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Kal Pennhopes his new book is encouraging to anyone chasing their dreams.
On Monday, the 44-year-old actor appeared onTodayto discuss his bookYou Can’t Be Serious, which detail several stories on his experience making it in Hollywood and his romance withfiancéJosh. During the interview, theDesignated Survivorstar explained the importance of representation and how it impacted him growing up.
Penn, who also spent two years working in the White House for the Obama administration, said onTodaythat the first time he saw someone who looked like him on screen — that wasn’t a cartoon character — was the 1991 romantic dramaMississippi Masala.
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“I thought, ‘Woah, these are flawed, incredibly fleshed out characters, maybe I can do that too.'” he explained onToday.
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Along with discussing his career in his book, Penn also opens up about getting engaged to his longtime partner Josh after 11 years. Earlier this week, he told PEOPLE that he wanted to be transparent andshare their relationshipthrough his book while keeping the privacy of his loved ones.
“I thought, ‘This obviously is not going to work out,” he recalled to PEOPLE. “I have one day off from The White House and this dude is unironically watching cars go around and make left turns? Next thing you know, it’s been a couple months and we’re watching NASCAR every Sunday. I’m like, ‘What is happening?’ I wanted the reader to enjoy the love and the humor through all of those stories.”
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Penn continued: “The whole point of writing this book was for the reader to feel like we’re having a beer together. I thought, if we’re supposed to feel like we’re having a beer together, then I want to take you into my stories and I want you to experience them with the same joy that I’ve experienced them. That was the way that my friends have met my parents and Josh, as they’ve gotten to know them over the last 10 years.”
Penn’s book,You Can’t Be Serious, is available on Nov. 2.
source: people.com
