Penn: Yeah, without a doubt. I'm trying to figure out the best way to articulate it because I've never worked on a film of this caliber.

Obviously, I know Bryan's work and Kevin's work, but having not worked with them prior to this I wasn't really sure what to expect. They're both so smart and intelligent. I was really happy to hear their descriptions of where the characters are going, and how the story's going.

I feel like it's so easy. A lot of directors take these huge budget films and just make it about explosions and special effects, and then it's over. You call it a date movie, or a movie for kids, or whatever it is. You've got a group of writers, director and cast who are really committed to making this a story, first and foremost. Then you also have these incredible special effects and all of this action stuff going on.

I felt like that was something that was really refreshing, knowing that a lot of big-budget films tend to go for a gimmicky thing, which is easy to do. It's cool to see people actually focus on the layers.

There's a lot of green screen stuff, just in terms of technical things, so it's not unlike theater where you have to picture a fourth wall so that you don't see the audience there. Selective sight, or whatever you want to call it. There's a lot of that. It's similar to theater, I guess, in that sense. Yesterday we shot a scene that was almost entirely green around you, which is very different from actually being at a museum, or wherever you're supposed to be.

Question: Any other challenges in the filming, aside from the green screen?

Penn: Yeah. I have a really bad attitude problem. (laughs) What do you mean?

Question: Just something you've come up against interesting, something that has been new to you, or just something unknown in the filming process.

Penn: Sure. I'd say it was the special effects work. I haven't had...

Question: Is your character involved in special effects sequences?

Penn: I think every character is. Yeah, a lot.

Question: What's it like watching Kevin get into the character of Lex? It is one second he's "Hey Kevin" and then "action" and he turns into Lex?

Penn: I think it depends on the scene we're shooting, but yeah. That's what I'm saying. Working with an actor who's so experienced and so on-point with everything is amazing to watch for somebody who's relatively just starting out compared to these guys. To see the overall process that actors take, depending on what they're working on and what's being shot, it's very inspiring.

Question: Are you evil?

Penn: Am I evil? Yeah.

Question: In the movie you're evil?

Penn: In the movie! In the movie, yeah! (laughs) I'm a nice guy.

Question: Is this character something new for you? There's a comical element to your character, I'm guessing, but is the whole evil aspect something new?

Penn: For me, yeah. It's nice to play a character that I haven't had the opportunity to play before. A lot of the teen movies that I first started doing, you're playing a college student, you're playing it up for the likability, to be attached to the audience for specific reasons, knowing who your market is for that. This is the exact opposite, in terms of knowing the audience isn't going to like you.

Question: Which is easier?

Penn: They're completely different.

Question: Any improvising of jokes or dialogue?

Penn: No. I'd say that if anything was.... I know what you're saying.

Question: Was there not really much room in the script for that?

Penn: I hesitate saying it that way. The scenes are so specific and concrete that, rather than improvising any type of dialogue, you kind of discover these unspoken moments of action in a scene. That's been happening. That tends to happen when you've got a great director. As far as the Christopher Guest type of ad-libbing, no.

Question: How is it working with Bryan? Is that something you've wanted to do?

Penn: Yeah. Cliche, but ever since Usual Suspects came out, watching it in high school, it was just amazing. "I wanna work with this guy." I didn't think that I would have this type of an opportunity for a long time.

Question: He's had soaps, but did you always think that Brandon would get his break?

Penn: Yeah. Definitely. I think that goes for actors that you meet, do a play with or a commercial with, that you're friends with, that you know, that they have a specific talent.

Question: Can you tell us about some of the other henchmen or characters you're associated with in the movie?

Penn: Like actors?

Question: I know you already talked about the actors, I'm just wondering about their dynamics and such.

Penn: What I will say is this: I think the audience will enjoy the group dynamic, as well as the individual characters that make it up. It's not just something that's being thrown away.

Question: How about sequels? If the film goes on to do sequels, would Stanford be involved?

Penn: I don't know. I don't know. We'll see. I honestly don't know the answer to that.

Question: You mentioned Spider-Man. Do you follow comics? Are you a comics fan?

Penn: No, not now. When I was younger it's something that I... I wouldn't say I lost interest in it all. It just, sort of....

Question: Acting got in the way?

Penn: Yeah. I used to collect comics when I was younger, and I still read them, but I wouldn't say it as vociferously as a lot of people I know.

Question: Did you flip through them looking for inspiration for Stanford?

Penn: Yes.

Question: Did you find any?

Penn: Yes.

Question: Where did you find it?

