In the just-released (but admittedly already forgettable) slasher film Condemned, 24-year-old actress and model Dylan Penn plays Maya, a poor little rich girl who escapes from her parents’ constant bickering—and luxury beach house—to seek peace and solace in her boyfriend’s arms. Unfortunately, said boyfriend Dante (Ronen Rubinstein) lives in a Lower East Side condemned flop house.
While she loved the gory script and wanted to work with director Eli Morgan Gesner in his first narrative feature, the spoiled and sheltered Maya didn’t endear herself immediately to Penn. “I didn’t like the character at first,” she said during a recent phone interview. “But it was my fault for reading her as a one-dimensional character.”
She then took more of a long view and focused on Maya’s journey, adding, “[All people have] this time in their lives that makes them grow up.” Rather quickly into the film, Maya has to both learn how to adjust to a life in squalor, and then take charge as she and Dante dodge a virus outbreak that’s turning the building’s denizens into zombie-like monsters. (It doesn’t hurt either that Penn has a camera-ready visage, even while fighting for her survival.)
Just as Penn did with Maya, people may make similar assumptions about the actress because of her background. The daughter of Sean Penn and Robin Wright, she grew up in Marin County, California with her younger brother Hopper, away from the Hollywood limelight. Still, with such a pedigree, you might guess that acting was predetermined for Penn, but you’d be wrong. “From a very young age, I always thought I was going into law,” she explained. But then her legal aspirations ended when Penn started creative writing in high school. She became hooked into the family business.
After taking a few classes at the New School in New York, Penn moved back to L.A. to attend film school at the University of Southern California. Taking pesky core courses didn’t appeal much to the restless student, who dropped out of USC to “dive in and go for it.” The leap into the real world wasn’t without its challenges, though. Once she left school, she says she was cut off financially.
Wanting to do something more than the restaurant service jobs she worked in New York, Penn began modeling and working for her godmother, screenwriter Erin Dignam (The Yellow Handkerchief; Denial), who conscripted her to edit screenplays and storyboards. Now, in between acting gigs, Penn’s working on her writing, aspiring to direct and produce her own films, looking to such role models as Kathryn Bigelow (Point Break; The Hurt Locker), Catherine Hardwicke (Thirteen; Twilight) and her own mom, who’s helmed three episodes of House of Cards so far.
While her parents are giving her the space to forge her own path in Hollywood, Penn’s not above seeking counsel from industry veterans. The best piece of acting advice, she says, came from her dad: “[He said] never do anything that’s false to you because it will appear false on camera.” While she tried to use that as her mantra while working on Condemned, Penn describes how easily she can point out scenes in which it’s clear she didn’t listen to or trust her acting instincts.
Regardless, Penn will have plenty of chances to hone those skills: Her next film, Elvis & Nixon, starring Michael Shannon and Kevin Spacey, is already in post-production, due out next year.
Christine N. Ziemba is a Los Angeles-based freelance pop culture writer and regular contributor to Paste. You can follow her on Twitter.