Penn can relate. He said in an interview Sunday that he has thought often about ducking out of the limelight.
He stars in "This Must Be the Place," which had its U.S. premiere at the Sundance Film Festival. Penn first came to Utah about 27 years ago with "The Falcon and the Snowman."
The film, directed by Paolo Sorrentino, stars Penn as Cheyenne, a raven-maned, mascara-caked former pop icon whose look was inspired by Robert Smith of the Cure. The childlike Cheyenne has left behind the glamor of his old life and now lives quietly in Ireland with his firefighter wife, played by Frances McDormand.
After his father's death, lost soul Cheyenne embarks on a road trip across the United States to track down a former Nazi who brutalized his dad in a concentration camp.
Penn said he empathizes with Cheyenne's decision to get out of the spotlight.
"Turning one's back on stardom might be the highest form of common sense. One that I would aspire to be more complete with," Penn said.
"I don't think it's an overstatement to say that it's an obscene disease of celebrity that's taken over far too much of the life that we do live. I think it's a disease. I think that it's diminished the quality of life. Not particularly for the people who are the focus of it, though that is clearly something that I've been compromised by. But for the culture at large, there is this kind of herd commitment. ... I think it's just become cheap."
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First Posted: 9/1/11 08:18 AM ET Updated: 11/1/11 06:12 AM ET