Sean Penn is not done torching the Oscars. First, he threatened to literally smelt his Oscar statues over politics. And this year, the filmmaker is slamming what he called the “extraordinary cowardice” of those who vote for the Academy Awards in general — especially when it comes to boundary-pushing features.
“The Academy have exercised really extraordinary cowardice when it comes to being part of the bigger world of expression, and in fact, have largely been part of limiting the imagination and very limiting of different cultural expressions,” Penn said during the Marrakech Film Festival (via Variety), where he received a lifetime achievement award. “So I don’t get very excited about what we’ll call the Academy Awards [except for] when a film like ‘The Florida Project,’ or ‘I’m Still Here’ [are nominated], or, you know, ‘Emilia Perez,’ of the things that are likely to happen this year.”
Penn specifically pointed to Ali Abbasi’s controversial Donald Trump biopic “The Apprentice” as an example of being iced out of awards season. “The Apprentice” star Sebastian Stan was removed from Variety‘s “Actors on Actors” slate as his peers “didn’t want to pair with him because they didn’t want to talk about Donald Trump,” according to Variety co-editor-in-chief Ramin Setoodeh. “Actors on Actors” is considered an important stop on awards season’s campaign trail.
To Penn, this kind of thinking is indicative of what is wrong with Hollywood as a whole.
“It’s jaw-dropping how afraid this business of mavericks is of a great film like that, one with great, great acting,” Penn said. “[It’s amazing] that they too can be as afraid as a piddly little Republican congressman.”
It is not exactly clear by the quote which “piddly little Republican congressman” Penn is referring to. It seems logical that he is referring to former California Rep. Devin Nunes, who resigned in 2022 to become the CEO of the Trump Media & Technology Group. IndieWire reached out to Penn’s rep with a request for clarification; we will update this story if and when we receive a response.
Penn continued, “Around the world [there is] this demand for diversity — but not diversity of behavior and not diversity of opinion or language. I would just encourage everybody to be as politically incorrect as their heart desires and to engage diversity and to keep telling those stories.”
Penn won his Oscars for his performances in “Mystic River” and “Milk.” Penn previously told the New York Times that if “Milk” were made today, it would not be with Penn as the lead since Hollywood is “too timid” to cast straight actors in queer roles.
“It could not happen in a time like this,” Penn said of his casting as Harvey Milk, the first openly gay elected public official in California. “It’s a time of tremendous overreach. It’s a timid and artless policy toward the human imagination.”
