Sean Penn has slammed Steve Bannon, who produced the Penn-directed 1991 movie “The Indian Runner,” as “c-word charming” and a “crook.”
During an appearance on “Conan” that aired Thursday night, Penn said, “I noticed that, without any need for them, we had two kind of cheerleader-looking new makeup assistants on the call sheet that, as the director of that movie, I had not called for and yet it was on my very minimal budget to make this film they were being paid.”
Penn joked that Bannon “exerted the same level of charm he does today” back then, and said that the assistants had been flown in from New York, where Bannon “coincidentally” also flew in from.
“That was my first sense of him, that he was, other than the c-word charming, he was a crook, I think is what I thought,” Penn added.
When Bannon took on a role at Donald Trump’s White House years later, Penn said, “I didn’t even know it was the same Steve Bannon until I looked at him closely and imagined the Steve Bannon I knew but where the toxins of the soul so deteriorate and bloat and weld into this — I don’t think you can age like that without hating people.”
Bannon was hired as White House Chief Strategist, but was fired in August 2017, according to reports, although he insists he resigned July 27. He returned to Breitbart News, at which he served as executive chairman at one point, but has since left again.
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