by Daniel Broadway and Rollo Ross
LOS ANGELES — Dakota Johnson knew two-time Academy Award winner Sean Penn was the man she wanted to cast in the lead male role in the movie “Daddio,” but at first she wasn’t sure how it would be possible.
He said, “The first and only person I thought, ‘Oh, he’d be really perfect’, was Sean and we thought he would never do it, because it was a small film with a first-time filmmaker and new producers.”
However, being close to Penn and occasionally hanging out with him gave him the opportunity to ask if he would read the script for “Daddio”.
“He did it really quickly and it was amazing, and then we went for a walk and he loved it,” Johnson said.
Johnson received the screenplay for “Daddio” from writer and director Christy Hall. In the film, she plays a young woman who hails a taxi driven by a man named Clark, played by Penn, who calls her “Girlie.” The character’s real name is never revealed in the film.
“Girlie” travels back to her apartment in Manhattan in a yellow cab after landing at John F. Kennedy Airport. She and Clark, the cab driver, have a surprisingly serious conversation about a number of topics, including relationships, loss, and vulnerability.
“Daddio” hits theaters Friday.
Much of the film is filled with conversations between Clark and ‘Girlie’ in the cab about their lives and experiences.
Penn believes the film challenges the “razzle dazzle” that people are often told they should look for in a film.
For him, a glossy film isn’t necessarily important to make impactful cinema.
Instead, what impressed him about “Daddio” was the quality of the script and the spontaneity of Johnson’s performance as “Girlie”.
“She has such a beautiful vulnerability … that never gets in the way of her strength,” he added.
“It’s vulnerability in the most relevant way,” he said.
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