Sean Penn: Will Smith slap wouldn’t have happened if Oscars had let Zelenskiy speak

Actor and director Sean Penn attends a summit in Ukraine on 6 September. Photograph: Vladimir Sindeyeve/NurPhoto/Shutterstock

Sean Penn has criticised the Academy Awards for not allowing Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy to speak at the 2022 Oscars ceremony, adding that Will Smith’s infamous slap would not have happened if Zelenskiy had appeared.

In an interview with Variety about Penn’s Ukraine-invasion documentary Superpower (which he co-directed with Aaron Kaufman), Penn said: “The Oscars producer thought: ‘Oh, [Zelenskiy is] not light-hearted enough.’ Well, guess what you got instead? Will Smith!”