Sean Penn defends his directorial debut after its panned Cannes premiere
Sean Penn brought his directorial debut, "The Last Face," the the Cannes Film Festival for its world premiere Friday, and the reactions were not necessarily what he was hoping for.
The film stars Penn's ex-fiancée, Charlize Theron, and Javiar Bardem as aid workers in Liberia who fall in love.
The premiere screening was greeted with boos and jeers -- not an out-of-the-ordinary response from the notoriously opinionated French festival crowd -- and then savaged by critics on Twitter and elsewhere. But at the film's press conference, Penn was resolute.
"I stand by the film as it is, and everyone is going to be entitled to their response. I've finished the film so it's not a discussion I'd be of value to," he said, flanked by Theron, Bardem and co-stars Jean Reno and Jared Harris.
"I am surrounded at this table by performances that I'd pay to see 100 times," Penn said.