L OS
ANGEL E S ,
C A :
Dylan Frances Penn. Five-foot-seven and change. Sister of Hopper Penn. Daughter of Sean Penn and Robin Wright. Niece of Chris Penn,
Michael Penn and Aimee Mann. Granddaughter of Leo Penn and Eileen Ryan. Aries. Model. It’s quite a potent concoction. You get the Robin
Wright DNA immediately: the lips, the hair, the nose, the moon-dust white skin, the soft yet strong beauty that the movie world bathed in in
her mom’s breakout film The Princess Bride. The Sean Penn stuff isn’t so clear—yet. Her real love is writing, observing people, their behavior—
definitely Seanesque—and she’ll get a chance to plumb those depths in her acting debut in the horror flick The Condemned, shooting now and
due out next year. Yup, she’s following the well-worn and often fraught path from modeling to acting—one, incidentally, that she’s refused to
do until now—that so many leggy beauties have stumbled and fallen on—only this may be a path worth watching. Not for the spectacular and
predictable fall but a possible rocket launch into the Tinseltown cosmos. Dylan Penn. Coming soon.
So, Dylan, the cover of TREATS!?
Yes! It feels pretty strange. I’m
honored to be on a cover of a
magazine like TREATS!. I was so
excited to work with Tony Duran; it
was definitely an experience I will
never forget. I never would have
guessed getting naked—using a Fendi
purse to cover my vagina!—would be
so challenging. Ha!
What made you want to do the cover
of TREATS!?
Tony Duran. I knew his photography
from before and really admire him
as an artist. I have always loved his
black-and-white nudes; they were
always so tastefully done and, more
specifically, showed that certain
elegant yet strong beauty that I think
all women embody.
You grew up in San Francisco, not
Los Angeles. Was that a good thing?
Thank god I didn’t grow up in LA! No,
in all seriousness, I was raised outside
of San Francisco, in Marin County, in
a small suburban town called Ross. I
couldn’t have chosen a better, more
beautiful place to grow up. I don’t
deny that I had a very privileged
upbringing but my parents, and the
town, maintained a sense of normalcy
that I think many people find hard to
achieve, and I am so grateful for that.
What’s next in your career?
Well, I’m trying out this whole acting
thing...it’s hard to say for me because
I’ve rejected it my whole life until now.
I literally can’t say it without laughing.
My truest passion is writing so I
continue to do that on my own while
seeing what all the buzz is about
being in front of the camera. I start
my first movie at the end of the month
with Eli Morgan Gesner, who I cannot
wait to work with. I swore I would
never do a horror film but when I
read the script and met him I couldn’t
resist; it just seemed like it would
be so much fun to make and I really
wanted my first experience to be just
that. Plus, it’s 3 weeks in New York in
the spring—and I’m getting paid for it.
Fuck yes!
TEXT BY ROB HILL
treatsmagazine.com
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