Sean Penn’s parenting style has gone through major changes over the years.
While the actor is now “lax,” his son, Hopper, told People in an interview published Wednesday that Penn was a “strict” dad growing up.
“I was always getting into trouble,” the 29-year-old recalled. “We butted heads for a long time.”
Now, the “Milk” star, 62, has “chilled out in his older age” and is “really into FaceTime and texting.”
Hopper noted, “When he texts, they’re like novels. He has to send them in increments. So I rarely read them!”
Penn and his ex-wife Robin Wright, who also share daughter Dylan, 31, initially began raising their kids in northern California.
“I knew that my dad was known and that my mom was known,” Hopper told the magazine, calling his home life “pretty separate” from Hollywood — although they’d sometime “go on movie sets.
When the family of four later moved to Los Angeles, however, Hopper began to feel “awkward.”
“Things were said to [him] in school” about Penn and Wright, who is best known for her role in “House of Cards,” he explained.
Hopper has since seen his father in many movies, clarifying that his favorite is “Milk,” followed by “The Falcon and the Snowman.”
The father-son pair went on to co-star in a movie of their own, “Flag Day,” which came out in August 2021. Dylan also acted in the film.
Hopper has made headlines over the years for more than his movies, from pushing and hurling slurs at a photographer in 2013 to being arrested for drug possession in 2018.
The following year, he opened up to ES Magazine about his battle with crystal meth.
“I went to rehab because I woke up in a hospital and my dad was like, ‘Rehab? Or bus bench?’” Hopper said at the time. “Thank God I got out of that because that was the worst time in my life.”