Can You Guess Sean Young’s Favorite Film?

by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent

As everything with Sean Young, who’s busy these days with ComicCon’s, Film work, TV Guest spots, Celebrity appearances, plus a TCM gig with Disney Cruises, the final result is spectacular… if you wait long enough. Actually, that’s an inside joke because actor Sean Young delivers more than promised for her Top 10 assignment. The praying photo of her above is by none other than the late Robert Mapplethorpe.

As they say in Hollywood? “Better good, than good and early.”

Even when the iconic actor fires off a text to explain why her favorite film list is late, even that is spectacular in its own way knowing she just got back from London on a shoot. “Quendrith, Sorry for delay. I have no excuse. Just a slower human nowadays.” Like a boss, she’s managed to include a reaction quote for each choice. Here’s the reveal…

Sean Young’s Favorite Films of All Time

1. 愛のコリーダ [Ai no Korīda, In the Realm of the Senses] (JAPAN)

Director: Nagisa Ōshima
Release Date (Japan) - October 16, 1976

A very controversial sex-heavy recap of a 1936 love affair, murder, and wow-finish that penetrates the boundaries of sexual representation on film (ie; the MPA would have a coronary watching it for a rating).

Sean Young: “The strangest movie I have ever seen about a topic that isn't easy. Sexual obsession.”

2. BEING THERE

Director: Hal Ashby
 - Release Date (U.S.) - December 19, 1979

A razor sharp dramedy, this satire showcases a dull-normal literal gardener whose television-inspired soundbite way of speaking is interpreted as profound by his peers, who launch him into political stardom.

Sean Young: “A paradox and an inside joke. What is intelligence anyway?”

3. NO WAY OUT

Director: Roger Donaldson (1987 version*)
 - Release Date: August 14, 1987


Pentagon aide becomes naughty, but also caught inside a lethal conspiracy, while snooping into a murder linked to a higher-up, none other than the Secretary of Defense. [Sean starred in it with Kevin Costner.] (*There was a 1950 version of No Way Out.)

Sean Young: “Never saw a lady in the back seat of a car looking so happy to be there with a guy she's about to have sex with.”

[Editor’s note: this is one of the ‘most-rewound scenes’ of all time, according to movie stats.]

4. A TREE GROWS IN BROOKLYN

Director: Elia Kazan - 
Release Date: February 28, 1945


Searing coming-of-age drama that chronicles a young girl’s journey as she shakes off poverty, family drama, to follow her own path to maturity in Brooklyn during the early-20th-century.

Sean Young: “The aching hearts of the characters were as great in the movie as they were in the book.”

5. SINGING IN THE RAIN

Directors: Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen
 - Release Date: March 27, 1952


A beloved Hollywood musical made to celebrate the rocky divide and reconfiguration of Show Business Stars as they leap from The Silent Era to Sound Films with tap dancing, a form of personal expression that becomes High Art, as Gene Kelly choreographs some of the most incredible and innovative dance numbers on screen.

Sean Young: “Just my all time most favorite movie!”

6. WUTHERING HEIGHTS

Director: William Wyler - 
Release Date: April 7, 1939


A brooding and gothic love story from the Yorkshire moors adapted from Emily Brontë’s novel.

Sean Young: “Seeing the shame she felt at his lowly stable boy’s life, and how she wanted more. But true love can't be destroyed even if one tries.”

Bonus Info: Wuthering Heights (Remake)
 - Director: Emerald Fennell
- Scheduled Release Date: February 13, 2026
 “Murder on the Dance Floor” music fan Director Fennell, is set to bring her own highly anticipated reworking of Emily Brontë’s novel to the screen, to mine darker erotic depths, push envelope on psychological themes.

7. A PASSAGE TO INDIA

Director: David Lean - 
Release Date: December 14, 1984


Master of wide shots, David Lean’s sweeping vision here is wrapped up in epic drama that pinpoints Colonial ambitions, tensions, friendships, and cultural wars in British-ruled India.

Sean Young: “Realizing you have to tell the truth no matter what.”

8. OUT OF AFRICA

Director: Sydney Pollack - 
Release Date: December 18, 1985


Meryl Streep finds one of her icon roles as Karen Blixen, whose mostly platonic husband ruins her life, gives her a vernal disease, takes her money en route to a new life in Africa, that is only assuaged and healed by the true love of Robert Redford, based on Blixen’s clear-eyed memoir about early-20th-century Kenya.

Sean Young: “I never get tired of watching this movie and how perfect Meryl's skin is.”

9. THE MATRIX

Directors: Lana and Lilly Wachowski
 - Release Date: March 31, 1999


Revolutionary for its time, and even now, the Matrix brought us not only the time-lapsed animation of Keanu Reeves “being the One” and dodging bullets, but also ushered in the Red Pill, Blue Pill theory spawned by this science-fiction thriller that sounds real now, as we have moved toward its dystopian, simulcast reality.

Sean Young: “More like a documentary! A movie I marveled at how they came up with the ideas. I have always believed life is a simulation ever since!”

10. BLADERUNNER

Director: Ridley Scott
 - Release Date: June 25, 1982


Neo-noir, but not a genre picture because it literally informed every futuristic film that followed it, Ridley Scott’s original Blade Runner introduced us to Raechel (Sean Young as her gorgeous self) in this groundbreaking visionary tale from Phillip K. Dick about a detective (Harrison Ford), who hunts “more real than real human” Replicants beneath a neon cloud of acid rain-soaked, in the perpetually nighttime of futuristic Los Angeles.

Sean Young: “Of course! I think it's an amazing movie regardless of the fact that I'm in it. Artificial intelligence on its way in…”

[Sequel Blade Runner 2049 features Sean Young briefly, but she is sorely missed, looking at you Ridley Scott.]

Go watch Sean Young's Favorite Films brought to you for FilmFestivals via Screenmancer.tv in Los Angeles.

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