Acting career seems like a dream: Sean Penn

London: Veteran actor Sean Penn says he is so engrossed in relief work in quake-ravaged Haiti that his film career seems like a dream.

Penn set up the J/P Haitian Relief Organisation in the aftermath of the devastating 2010 earthquake and has helped thousands of needy families rebuild their lives. As a result, the actor took a step back from movies to concentrate on charity.

"It is very strange now. With Haiti, that experience makes much of my prior career kind of a dream in some ways," pop diva Madonna's former husband told CNN.

"It's as if, after Haiti, that all of what had once been (in my movie career)... (I feel) proud in some ways and deeply ashamed at other times, a kind of flash reel of one's career, you know. And the creative part of it and those things, all of that stuff, I think the part of my brain that used to hold onto, it got filled with this, this other reel, over the last two years somehow," he reflected.

However, Penn says he won't turn his back on Hollywood completely, reports dailystar.co.uk.

"I still have a love affair with the movies. I prefer directing movies than to act," he said.