Actor Sean Penn met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy instead of attending the Oscars. Photo / Volodymyr Zelenskyy
Actor Sean Penn met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy instead of attending the Oscars. Photo / Volodymyr Zelenskyy
Three-time Oscar winner Sean Penn snubbed the 98th Academy Awards and instead visited Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Penn won best supporting actor for his performance in One Battle After Another.
The day after the awards, he was photographed in Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, getting out of a black car wearing sunglassesand carrying a pack of cigarettes, reported AFP.
Penn has been a vocal supporter of Ukraine since the start of the war, visiting the country several times. During the war, he co-directed the documentary, Superpower, about Zelenskyy’s rise from comedian to wartime president.
Zelenskyy’s office has since released a photo showing Penn sitting down with the president.
“Sean, thanks to you, we know what a true friend of Ukraine is,” said Zelenskyy.
“You have stood with Ukraine since the first day of the full-scale war. This is still true today. And we know that you will continue to stand with our country and our people.”
Zelenskyy said in a February interview with AFP thathe had watched One Battle After Another and liked it.
Sean Penn hands over his Oscar to the Ukrainian President in 2022. Photo / Ukrainian Presidency via Getty Images
Penn gave one of his Oscars to Zelenskyy in 2022.
“I thought, well, f**k, you know? I’ll give them to Ukraine. They can be melted down to bullets they can shoot at the Russians,” he told Variety at the time.
Penn has not made any announcements while in Ukraine.
“We can say that he’s in Ukraine, but it’s his personal visit, that’s how he sees it, that he needs to be in Ukraine,” a senior Ukrainian official toldAFP. “He just wants to support Ukraine.”
AFPreported Penn was “planning to go to the front” in eastern Ukraine.
Succession actor Kieran Culkin accepted the award on Penn’s behalf.
“Sean Penn couldn’t be here this evening – or didn’t want to – so I’ll be accepting the award on his behalf.”
The last time a winner skipped accepting an Oscar was in 2024 when Hayao Miyazaki won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature Film. At 83, he didn’t want to put his body through the flight.
Penn had previously won Oscars for Best Actor for Mystic River in 2004 and Milk in 2009.
His win makes him the fourth male actor to win three Oscars, joining Daniel Day-Lewis, Jack Nicholson and Walter Brennan.
