Sean Penn Calls for Oscars Boycott If Ukraine’s President Isn’t Featured
Sean Penn has publicly called for a boycott of this year's Academy Awards if Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is not permitted to speak. The 61-year-old echoes the sentiment of Amy Schumer, one of the hosts at this year's awards ceremony, who said that she had pitched the idea of featuring Zelenskyy to the show's producers. Though she claims to have suggested multiple different ways in which the Ukrainian President could appear, including live broadcast or video recording, she also indicated that organizers were not sold on the prospect.
Penn himself has secured two Academy Awards over the course of his career, in addition to three other nominations. Winning Best Actor for his 2003 performance in Clint Eastwood's noir crime drama Mystic River, Penn secured his second Oscar in 2008 for his starring role in Milk, a biographical film based on the life of California's first openly gay politician, Harvey Milk. The impassioned Hollywood icon has been vocal in his support of the Ukrainian people, traveling to the country in order to document their plight amid the Russian invasion of their country.
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Now, in an interview with CNN, Penn has called for a mass boycott of the 2022 Oscars if the awards fail to grant President Zelenskyy some air time. "There is nothing greater that the Academy Awards could do than give [Zelenskyy] an opportunity to talk to all of us," he stated. Going on to describe any decision not to feature the Ukrainian President as "the most obscene moment in all of Hollywood history," Penn implored his fellow stars to boycott the Academy Awards if that was the case. "I will smelt mine in public," he threatened of his own Academy Awards. "I pray that's
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