tells a story
like a man. And that’s not being biased against women in any way. She
cuts to the chase and I just respond to that kind of person.”

Q: What was it like sharing scenes with Winona Ryder?

RWP: “Bless her heart. She was tortured. She
has a really tough job. She was crying in every scene. She should win an
academy award for that. They took it out of her.”