Sometimes I come across old articles and reviews about Sean.I enjoy reading these and they may be of interest to other people too.
God save the Bean
Rugged actor rises above the stigma of the British thespian gone Hollywood.
The more mysterious case in "The Island" is Sean Bean. He is one of the biggest stars in Britain. From the time he tore off Lady Chatterley's knickers 12 years ago (to say nothing of the saucy sex that followed, and this on the BBC), he has been a national sex symbol -- every middle-class woman's fantasy "bit of rough," as the upmarket press likes to put it. "Britain's greatest sex bomb," goes the opening to his unauthorized biography.
The mystery is that he is one of the few Brits to work constantly in the U.S. without stirring up resentment at home. Perhaps it's because he's not too proud to play what is sniffily called here "character" parts.
He has the mind of a magpie's nest: brilliant, glittering, inventive and disorderly all at once. "My imagination when it's unleashed," he says at one point, "is like a wild animal." There's restlessness but also challenge. "Hunt for me and you'll fail," he seems to be saying.
Over the course of a long evening, he is open about much, not the least his disappointment at the failure of Bernard Rose's "Anna Karenina," a pastiche of Tolstoy's great love story. He's right, of course; it's terrible. But there was something about Bean too, playing the passionate Vronsky not with the cadence of his usual English but with what's known as RP, received pronunciation, the posh stuff for Shakespeare. The most ordinary RADA graduate leaves with flawless RP. Bean's is slightly off. Its constriction pulls him back inside himself so he comes across as stiff and empty.
Dangerous, passionate and remote, he has all the characteristics of a classic leading man. This is a star waiting for his L.A. Confidential.
http://articles.latimes.com/2005/jul/12/entertainment/et-seanbean12Director's first time is the charm
Much to his surprise, Steve Anderson's indie 'The Big Empty' gets serious cred and a name cast.
Bean plays the menacing but sexy Cowboy, a part that was originally filled by Woody Harrelson, who dropped it 48 hours before shooting began. Weitz couldn't help but feel that destiny was calling again when he phoned Bean's manager on a lark and was told the British actor had always dreamed of playing a cowboy. With no time left for mailing a script to London, Bean agreed to sit by his fax machine.
"The attraction and the hook to get these types of actors in these roles is the concept of reinvention," Weitz said. "That's how it was with Kelsey and with Rachel and with Sean. They covet the chance to play something atypical. The Cowboy role beckoned for a mythical type of character. Sean had just come off 'The Lord of the Rings,' and we were so short on time that he literally sat at the fax waiting for the pages to come out. Fortunately, for us, he had a childhood thing about playing a cowboy."
http://articles.latimes.com/2003/nov/13/news/wk-movies13http://articles.latimes.com/keyword/sean-bean
