Why Sean Penn didn’t want anyone to like Michael J Fox: “You have to hate him”
How can you not love Michael J Fox?
Despite receiving a life-changing Parkinson’s diagnosis at the age of just 30, he continues to be a positive figure in modern Hollywood, and his foundation has raised hundreds of millions of dollars towards finding a cure for the disease, which is why he remains a symbol of hope not only for Parkinson’s patients, but for anyone living with an illness, and that’s without mentioning his acting career. He’s Marty McFly, for crying out loud!
Off the top of my head, I can only think of two people who might have something against Fox: one is Eric Stolz, the actor whom he replaced in Back to the Future (that can’t have been an easy pill to swallow), and the other is Sean Penn.
The source for this shocking revelation is Stephen Baldwin. Alec’s brother was on the One Bad Movie podcast talking about the 1989 Brian De Palma film Casualties of War. Baldwin had a very brief role in the film, while Fox and Penn were the leads. He recalled a conversation he had with Penn about their co-star, which took an unusual and unexpected turn.
“We can’t be friends with Mike Fox,” is what Penn told Baldwin. When he asked him for a reason, Penn revealed that it was all to do with the movie. “Our characters, we hate him,” he said. “So you have to hate him with me. Do what I tell you.”
For context, Casualties of War is about the infamous ‘Hill 192’ incident during the Vietnam War, concerning a group of US soldiers who abduct a Vietnamese woman from her home before raping and murdering her. Fox plays the sole objector to this hideous crime, through whose flashbacks the story is told, while Penn stars as the Sergeant who, after witnessing the death of one of his friends, orders the kidnapping. Baldwin appears as an unnamed soldier, having previously been cast in a more profile role. He was fired a few days into shooting and was replaced by John C Reilly.
It’s clear that Penn didn’t actually hate Fox while making this movie. Still, does that make his comments acceptable? Your answer will vary depending on your tolerance for method acting. Penn is a notorious practitioner of this controversial technique.
Even as far back as Fast Times at Ridgemont High, he would stay in costume at all times and refuse to answer to his real name. If you ask a supporter of method acting, they’ll tell you that the results speak for themselves. However, was it really necessary for Penn to instruct, nigh-on demand, other actors to hate Fox? Especially when dealing with subject matter as sensitive as this?
Those questions – as well as the wider method debate – are far too complicated to answer here. Ultimately, the only person who matters here is the one who was being hated. Fox still has a great fondness for Casualties of War. He thinks of it as his most overlooked movie. With that in mind, he probably doesn’t mind that much that everybody pretended to think he was trash for the entire shoot.
