Mark Rylance has admitted he initially tried to turn down working with Sean Penn on ‘The Gunman.’
The 55-year-old actor, who plays Cox in the action thriller, reveals the hunky star, 54, rung him up and asked him if he would be in a movie with him but, at first, he was skeptical about agreeing to it.
Speaking exclusively to BANG Showbiz at the world premiere of the film, held at BFI Southbank in London, tonight (16.02.15), Mark explained: "Sean Penn called me up and asked if I’d be in a film with him. I tried to say no, but I couldn’t."
However, the English-born star’s decision was swayed because he believed Sean, who is the founder of the J/P Haitian Relief Organisation following the 2010 earthquake, has experience in areas that he’s never come across before.
He said: "Acting with Sean Penn was something I hadn’t explored before. I guess I was interested in that he’d met a lot of professional military men in Haiti and on one occasion, saved his life. And so I felt that, as a producer, he would have an eye on the truth of it from his own experience.
"The way he talked about the film, about coming into this genre of action thrillers and how he would bring his consciousness to it [excited me]. He’s very, very physically fit in it, and does some incredible fighting. But I thought there’d be more thinking in it than is often the case in this genre. I’m not too familiar with the genre myself, so I don’t know…"
Other stars to grace the red carpet at the screening tonight included Sean, Idris Elba and Ray Winstone.
Mark Rylance tried to turn down The Gunman
