Toronto Film Festival: Sean Penn 'Into the Wild'

By Mary McSweeney Sep 10, 2007, 4:17 GMT

The Toronto Film Festival is underway, and the no smoking ban is being taken seriously by one of Hollywood's biggest smokers, Sean Penn.

Actor-turned-director Sean Penn was in the spotlight at the Toronto International Film Festival on Sunday, but his nerves were shot as he chewed out photo journalists for snapping his photo.

Penn sucked on ice cubes and busted out some salty lingo as he fielded reporters  discussing "Into The Wild," his latest film with a critically raved up performance by actor and author, Emile Hirsch.

Penn seemed to have trouble focusing on questions, halting the press conference twice to ask reporters to stop distracting him.

"You can stop taking pictures because I can't think," Penn told photographers as working cameras made clicking noises around him.

"What's everybody else talking about? Or are you just interrupting?" Penn said in a calm but forceful tone, his voice trailing off.

"Into The Wild," is based on the Jon Krakauer book of the same name, where 23-year-old Christopher McCandless (Hirsch) abandons his possessions, gives away $24,000 in savings and hitchhikes to Alaska to live in the wilderness.

Hirsch told all attending reporters at the press junket that he prepared for the role  by spending a lot of time alone,  and intense endurance training that involved "rigorous, rigorous, rigorous running and hiking."

He also read the books that inspired McCandless such as Jack London's "Call of the Wild."

"I found this kind of moral core that I feel like is within us all that just kind of had some of the dirt wiped off of it," Hirsh said.

Penn downplayed his directorial influence, saying he's always resented it when people ask how directors get great performances out of their actors.

"Doesn't happen," he said, with more salty languange used.

"Directors don't get performances out of actors. Actors give great performances to directors."