Just when you thought the fallout from Will Smith‘s infamous slap heard around the world from the Academy Awards was dead, buried, and almost out of the public consciousness, along comes Sean Penn of all people to share his two cents.
In an interview with Variety, the two-time Oscar winner was reflecting on the organization’s decision to deny his request to have Ukrainian president and newfound friend Volodymyr Zelenskyy appear in some capacity, only for the King Richard headliner to steal the headlines and spotlight when he attacked host Chris Rock on stage.
Venting his frustrations, Penn let rip at both Smith and the Academy for pumping the brakes on Zelenskyy, and then allowing the former to collect his Best Actor trophy minutes after the shocking incident.
“The Oscars producer thought, ‘Oh, he’s not light-hearted enough.’ Well, guess what you got instead? Will Smith! 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 bullsh*t wouldn’t have happened with Zelenskyy. Will Smith would never have left that chair to be part of stupid violence. It never would have happened.”
While Penn did at least have the cognizance to refer to his 33-day stint behind bars in 1987 for assaulting an extra on the set of the movie Colors, he did conveniently omit any references to pleasing no contest to attacking a pair of journalists in 1985, that time he was charged for assaulting another reporter the following year, the misdemeanor battery charge that came months after that, or the altercation in 2010 that saw him sentenced to 300 hours of community service and anger management counseling, so maybe he shouldn’t be throwing stones in glass houses.