Sean Penn hates selfies and will not, under any circumstances, go to a public gathering with more than eight people — which is why he was noticeably absent from the recent 98th Academy Awards, where he won Best Supporting Actor (his third Oscar).
The revelations came during a conversation between Penn and CNN anchor Kaitlin Collins during a Friday afternoon talk at Spring Studios in lower Manhattan as part of the 25th annual Tribeca Festival, running June 3-14. Penn is a regular fixture at the fest, owing in large part to his long-time personal and professional relationship with one of the fest’s co-founders, Robert De Niro, and was his usual frank and uncensored self during the talk, bouncing from topics like Ukraine (“they will prevail”) to his newfound passion for woodworking to why he’s mellowed out a lot since his hell-raising younger days.
But back to the selfies.
After complimenting his moderator, telling Collins she’s “brought so much of what real integrity is to covering this president” while noting that “if anybody ever had any question of who’d win the stare-down contest, I think this week was a killer,” Penn launched into an explanation as to why he wasn’t present at the Oscars.
