Sean Penn drama places casting call for day-old baby
http://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/jul/27/sean-penn-drama-places-casting-call-for-day-old-baby Version 0 of 1. An advert was placed on 23 July for a day-old baby to star in director Sean Penn’s next film. Related: Sean Penn: shooting The Gunman doesn't make me a 'geri-action hero' The casting call was sent out looking for a “pregnant black woman who is about to give birth,” then adding that the crew would need the baby only, but “the mother is allowed on set”. The pay was set as R1500 (£77) a day. The role was for The Last Face, a drama that Penn is shooting in South Africa, starring Charlize Theron and Javier Bardem as doctors who fall in love. The use of a day-old baby would be illegal in California, as babies must be at least 15 days old before they can be on a film set. Even then, any child between the age of 15 days and six months cannot work more than 20 minutes a day. But in South Africa, there are no laws that prevent newborn babies being used in a film production. Penn and Theron called off their engagement earlier this summer, after he appeared at the Cannes film festival to support her in promoting Mad Max: Fury Road. In May, Theron spoke about the difficulties of working with Penn on the film: “Putting aside that he’s my partner, he’s the love of my life; for the first time, I felt that my work was really bleeding into my life and that made it hard,” she said to ELLE UK. “There were moments where I was incredibly unfair to him. And moments where I felt like … he was incredibly unfair to me. But it makes you realise that no matter how complicated it gets, the priority is the relationship.” |