'Bring back shame': Sean Penn and Julia Roberts discuss cancel culture

Sean Penn and Julia Roberts critiqued cancel culture and the absence of shame as they discussed her 'provocative' Me-Too film After The Hunt. 

The One Battle After Another actor, 65, and Pretty Woman actress, 58, sat down together for Variety 'Actors On Actors' as they discussed each others' careers. 

A major point of discussion was Julia's recent film After The Hunt - which follows a college professor [Roberts] whose star pupil makes a sexual assault accusation against one of her colleagues causing a dark secret from her own past to surface.

The film looks at the complexities of a person's loyalties and bonds being put in direct competition with their ethical and moral compass. 

Sean shared how he thought it was refreshing to see the 'provocative' film challenge the idea that no one should be made to feel uncomfortable, adding: 'I think shame is underrated these days. It's got a bad name this decade. Why shouldn't people be ashamed of things?'

Meanwhile Julia said that in preparation for the film she got to have intelligent conversations where people actually listened to each other rather than insisting their belief is wholly correct. 

'Luca and Andrew [Garfield] and Ayo [Edebiri] and Chloë [Sevigny] came to our house and sat for days and days at our kitchen table, and we had all these conversations,' she said.

'Really bright people do not jockey for their position. They share their ideas and their feelings and then they listen intently. It's the listening that I feel we've gotten the farthest from in culture, because conversations get so intense so quickly, and you're just waiting for that break so that you can say, "OK, but this is why I'm right. This is why what I believe is better".'

Julia added: 'It was so nice to have the time and to be with truly bright people, and hearing what everybody had to say. 

'We didn't necessarily tell all our characters' secrets. But it was just a great playground of thought.'

Referencing a line from the film, Sean said: '"Not everything is supposed to make you comfortable" — I just wanted to go, "Thank God somebody's saying this." We're in this time of a lot of talk therapy, a lot of what I'd call the trauma industry. 

'I think shame is underrated these days. It's got a bad name this decade. Why shouldn't people be ashamed of things? Hold on to it for a while and reenter with some more humility.'

He continued: 'It is a provocative movie, and I know that it got some provocative reactions. 

'I thought it was so refreshing, especially for this auteur filmmaker.'

In After The Hunt she plays a Yale professor who defends a friend and colleague (Andrew) who is accused of sexual assault by a younger woman (Ayo).

At one point her character sighs of the allegations: 'I believe her. But whatever happened to stuffing everything down like the rest of us?’

Julia didn't answer the question about feminism but repeatedly said that she just hoped that the film would spark conversations.

She said: 'We're not making statements; we are portraying these people in this moment in time. 

'I don't know about controversy, per se, but we are challenging people to have a conversation.

'To be excited or or infuriated about it is up to you. If making this movie does anything, getting everybody to talk to each other is the most exciting thing that I think we could accomplish.'

She added that she felt that 'humanity' had 'lost the art of conversation'.

The After The Hunt press tour was marred with controversy after an interview with Ayo, Julia and Andrew.

Federica Polidoro from Italy's ArtsLife Tv repeatedly appeared to ignore Ayo, who is a black woman, on questions related to Black Lives Matter and #MeToo. 

At one point she was seen specifically excluding an uncomfortable Ayo from the conversation.

Federica was given several chances to divert the interview to the Emmy-winning star of The Bear but continued to focus on Julia and Andrew.

Julia told Federica at one point, 'Can you repeat that? With your sunglasses on I can't tell which of us you're talking to.'

Ayo - who has also won a Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild Awards for her efforts on the popular FX series - eventually answered one of the questions despite being ignored by the interviewer.