Sean Penn said he missed this year’s Oscars telecast because he planned to be in Ukraine meeting with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and timed his trip to avoid the ceremony. At Tribeca Festival, he described the Oscars as “social discomfort,” pointed to anxiet
When Sean Penn finally addressed his absence from the Oscars. he did it from the kind of place most red-carpet schedules never reach. At the Tribeca Festival on June 5. Penn—dressed casually in blue jeans. a bomber jacket and a tee—told CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins that he’d already planned to be in Ukraine this spring. and he deliberately matched his visit to avoid the Academy Awards telecast.
Penn, 65, is a three-time Oscar winner. He won his third Oscar in March for Paul Thomas Anderson’s “One Battle After Another. ” in which he played the surly. leering Colonel Lockjaw. But he wasn’t present to accept his best supporting actor trophy because he was in Ukraine meeting with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
“The Oscars always represented social discomfort to me,” Penn said during the onstage conversation. He explained that he won’t spend time with a “designated group beyond eight people. ” and that the Oscars’ structure—cutting into the night—forces the math to feel impossible. “If you cut out two hours for your night, it gives you 15 minutes per person,” he said. “Any more than that… is just anxiety- and dread-inducing.”.
Penn also tied the feeling to how he approached other major awards. He said that during the Golden Globes in January. the experience convinced him he wanted to sit out the rest of the awards season. He singled out the small talk and “all the selfies. ” saying. “People should not do selfies with anyone ever.” He then illustrated the point with a blunt. personal image: “The Holocaust grandmother and her 6-year-old paraplegic [grandson] wheeling over?. A hard no.”.
The choice wasn’t just private. Penn said he told Warner Bros. and his “One Battle” colleagues ahead of time that he wouldn’t be attending the Oscars. He said “everybody understood,” adding that “they know me, and they felt that it was better for my mental health.”
Even so, he didn’t skip the show entirely. Penn said he watched the Oscars from Ukraine, where the broadcast started around 2 a.m. and ended at about 5 a.m. “Having only felt relief a couple other times, I got to be excited watching the awards,” he said. “I really got to enjoy the Academy Awards for the first time. It was great.”.
Penn’s relationship with awards has shifted over time. He is a two-time best actor Oscar winner in the past. for 2003’s “Mystic River” and 2008’s “Milk.” He said that at those ceremonies. “the best I could ever muster was relief. ” because he knew many people involved with those films were rooting for him. At this Oscars, he framed the experience differently—not as obligation, but as something he could actually enjoy.
Over the course of the roughly hour-long conversation. Penn also spoke with Collins about his career beginnings. passion for carpentry. and work as both a director and activist. When asked if he has “mellowed” over the years. Penn said he believes he’s gotten more thoughtful and intentional about what he does.
“I haven’t had a yelling match with anyone in four years,” Penn added, playfully. He said that approach comes from how he handles conflict: “I have not listened to anyone yell for more than two seconds before I walk away.”
For Penn, the outcome wasn’t just where he watched from. It was the central premise of his decision: avoid the discomfort he associates with large, curated gatherings, and let his attention land somewhere that doesn’t require him to perform his way through the room.
Sean Penn Oscars mental health Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy Tribeca Festival Kaitlan Collins One Battle After Another Warner Bros. Paul Thomas Anderson