Why wasn’t Sean Penn at the Oscars?: Mystery reason for absence revealed
Sean Penn skipped the glitz and glamour of Hollywood's night of nights and the chance to collect his third Academy Award, choosing instead to visit a war zone.
Film star Sean Penn stepped out of a train carriage in central Kyiv, thousands of kilometres from the glitz of Hollywood’s Dolby Theatre when he had failed to turn up to receive his third Oscar hours earlier.
Penn, 65, won the Oscar for best supporting actor for his role in the political thriller One Battle After Another, but skipped Sunday’s ceremony to travel to meet Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in the war-battered capital.
Ukraine’s state railway operator posted a short video clip of Penn getting out of the train in the morning, saying it had kept his trip a secret until the very last moment.
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By continuing you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy.“Now we can say it officially: Sean Penn chose Ukraine over the Oscars!” it said in its Facebook page.
Local media outlet UkraineWorld also posted a photo of the star at the train station surrounded by supporters.
“Sean, thanks to you, we know what a true friend of Ukraine is,” Mr Zelensky wrote on X.
“You have stood with Ukraine since the first day of the full-scale war. This is still true today,” Mr Zelensky said.
Penn, a long-time advocate for Ukraine, has visited the country several times during the four-year war with Russia.
He filmed a documentary about Russia’s invasion, that premiered in February 2023. Penn also lent Mr Zelensky, a former comedian and actor, one of his other Oscars in 2022.
