SUBMITTED BY Timbo

October 8, 2003 — USA Today has an interview with the cast of Mystic River, which is getting a lot of praise from the critics.

"It should have been an 18-week shoot," Penn says. "I'd not be shooting on a day, and I'd come back to the hotel and say, 'What did you get done today?' And it would be, like, 'All of it.' How did he do that?"

Eastwood hints at the answer. "People like to primp a lot on a set," he says. As an actor, Eastwood, 73, says he can no longer tolerate it. Nor can he handle it as a director. "At some point I'd inform crewmembers, 'Just leave people alone, right now, for this scene.' I like it when (the cast) goes home at night feeling like we've done something and we've gone somewhere."

Penn agrees. "There was a consistent sense of accomplishment, where you really knew that you were going to have the energy for the next day's work."

And Laura Linney, who plays Penn's tigress of a wife, adds: "It becomes so much easier in a lot of ways. Not that the material was easy. It costs to do it -- but you feel such momentum."

Read the full article at the link below.