Public
enemy number one, Mickey Cohen, is brought to life on the big screen by
two-time Oscar-winner Sean Penn in Warner Bros.' epic, action-thriller,
“Gangster Squad.”
Photo courtesy of Warner Bros. |
“I
thought it would be a fun old-school gangster picture with a cast I have great
admiration for,” Penn says on what drew him to the film. “And upon meeting
director Ruben Fleischer, I was sold.”
Set
in Los Angeles, 1949, “Gangster Squad” revolves around ruthless, Brooklyn-born
mob king Mickey Cohen who runs the show in this town, reaping the ill-gotten
gains from the drugs, the guns, the prostitutes and—if he has his way—every
wire bet placed west of Chicago. And he does it all with the protection of not
only his own paid goons, but also the police and the politicians he has under
his thumb. It’s enough to intimidate even the bravest, street-hardened
cop…except, perhaps, for the small, secret crew of LAPD outsiders led by Sgt.
John O’Mara (Josh Brolin) and Sgt. Jerry Wooters (Ryan Gosling), who come
together to try to tear Cohen’s world apart.
Mickey
Cohen may be an underworld figure, but his very public image and commanding
presence make him a man not to be crossed…in business or pleasure. He goes
beyond merciless; any breach is a betrayal for which one pays the ultimate
price. But he also has the undeniable charisma that comes with great power.
According
to producer Dan Lin, “Cohen, in real life, was over the top. He was a gangster,
but a Hollywood gangster. He was funny, he loved talking to reporters and, in
public, he really wanted to entertain people, as if he were one of the movie
stars he was always trying to woo. Of course, in private, he was doing dark,
evil things.”
Fleischer cites, “When I imagined
bringing the movie to the screen, the one character that everything seemed to
hinge on was Cohen, the villain, this larger-than-life personality. I
immediately thought of Sean Penn, so having him in the role was huge. Mickey is
such a dynamic, memorable, menacing character and Sean has the gravitas, the
intensity and the humor to pull it off.”
Though
only remotely familiar with the real man, Penn says that for his interpretation
of the character, “I tried to ignore the literal. The real Mickey Cohen so
resembled Al Capone, who I thought De Niro had done so indelibly in ‘The
Untouchables,’ that I felt, for a wide audience who largely would not have been
aware of Mickey Cohen, mimicking Cohen in looks or behavior would have been
unnecessarily burdened with baggage. I thought it was interesting to approach
it and let it grow from just a few pieces of Cohen’s background. He was a prize
fighter, but the style of fighting was more primitive than today, and Cohen was
more primitive in many ways.”
“Sean
really brought to life this guy who, in reality and in our somewhat
fictionalized account of him, has a huge ego and is very colorful,” producer
Kevin McCormick relates. “Cohen had his own publicists, spreads in Life
Magazine, owned his own haberdashery and never wore the same suit twice, and
had a collection of beautiful, statuesque ladies on his arm all the time.
Sean’s interpretation of the man is fascinating. In the heyday of gangster
movies, those guys were always such seductive characters, and I think Sean has
that same ability to mesmerize us.”
“There’s
something very appealing about the way Sean plays Mickey Cohen,” co-star Josh
Brolin echoes. “Watching him during a scene, I couldn’t help but like him, even
though my character despises him and everything he stands for. Sean really
brought out the charm in him, even when he was doing something deadly.”
Opening
across the Philippines on Jan. 30, 2013, “Gangster Squad” is distributed by
Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company.
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