Ol Sean was a household name after all...he'd been in Colors, Fast Times, Bad Boys, At Close Range...Casualties of War, and...Shanghai Surprise, and some movies I haven't seen but were apparently critically acclaimed.
Now that you mention it, has the guy ever had a blockbuster that really sent him over the top? Made him a movie star? He's almost like a Daniel Day-Lewis in that regard.
Yes it definitely should.
shareI see what you mean. In that aspect, I have always viewed Sean Penn as being similar to James Caan: both are incredible actors who are known and loved for both their films and their lovable roguish ways. Despite both actors being insanely taleneted, they both are not really the types to headline a blockbuster, even though it could easily be done by them.
shareDead Man Walking, Mystic River
shareIt actually is under Pacino's name, on the cover !
sharePacino had -- the year before in 1992 -- won the Best Actor Oscar for "Scent of a Woman" (a classic "make up" Oscar for all those more significant roles before, though hey, he played blind and everybody could now do a Pacino impression by saying "Hoo-Ah!"
So Pacino was meant to be the top billed name here. (Sean Penn's two Best Actor Oscars lay over a decade in the future, in the 2000's.)
Sean Penn at this time had announced his "retirement" a couple of times, and wasn't particularly bankable as a leading man. His failed marriage to Madonna, public fights, and brief jail time made him "damaged goods."
It was actually smart of him to ACCEPT the part in Carlito's Way(director Brian De Palma had used him in 1989 in Casualties of War) and to get a little box office cred back.
And so his billing WAS interesting. He's on the poster below Pacino (and in smaller print type size)...but he's the only name given any real size in the poster other than Pacino. Even Penelope Ann Miller doesn't get that billing.
Penn's billing "made a statement":
Al Pacino is the leading man of this picture.
But the "noteable" Sean Penn is right there in star support.
I think it is Penn's most entertaining role after Spicoli in Fast Times at Ridgemont High -- and his best "chameleon look" ever.
Sean Penn is a tard.
shareHe was famous but he wasn't a star.
shareSean Penn fucking sucks. Annoying face and demeanor. Not even close to Al Pacino level.
shareNo. Sean Penn was in Fast times at Ridgemont High and Bad Boys so Pacino had no right to have his name above him in the credits
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