Hollywood star Sean Penn has finally teamed up with Leonardo DiCaprio in Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another, and for the Oscar-winner, the experience was as rewarding as it was overdue. Sean, who plays Col. Steven J. Lockjaw in the film, admitted that he and Leonardo had known each other since the latter was a teenager, but never had the chance to share the screen. “Leo brings humongous talent and laser focus,” he said, adding that he was struck by how perfectly DiCaprio fit into Anderson’s writing. “He will go as far out or under as it gets. I love him,” Sean added.
The role Sean takes on is far from conventional. As Col. Lockjaw, he embodies a figure who is both menacing and oddly sympathetic, a man whose presence unsettles Leonardo’s character Bob when his daughter goes missing. The layered performance, Sean explained, was built in constant dialogue with Anderson. “This is exactly the area I most relied on him for. A director can communicate their vision, but when it’s this nuanced, there’s only one person on Earth who wholly sees it until we watch it in the theater. After a take I’d look at Paul and ask, ‘More? Less?’ and he’d know right away,” he said.
Sean described receiving Paul Thomas Anderson’s script as “a gift,” recalling how he laughed almost immediately at its boldness and wit. He said that he had long admired Paul Thomas’ originality, and having worked with him briefly on Licorice Pizza, but he was eager to dive deeper. “Before I read page one, I sat down with high hopes. I knew it was going to be something I wanted to do,” he said.
For Sean, what makes One Battle After Another stand apart is Paul’s ability to balance vision with freedom, giving actors space while holding the film together with precision. “Sometimes people use words like ‘genius’ too freely. But I suspect Paul’s a film genius. Every time I’ve seen the movie, I giggle—even in the most torturous parts—because it’s such a view through an original mind,” he reflected.
