Hours after Sean Penn ghosted the Academy Awards, the now three-time Oscar winner was spotted halfway across the globe.
Penn, 65, who was not present to claim his Best Supporting Actor award on Sunday for his role as Col. Steven Lockjaw in One Battle After Another, was photographed by an AFP reporter the next morning in Kyiv, 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 told AFP. “He just wants to support Ukraine.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy shared news of their meeting on X, writing, “You have stood with Ukraine since the first day of the full-scale war.”
The Milk actor has not attended an awards ceremony this year since January’s Golden Globe Awards, where he was spotted smoking inside the Beverly Hills ballroom.
Last year’s Best Supporting Actor winner Kieran Culkin included a snarky remark about Penn’s absence after announcing him as the winner.
“Sean Penn couldn’t be here this evening, or didn’t want to, so I’ll be accepting the award on his behalf,” Culkin said.
The award was Penn’s third Oscar win, placing him beside iconic Hollywood actors like Jack Nicholson and Daniel Day-Lewis, who also have three wins. Penn still trails Katherine Hepburn, who has the most acting wins of all time at four.
Penn’s history with Zelenskyy and the Oscars dates back years.
In 2022, the actor offered his Mystic River statue to Zelensky, who, in turn, presented Penn with an Order of Merit honor for his “significant contributions” to the Ukrainian war effort.
“It’s just a symbolic, silly thing,” Penn said while Zelensky, 48, protested the gift. “When you win, bring it back to Malibu.”
A year later, Penn co-directed a documentary about Zelensky titled Superpower.
Despite Penn’s absence from awards ceremonies, the actor has campaigned in his own unique way for his third Oscar.
Less than a month before his winning night, New York magazine published an article detailing heroic efforts to secure the release of an American businessman from Bolivian captivity. The decade-old story was released just in time for Oscar voting.
Penn’s efforts seemingly worked, as he took home his third Academy Award. He has previously won for his leading roles in Milk and Mystic River.
His fellow One Battle After Another team won big, taking home six awards, including the night’s biggest prize of Best Picture.
