Sean Penn has long been one of Hollywood’s most political stars, and when Russia invaded Ukraine, he jumped on a plane and found himself on the ground. He filmed a documentary about the war for Vice. He talked about it, mostly civilly, with Sean Hannity. He’s threatened to “smelt” his two Oscars if this year’s chaotic show didn’t include an appearance from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. (They didn’t, and he hasn’t, at least not publicly.) He even considered fighting alongside them.
But now Penn’s back in the States. In an in-person panel discussion for Fox News (via IndieWire, he discussed how he left the nation over safety concerns.
“I just heard from [Former National Security Adviser] Robert O’Brien and he said to get the f*ck out,” Penn recalled.
Indeed, in the early days of the invasion, he was advised not to go there at all. “Our government is extremely good at caution,” Penn told the crowd. “American diplomats had been pulled out of and other Foreign Service officers pulled out of Kyiv. [People said,] ‘Don’t go. There’s nobody there. There’ll be no calvary,’ and so on.”
And yet he persisted, after an abundance of caution. “I was speaking to Robert [O’Brien] the whole time here. He knows the region much better than I do, and I made it,” he said. “We calculated that it would be fine, whatever happened. I don’t think anybody wanted to give up a level of denial that [the war] would happen because they would be giving up hope that [the invasion] wouldn’t happen.”
The Ukraine government was glad to have Penn there. In a statement, they praised him for being there “to record all the events that are currently happening in Ukraine and to tell the world the truth about Russia’s invasion of our country.” They added, “Our country is grateful to him for such a show of courage and honesty.”
But Penn may be back, he told Hollywood Authentic, if not right away. “I’m not an idiot, I am not certain what I can offer,” he said. “I don’t spend a lot of time texting the president or his staff while they’re under siege and their people are being murdered.”
(Via IndieWire)