Sean Penn isn’t carried out torching the Oscars. First, he threatened to actually smelt his Oscar statues over politics. And this yr, the filmmaker is slamming what he known as the “extraordinary cowardice” of those that vote for the Academy Awards normally — particularly on the subject of boundary-pushing options.
“The Academy have exercised actually extraordinary cowardice on the subject of being a part of the larger world of expression, and in reality, have largely been a part of limiting the creativeness and really limiting of various cultural expressions,” Penn stated in the course of the Marrakech Movie Pageant (by way of Selection), the place he acquired a lifetime achievement award. “So I don’t get very enthusiastic about what we’ll name the Academy Awards [except for] when a movie like ‘The Florida Challenge,’ or ‘I’m Nonetheless Right here’ [are nominated], or, you realize, ‘Emilia Perez,’ of the issues which can be prone to occur this yr.”
Penn particularly pointed to Ali Abbasi’s controversial Donald Trump biopic “The Apprentice” for instance of being iced out of awards season. “The Apprentice” star Sebastian Stan was faraway from Selection‘s “Actors on Actors” slate as his friends “didn’t wish to pair with him as a result of they didn’t wish to speak about Donald Trump,” in keeping with Selection co-editor-in-chief Ramin Setoodeh. “Actors on Actors” is taken into account an vital cease on awards season’s marketing campaign path.
To Penn, this sort of considering is indicative of what’s improper with Hollywood as an entire.
“It’s jaw-dropping how afraid this enterprise of mavericks is of an excellent movie like that, one with nice, nice appearing,” Penn stated. “[It’s amazing] that they too could be as afraid as a piddly little Republican congressman.”
It’s not precisely clear by the quote which “piddly little Republican congressman” Penn is referring to. It appears logical that he’s referring to former California Rep. Devin Nunes, who resigned in 2022 to develop into the CEO of the Trump Media & Expertise Group. IndieWire reached out to Penn’s rep with a request for clarification; we’ll replace this story if and once we obtain a response.
Penn continued, “World wide [there is] this demand for variety — however not variety of habits and never variety of opinion or language. I’d simply encourage all people to be as politically incorrect as their coronary heart wishes and to have interaction variety and to maintain telling these tales.”
Penn gained his Oscars for his performances in “Mystic River” and “Milk.” Penn beforehand instructed the New York Instances that if “Milk” have been made at the moment, it might not be with Penn because the lead since Hollywood is “too timid” to forged straight actors in queer roles.
“It couldn’t occur in a time like this,” Penn stated of his casting as Harvey Milk, the primary overtly homosexual elected public official in California. “It’s a time of large overreach. It’s a timid and artless coverage towards the human creativeness.”