The Oscar-winning actor and director raged over the 'King Richard' star assaulting Chris Rock at the 2022 Academy Awards while referencing how he was imprisoned for a similar incident.
- Sep 14, 2023
AceShowbiz - Sean Penn has fumed Will Smith didn't go to jail for his Oscars assault on Chris Rock like he did for attacking a movie extra. Raging over Will assaulting the comedian at the 2022 Academy Awards, the 63-year-old Oscar-winning actor and director was referencing how he was imprisoned for a similar incident, when he punched and spat on an extra who starred with him in the 1988 cop film "Colors".
He vented in the new issue of Variety magazine, "I don't know Will Smith. I met him once. He seemed very nice when I met him. He was so f**king good in 'King Richard'. So why the f**k did you just spit on yourself and everybody else with this stupid f**king thing?"
"Why did I go to f**king jail for what you just did? And you're still sitting there?" he went on fuming. "Why are you guys standing and applauding his worst moment as a person?"
Sean, who won two Academy Awards for best actor for "Mystic River" in 2003 and 2008's "Milk", also raged about Oscars bosses refusing to let the president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, to speak at the 2022 Oscars where Will smacked Chris, weeks after Ukraine was invaded by Russia. The actor raged, "The Oscars producer thought, 'Oh, he's not light-hearted enough.' Well, guess what you got instead? Will Smith!"
Sean also said Will's attack made him think of having his Oscars trophies melted down to make bullets for Ukraine's war against Russia. He added, "I thought, well, f**k, you know? I'll give them to Ukraine. They can be melted down to bullets they can shoot at the Russians."
When he was 26 in 1987, Sean was sentenced to 60 days in county jail after punching and spitting on an extra on the set of "Colors", in which he starred as a rookie cop alongside a veteran officer played by Robert Duvall. Sean has had multiple instances of being charged over altercations, including in 2010 when he was sentenced to three years of probation and 300 hours of community service after attacking a photographer.
Will has apologized to Chris for hitting him and the "Men in Black" star has been banned him from attending Oscar events for 10 years. Will Packer, the producer of the 2022 Oscars, has revealed police were prepared to arrest Will at the event if Chris had wanted to press charges.
He told "Good Morning America", "They were saying, 'This is battery' - the word they used in that moment." He added, "They said, 'We will go get him. We are prepared to get him right now, you can press charges. We can arrest him.' They were laying out the options."
