He’s had it with crowds, he’s had it with selfies, and he has definitely had it with Oscar extravaganzas.
That’s why three-time Oscar winner Sean Penn is swearing off the Academy Awards—and all similar dos where he has to interact with large groups of people. He already skipped the 98th Academy Awards ceremony earlier this year, when he won Best Supporting Actor for his role in Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another, opposite fellow Oscar winner Leonardo DiCaprio.
“It’s not just [that it’s] an awards show,” Penn told CNN anchor (and frequent Donald Trump target) Kaitlan Collins in a talk Friday that was part of the Tribeca Film Festival in Manhattan. “It would be the same at an afterparty,” the actor-director explained.
“That always represented social discomfort for me; too many people. I’m now down, committed for life, that I won’t go anywhere to be in a designated group beyond eight people,” he vowed.
The problem, he said, is that attending such large gatherings only “gives you 15 minutes per person,” which he said triggers his “anxiety” and is “dread-provoking.”
Penn said his One Battle After Another colleagues agreed it was “better for my mental health” if he skipped this year’s Oscars. He went instead to Ukraine, a country he passionately supports and for which he frequently appeals for Western aid.
He did watch the Oscars from Ukraine, and said he was grateful he missed being on the scene. “I really got to enjoy the Academy Awards for the first time,” the 65-year-old said. “It was great.”
Penn said he began to make up his mind about awards shows last year after attending the Golden Globes. “That’s where I decided, ‘I can’t do this,’” Penn said.
It’s “not the low-hanging fruit of ‘I don’t wanna be around all this fake Hollywood’ or something; it’s the ninth person,” he continued.
Penn is appearing at some (smaller) events for the Tribeca Film Festival in part because it was co-founded by his close pal Robert De Niro.
On the subject of things he hates, Penn also issued a warning to the crowd about selfies: “People should not do selfies ever with anyone. It’s bad for you; it’s bad for everyone. It’s a soul-sucker,” he declared.
Penn, a noted Trump foe, praised Collins for bringing “so much of what real integrity is to covering this president.” He added: “If anybody ever had any question of who’d win the staredown contest, I think this week was a killer.”
The Fast Times at Ridgemont High star was referring to the latest face-off between the steely-eyed Collins and the combative president, who blasted her even before she finished her question at a press conference about his dropped slush fund for Jan. 6 rioters, as a “corrupt” journalist who doesn’t smile.
“I never see a smile off her face,” Trump jabbed. “I see her standing there with hatred in her eyes.”
Trump, 79, complained about Collins, 34, not smiling during a previous Oval Office interaction in February, when The Source host asked the president about what he would say to the dead sex offender’s survivors.
