Sean Penn is a surprising guy, aside from his chops as an actor, he also makes pretty solid music videos.
A fact you may not know about the perennially cool Sean Penn, aside from his talent as a brilliant actor, he also devotes his time to documenting politics, interviewing Mexican Drug Lords in the jungle, and directing music videos, of which he actually has four under his belt. Peter Gabriels The Barry Williams Show, Bruce Springsteen’s Highway Patrolman, Jewel’s international hit You Were Meant For Me and Shania Twain’s Dance With the One That Brought You.
In the early days of her career, Shania Twain was just your regular country musician trying to make it big. With no support from her record label at the time, she received surprise support from none other than Sean Penn, who not only directed one of her music videos but afterwards gave the struggling muso $100 to help her stay on her feet.
Shania Twain released her self-titled debut album in 1993. The singer recently shared in her 2022 Netflix documentary Not Just a Girl that she had very little creative input in the album, as her record label gave her songs that they felt would tick certain country music boxes and in fact, she only co-wrote one song on the album.
Twain’s debut single “What Made You Say That” caused quite a stir upon its release due to the singer baring her midriff in the video. The song peaked at No. 55 on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart, which led to an opportunity to release another single from the record.
It was then she “learned that actor Sean Penn was interested in directing my next music video,” she recalled. “I still don’t know how he’d even heard of me. Perhaps he watched CMT at the time? I was glad he did, in any case. Frankly, I’m not sure that Mercury [Records] had planned on a follow-up to ‘What Made You Say That,’ but to have someone of Sean’s caliber interested in working with me might have made the label take me more seriously and agree to finance the production. The timing was great, and I felt I may have a second chance with a follow-up single, after all.”
Penn signed on to direct the music video “Dance With the One That Brought You.”
Watch the Sean Penn directed Video below.
