DENNIS HOPPER - HOPPER JUSTIFIES CHILD BEATING SCENES

Movie tough guy DENNIS HOPPER had no problems pretending to beat child actress ANNA-SOPHIA ROBB in new movie SLEEPWALKING - because her character's upbringing was just like his. Robb's character is severely punished for not doing her farm chores correctly in the film, and, although Hopper doesn't condone beating kids, he received the same treatment as a child growing up on a Kansas farm. He explains, "When I did something I got punished, man. It wasn't a spanking; I'd say more like a whipping. "That's just the way people were treated in those days and I'd say it's only the last 40 or 50 years that we've been so concerned about disciplining our children, that it was wrong to spank them or wrong to hit them. "That's just the way it was in those days, especially if you were out on a farm like that. You had to keep discipline and your kids were born to work."