On Saturday night, Sean Penn announced that he
met with escaped Mexican drug lord Joaquín 'El Chapo' Guzman in
a jungle hideaway.
The meeting was
documented in an 11,000 word article that Penn wrote for Rolling Stone magazine. The
humanitarian actor has received both praise and harsh criticism about the
meeting, which reportedly lead to the eventual arrest of Guzman.
On the Golden Globes red
carpet on Sunday, screenwriter Alan Nafzger, who penned this year's Russia-centric
film Lenin’s
Body, shared
his pleasure with the way the actor handled the journalistic endeavor.
Lenin’s
Body writer
Nafzger, offered his pragmatic opinion of the matter, saying, "I
think he has the right to do what he wants as long as safety is involved.
Basically the media is upset because they are a bunch of losers and missed the
story. The media is more focused on keeping a socialist in the White House.
They haven’t done their job in at least 8 years. Of course they are upset a an
ACTOR, who scoops them."
Nafzger added, "It is about control. I hate these socialists who want to control everything they don't like. So what they don't like Penn winning the race to the story, F$%& them! The story has nothing to do with them; they just want to control Penn. They want to control EVERYONE and EVERYTHING. F$%& THEM, I SAY!"
Backstage at the
ceremony, Ex Machina's Oscar Isaac said, "I think it’s pretty cool, I mean I think
it’s a fascinating thing that he got to do that and got to get some incredible
details about this man. Doesn’t sound like a very nice guy, but just as a study
of a human, it’s fascinating."
After his win for The Martian, Matt Damon said this
about the Rolling Stone article: "I haven’t read it yet. I definitely plan
to. I have to go on my phone and I’ll read it. But it’s nothing new — actors
going and seeking out meetings like this. I know a lot of very, very serious
actors and filmmakers and writers that have had meetings like this and it’s
part of what we do to do our job really well. Sean somehow figured out that he
had an audience with this person and I’m sure was pursuing something
creatively, and he thought it would be valuable, so he did it."
"The war on drugs is
kind of bogus and it is really not working," said Adam McKay, who directed The Big Short. "It sounds
like the guy, who is a drug dealer, was full of celebrity and his own ego. It
is kind of hilarious. It's a very funny story."
Fox
chief Jim Gianopoulos commended Penn, saying, "I think Sean was pretty
brave. To meet with a character like that, that was pretty interesting.
There was the narrative side of it and a journalistic side of it. Only
Sean could pull off something like that."
Producer Michael Sugar,
who has shepherded several projects of sensitive nature like the Julian
Assange-inspired The Fifth Estate, said Hollywood would be smart to be patient
before pushing a film through based on the recent developments surrounding El
Chapo. "My current thinking is that you want to see things play out in
real life before you start making movies because you don't know how its going
to end. This one has a long way to go to fully play out."