Film Close-Up: Robin Wright

After kicking her film career into high gear as Jenny in the Oscar-winning blockbuster "Forrest Gump," Robin Wright has her biggest role to date as the title character in the new costume drama "Moll Flanders." But it's her off-screen role as a newlywed, having finally married fiery actor/director Sean Penn, the father of her two children. that becomes the focus of any story about her these days.

"Something pulls us together," says Wright. "I think it was destiny."

Answering questions in a posh New York hotel, Wright admits she had plenty of doubts along the way. In fact, the couple lived apart for much of the past few years. It was only on the night of the Academy Awards. when Penn explained his absence from the show by saying that Wright was ill and he chose to be at her bedside, that their reconciliation went public.

"It's almost as if we lived our hell and now we get to begin a marriage with so many things completed,'' says Wright. "The time off wasn't good. but in retrospect it was to our advantage. We grew up. I feel we both changed . "

Penn, Madonna's ex-husband, has become more mature and responsible. according to Wright. But she quickly adds that he has always been a good father to their 5-year-old daughter, Dylan, and their 2-year-old son, Hopper.

"He's the most loyal person you'll ever meet," she insists. "You know he'll always be there."

Many of Hollywood's greatest stars were there when Penn and Wright were married in a "very traditional" wedding on April 27 in Los Angeles including Marlon Brando and Jack Nicholson.

"It was more grand than I expected," Wright says. "I did it with the help of a friend, with a week to prepare. It was very classy and elegant. Of course, helicopters were overhead while we were saying 'I do.' That was a nightmare. "

It is surprising to hear Wright talk about her wedding. While her husband is probably more famous for his battles with the press than for his work Wright seems to understand the fact that celebrities' rights to privacy are almost non-existent in today's society. But she, too, is a fighter.

''I'm hoping we can all get together and pass a bill, a privacy act. It's so unnecessary. It's so invasive. And it's not the nature of the beast. for that to be a payback. That's not why I not into this business."

Wright got into acting to be involved in projects such as "Moll Flanders." Written and directed by Pen Densham and co-starring Morgan Freeman and Stockard Channing, it is loosely based on the classic novel about a woman who goes from the nunnery to the brothel and beyond without compromising her independent spirit. It's a role that allows Wright to express herself and satisfy her need to communicate.

"I loved the innocence in her, the naivete," notes Wright. "She didn't have a mother and a father. She didn't have the learned environment that we've all had, of right and wrong and love and support and security. To come out of that without giving a damn what anybody thought, she was driven by her belief. If that were my experience, I'd be so devastated by the abandonment and the brutality that I don't think that l'd ever come out of my shell like that."

In her career, Wright is anything but an innocent. She has not only managed the difficult trick of juggling parenthood and acting in movies, but she has also walked the tightrope between the big Hollywood studios and the world of independent filmmaking.

"Usually they say, 'You either choose A, the commerciality route, or B, the art film world.' I sort of went 'I don't want to be one or the other. I just want to be in the middle, to have a selection of all the fruits."'

Of course, being in a smash hit like "Forrest Gump" paves the way. It's unlikely she would have been starring in "Moll Flanders" if she hadn't played .Jenny first.

Wright will next be seen in "Loved," an independent film co-starring William Hurt, slated for release this fall. And she hopes to co-star with Penn in "She's Delovely" this summer, with Nick Cassevetes directing,. She and Penn have worked together before (on I 988's "State of Grace" 1, but obviously not as husband and wife.

"Being married is different," concludes Wright. "It's a fortress that wasn't there. There's something very solid, in a good sense. I tell myself, 'You ain't goin' anywhere now.' You can get angry with that person, but you're still in that room. You have to work it out. Which is great."

By Joey Berlin

ThirdRave Magazine Flicks May 1996

last updated August 29th 1997