Penn: That has nothing to do with any of the back story or any of the stuff anyone told me about it. I got really excited because I was like "Oh, man! I'm going to be in Superman!" and I started reading all of these Superman comics. That's as far as the inspiration. That's what I meant by getting really psyched up.

Question: Which ones? Did DC send you over a bunch of new ones, or?

Penn: No, but if you guys know anyone there, I'd love some. I just kind of looked in the comic-book shop. I looked. There are a lot of DC comics online now. They're scanned on different websites. I read them online.

Question: So you're ripping them off, pretty much?

Penn: I wouldn't say I based any of my stuff on these characters, but what I took from your question was inspiration for it, getting psyched up. Going back to what I said about it being such a quintessential American story, a universal story. I was looking at comic books in general. I was also reading a book called The Amazing Adventures of Cavalier and Clay that quickly became my favorite book ever. It's that type of - for those of you who know the story - how relevant comic books are to human history. It was getting psyched up more about that aspect of it.

Question: Are you and Brandon on screen together at the same time?

Penn: Yeah.

Question: While he's wearing the Superman costume?

Penn: That's a good question. (laughs)

Question: Do you get an action figure?

Penn: I want to know the answer to that question! I want to know if I get an action figure. I want to know if I'm going to be in the video game, and when Brandon gets a ride at Disneyland, am I going to be the back of the seat? You know, you sit on. . . never-mind. I don't know. I want to know the answer to that question.

Question: Do you ever go online and check out what people are saying about your being cast?

Penn: Well there's the site BlueTights, which has all of Bryan's blogs. I was working on a film called The Namesake in New York before this, and one of the guys who was in the film with me came in and said "Oh my god, dude. There's this site, BlueTights. Have you seen it?"

He explained to me what it was, and said that Bryan had to go and save King Kong from falling apart. I was like, "What are you talking about?" So he explained this whole thing to me, and without having seen it I'm like "You know that's a joke, right?" He's like, "No. I'm telling you. Go and see it." I was like "Come on!" I went home and I watched it, and I came back to work the next day and was like "You're kidding, right? You think it's real?" He goes "I'm telling you, it's real." That, I think, piqued my fascination with what people are saying on the internet about different things.

And it's fun to hear speculation about different things, and how wrong most of it is, but how determined everyone is to believe it. It was also cool to see the response from Comic-Con.

Question: Were you at Comic-Con?

Penn: No, I was here.

Question: You were there last year.

Penn: I was there last year, you're right. It was fun. I liked Comic-Con.

Question: A lot of comic book movies have their characters are from the comics, so it's tied to a lot of continuity. It's difficult to do something new. With Stanford, a totally new character. Was that a good thing for you? You could sort of put your own spin on it?

Penn: Yeah. I enjoyed, especially, being able to work with the writers in the direction of the character and how they saw Stanford play into the story.

Question: What was the audition process?

Penn: I met Bryan, and the writers, and the casting director back in the beginning of October (2004) - maybe end of September - at Warner Brothers, and that was it. Everything was based off of that meeting. I forget if it was on tape or not. That was my interaction with it. I know there was a huge team of agents and managers and other casting directors and directors who would call in to kind of be a support team. "You should really cast this kid, he's really good" or "He sucks, don't cast him." I don't know who called in what.

Question: Did you eventually do a scene with Kevin, or something like that as a final audition?

Penn: No. All of the whole bad crew came from different places. Kevin lives in London right now, Parker lives in New York, I was in L.A. and New York. A lot of these guys are from here.

Question: Do you have a name for yourselves as a group?

Penn: No. We should come up with one.

Question: The bad crew was pretty good.

Penn: The bad crew.

Question: How about The LeX-Men? (laughs)

Penn: We've got to come up with something.

Question: Hollywood is coming around to Asian cinema. Films are getting major releases. Do you think it's a good time for Asian actors?

Penn: Well, I hope so. I kind of hesitate answering that question because the fear is that it's always going to be some type of Madonna/Gwen Stefani-esque exoticization of Asian-ness, and it'll fade in a couple of years.

I hope that Hollywood, overall, is becoming more diverse. I think that it is. I hope it's not a trend, and I hope it's something that is an actual realization. You can tell very compelling stories and cast it realistically, which I think people are doing.

Question: What's it like working with Parker Posey?

Penn: Awesome. She's so cool.

Question: She's kind of crazy, isn't she?

Penn: She's awesome! She's another example of a very versatile actress. I just saw her in Hurly Burly in New York before I left for here. That's another great example of an amazing actress who does film and theater. I aspire to be like everybody that I'm working with.