Sean Penn has recently expressed his thoughts on actor Will Smith and one of his most controversial moments. The Milk actor has always been vocal with his opinions and this also led him to openly criticize Smith over his past actions. The conversation arose when the Oscar-winner spoke about his friend and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and how the latter was denied from speaking at the 2022 Oscars.
Sean Penn
Will Smith has been subjected to widespread criticism in the recent past due to his antics at the 2022 Academy Awards. His actions polarized the audience worldwide and numerous celebrities gave their views on the slap controversy. Sean Penn also joined the list of those names and has quite a harsh take on the incident.

What did Sean Penn say about Will Smith?

Sean Penn has won 2 Oscars to date
The 2022 Academy Awards suddenly saw a moment where Will Smith stormed the stage, slapped comedian Chris Rock, and hurled profanities over a joke addressed to Smith’s wife. This generated a huge controversy and the audiences were divided. The King Richard actor was banned from any Academy function for a decade. Even though Smith apologized to Rock and the audience for his actions, it looks like the topic is still a matter of discussion.

When Sean Penn was talking to Variety, he spoke about how Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was denied from speaking at the Oscars soon after Ukraine was invaded by Russia. He is a close friend of Zelenskyy and publicly criticized the Academy which didn’t let him speak and instead made way for the Will Smith incident- “The Oscars producer thought, ‘Oh, he’s not light-hearted enough.’ Well, guess what you got instead? Will Smith!”
Will Smith slapping Chris Rock at the Oscars

Following the incident, Smith also received an Oscar for King Richard. Despite praising him for the movie, Sean Penn called him out publicly for pulling off such a “stupid” act.
“I don’t know Will Smith. I met him once. He seemed very nice when I met him. He was so f*cking good in King Richard.’ So why the f*ck did you just spit on yourself and everybody else with this stupid f*cking thing? Why did I go to f*cking jail for what you just did? And you’re still sitting there? Why are you guys standing and applauding his worst moment as a person? This f*cking bulls*it wouldn’t have happened with Zelenskyy.”
The Indian Runner director then added that this incident also led to destructive thoughts in his mind and he thought of destroying the Oscars- “I thought, well, f*ck, you know? I’ll give them to Ukraine. They can be melted down to bullets they can shoot at the Russians.” It was evident from the 2-times Oscar winner’s anger that he was highly disappointed in the Academy for not letting Zelenskyy speak on such a crucial geopolitical situation.

Sean Penn has made a documentary on Ukraine

Sean Penn with the Ukrainian President
Sean Penn has openly supported Ukraine and even visited there to document the Russian invasion. His documentary titled Superpower focuses on the conflict between the two countries more widely and covers major details about the whole situation.

The actor who won 2 Oscars for Mystic River and Milk made headlines after he gave one of his Oscar statuettes to the Ukrainian President. He was not left empty-handed and he was also awarded the prestigious Ukrainian Order of Merit from the President. The fans excited to check out Superpower can do so from September 18, 2023, on Paramount+.