The One Battle After Another star’s failure to collect his best supporting actor award – because he was visiting Ukraine – only serves to burnish his reputation
L
ast night’s Oscars might have been superficially modern (K-pop! Female cinematographers winning things! Jokes about YouTube interstitial advertising!), but there was one slightly charming old throwback: Sean Penn wasn’t there to collect his best supporting actor award.
Sure, this sort of thing happens all the time in other awards shows – you can barely get through a single Baftas without an A-lister revealing that they didn’t fancy braving the London winter – but not the Oscars. The Oscars are meant to represent the pinnacle of professional achievement. It’s your one chance to look all of your peers in the eye as one in the knowledge that you are better than the lot of them. Who’d turn down an opportunity that irresistible?
Well, Sean Penn, that’s who. Last night, after he opened the envelope and called out Penn’s name, presenter Kieran Culkin was forced to apologetically carry the statue offstage himself. The reason for this, it transpires, is that Penn may have had a prior commitment in Ukraine. After rumours suggested that the actor may have flown out to an undisclosed part of the country late last week, he was photographed in central Kyiv on Monday “wearing sunglasses and carrying a box of cigarettes”. After that, Ukraine’s President Zelenskyy posted a picture of them sitting together in his office.
