Turns Out, Sean Penn Skipped Oscars to Hang With Zelenskyy

Sean Penn’s total snubbing of awards season, and the Oscars, is refreshing. He doesn’t give a crap about any of that. He was a no-show last night when he won his third Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for “One Battle After Another.”

Penn did minimal campaigning, barely showed up at any awards shows, and when he did, smoked cigarettes at his table during the Golden Globes ceremony. At one point, he threatened to melt his other two Oscars if the Academy didn’t let Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speak, later gifting one of his statuettes to Zelenskyy.

Even so, a great performance is a great performance, and the Academy made the right call awarding Penn the Oscar for his hilarious turn as Colonel Steven J. Lockjaw—a character whose rigid, stick-up-the-ass strut is destined to live on in cinematic history.

Turns out, Penn didn’t show up at the Oscars not because there was a strict no-smoking indoor rule—which is also law in California—but rather because he decided to set up a meeting with Zelenskyy.

The Ukrainian leader posted a photo of them together on X, thanking the actor. Zelenskyy wrote, “Sean, thanks to you, we know what a true friend of Ukraine is. You have stood with Ukraine since the first day of the full-scale war. This is still true today. And we know that you will continue to stand with our country and our people.”

So, there you have it: between the selfie stations and champagne towers, Penn was chilling with Zelenskyy while the Academy wondered, ‘How dare he not show up!’ It’s the ultimate power move—skip the ceremony, dodge the limelight, and still leave everyone talking about you.

Last year’s supporting actor winner Kieran Culkin presented, accepted Penn’s award on Sunday night, saying, “Sean Penn couldn’t be here this evening—or didn’t want to, so I’ll be accepting the award on his behalf.”