Family business
Hopper Penn & mom Robin Wright team up for ‘Devil’s Peak’
“Devil’s Peak” is an unabashedly intense, intensely violent family drama pivoting on a battle of wills between a father and son that affords Hopper Jack Penn a splendid showcase.
He’s Jacob McNeely, whose mother (Robin Wright) is a depressed addict. His father (Billy Bob Thornton) sadistically controls them both.
“It’s a coming of age story about a man who’s trying to start a new life and let the past be the past,” said Penn, 29, on a Zoom interview from Hawaii. “I see it as a kid that has no way out of this world that he’s been brought into. I don’t think he even has a choice to get out of it once he’s brought into it, because he knows his dad is not a very nice person and would probably pull a trigger even on his own son.”
As brutal and malignant as the father is, “There’s definitely hope,” Penn said. “From the beginning you understand that Jacob is not the same as his dad — or the rest of his family, for that matter.
“From the start, you see that he’s scared of his dad and needs to get out.”
Acting opposite his mother playing his mother was among the film’s benefits. “What I can say about working with my mom is right when they like said ‘Action!’ it was so comfortable. It was really, really easy to fall into that character a little bit more. It felt a little bit more real when I was with my actual mom.
“Specifically what I remember is my main scene with my mom is a big emotional crying scene and after me and my mom looked at each other, laughed and went out and had a cigarette together.”
He’s a third generation actor — Penn’s father is Sean Penn — Jack, his middle name, is for Nicholson. However, Hopper isn’t for the late Dennis Hopper (“Easy Rider,” “Blue Velvet”).“As a kid I wasn’t really aware until a little bit later who Dennis Hopper was,” Penn said. “But I was named Hopper because my mom said that I hopped in her stomach all along.”
Having celebrated parents doesn’t mean he’s studied their careers. “A lot of my friends are shocked that I’ve never seen ‘The Princess Bride’ and I just recently saw ‘Forrest Gump’ for the first time. It’s weird — because I believe I’ve seen more of my dad’s movies but I definitely think my mom’s a much better actress.”