The Oscar-winning actor is very committed against the war in Ukraine. He had been working for several months on a documentary for Vice on the escalation of tensions between Ukraine and Russia when war was declared last February. He then traveled to Ukraine to document the conflict and met President Volodymyr Zelensky there. Sean Penn has also come to the aid of Ukrainian refugees through his CORE (Community Organized Relief Effort) foundation, founded in 2010 following the January 2010 earthquake in Haiti. Since returning to the United States, he is now thinking of a new way to engage. In a long interview granted to the magazine Hollywood Authentic and picked up by BFM TV, he announced “thinking about taking up arms to go and fight in Ukraine” before adding, realistically, “but I’m not an idiot, I’m not not sure what I will be able to offer them.” Detailing his time in Ukraine to Hollywood Authentic, he added, “The only thing that could have kept me in Ukraine would have been to take a gun, without a bulletproof vest because as a foreigner, you’d rather give it to one of those civilian-turned-soldiers who doesn’t have one, or to a more experienced fighter than you are, or to a woman who could fight longer.” Sean Penn is made the mouthpiece for the situation in Ukraine in Hollywood and recently called on the United States to invest in helping the country. He also threatened to melt his Oscars if the Academy did not invite Volodymyr Zelensky to speak at the ceremony and called for a boycott of the ceremony. If Mila Kunis gave a short speech and a minute of silence was respected, the Academy does not seem to have taken into account the threats of the actor.
