A COMPLEX CHARACTER SEAN PENN ON POLITICS, FILM, FAMILY AND BOXING WITH DYLAN.

Byline: Glenn Whipp Film Writer

Sean Penn doesn't much like interviews or anything that smacks of self-promotion.

When he picked up his Oscar in February for his lead turn in Clint Eastwood's ``Mystic River,'' it was the first time Penn had actually attended the ceremony, despite being nominated three other times. He has no qualms about berating fellow actors for selling out, i.e. doing movies or commercials just for the fat paycheck.

Certainly there was little money involved in Penn's latest movie, ``The Assassination of Richard Nixon,'' which is why Penn is lighting up what will be the first of many cigarettes as he agreeably promotes the film. (``I'm going to retire from interviews and cigarettes at the same time,'' he jokes.)

The low-budget movie is based on the true story of a would-be assassin, the downtrodden Samuel Byck, who, in 1974, attempted to hijack an airliner so he could crash it into the White House. The film is an unnerving portrait of alienation with Penn somehow making you empathize with a drowning man on the verge of implosion. Many critics have ranked the performance among the finest in Penn's illustrious acting career.

``I had to find someone go deep inside and inhabit the character - that's the only way the film could succeed,'' says ``Nixon'' writer-director Niels Mueller. ``With Sean you get that, and then he goes far beyond anything you can imagine. You can eliminate dialogue you thought was essential because Sean communicates so much between the lines. He made editing the film hell, because he'd give truthful take after truthful take, but each one had its own color and variations.''

Here, Penn speaks about the movie's parallels to current events, the ways his children (he has a 13-year-old daughter, Dylan, and an 11-year-old son, Hopper, with wife Robin Wright Penn) have anchored his life and what it's like to fight - and read - Bob Dylan.

Q: Niels Mueller wrote ``Assassination'' five years ago, which makes its topicality - a man hijacking an airplane to use as a weapon, a president waging an unnecessary war, voters ignoring a candidate's record and broken promises - kind of uncanny.

A: Cycles. We have a funny way of not learning from history, of not learning from the truth. I've been reading Steinbeck's ``Once There Was a War'' recently, and there's stuff right off the top that talks about America not paying attention to its history and the wars it ultimately deserves accordingly.

Q: You can't help but think of Bush when Byck howls the line, ``He's the greatest salesman in the country. He made a promise. He didn't deliver. Then he sold us on the exact same promise again. That's believing in himself.''

A: He has an excellent sales executive in Mr. (Karl) Rove. It brings to mind the saying: Certainty is the disease of kings. For me, it's an indirect parallel that I find most dramatic. There's a sort of a shared ambivalent insecurity that people have with our current president. It's such a transparent crisis that he's in on a daily, moment-to-moment basis. He seems so desperately insecure that he fills that with a sort of blind certainty that's talked about in the film.

Q: Yet, in voting for him, people cited the fact that he is a ``strong leader.''

A: That's wordplay. The vocabulary has been so taken over in a way. What's ``strong'' is what can be described as strong in a half-minute sound bite. Violence is strong in the advertising world. We know in our own lives that it's generally a sign of weakness.

Q: Byck's alienation is palpable. He loses his job and his family, looks around and blames a society that he feels has failed to deliver on its promises. It reminded me of some of the protagonists found in Bruce Springsteen's ``Nebraska'' album.

A: Sure. I think identity is what it takes to be productive. In some way, it's our identity that's most attacked and most likely to be attacked. In these times, there is an assault upon truths. The war abroad, the war at home ... there's this incredible divide that we're talking about all the time. It's so present. People are really polarized. All these things challenge identity.

Q: The biggest punch to the gut is watching this guy's agony in losing his family.

A: That's his primary crisis. More than work. More than Nixon. I don't know anyone who can't relate to that.

Q: You lived apart from your family for a time. Did that inform your work here?

A: There wasn't much apart-from-my-kids time. Everybody's been on some kind of roller coaster, but they've been a constant.

Q: Could you have ever imagined how important your kids would be to you?

A: You can't imagine until you're there. For everything that we owe them, we get this sort of gravy that they become our saviors in some way, whether we demand it of them or not. Whenever the whole world seems mad ... there's this (Rabindranath) Tagore quote I put at the beginning of (Penn's 1991 film) ``The Indian Runner'' that says, ``Every new child born is proof that God is not yet discouraged.'' They've been a constant anchor for me. In acting, we have sensory recall, and the one thing that I can draw up better than anything else is those two faces in my head.

Q: Having attended the Oscars for the first time this year, I've got to ask: Would you go again?

A: (Long silence) It was a humbling moment. As I said when I won, there are no ``bests'' in acting. It's not about the recognition, which admittedly is nice, or showing up to support a movie and a person (Clint Eastwood) you genuinely feel fortunate to have worked with. It's just the horror of how the whole thing is made to be this arm-wrestling match that's embarrassing.

Q: You traded lawsuits with producer Stephen Bing last year. You said he fired you from a movie because of your political views. His countersuit called you ``crazy and irrational.'' Whatever happened with that? Did it get resolved?

A: I feel quite resolved about it. That's about as much as I can say.

Q: Given that your father (actor Leo Penn) was a blacklist victim during the McCarthy era, the lawsuit had to bring out some pretty personal feelings.

A: There was a dangerous moment there, and there were certain incidents ... some people are spineless clowns in this life, and sometimes you run across them. There was no kind of business-wide blacklist. But I think everyone should keep their eyes open because there are so many other diabolical things repeating themselves. I don't think it's safe to look the other way and say it's not going to happen.

Q: You're the reader on the audio version of Bob Dylan's ``Chronicles.'' How'd that come about?

A: He called. You don't say no to Bob. It's the first and last time I'll do it though. It's a big job.

Q: Are you friends?

A: Friendly acquaintances. I've never known him very well. There was a period of time when we used to box together. I had a ring at my house.

Q: Who came out ahead in those matches?

A: The interest was serious, but it was just for enjoyment.

Q: No broken bones?

A: No broken bones. No trips to the emergency room.

Q: You don't want to be the guy who put Bob Dylan in the hospital.

A: No. Or have it be the other way around.

Q: You say you'd never do another one of these audiobooks, but, you know, Dylan says he has two more volumes coming.

A: Yeah, I know. (Laughs) I've changed my number. (Laughs) I think you should only read books aloud for people who are shorter than you.

Glenn Whipp, [phone]

glenn.whipp(at)dailynews.com

CAPTION(S):

3 photos

Photo:

(1 -- cover -- color) Winning an Oscar hasn't softened SEAN PENN

Kevork Djansezian/Associated Press

(2) In ``The Assassination of Richard Nixon,'' Sean Penn is a man who wants to hijack an airliner and crash it into the White House.

(3) Samuel Byck (Penn) is estranged from his wife, Marie (Naomi Watts), in the movie, which is based on a true story.