Sean Penn has only met Will Smith once, but he had a lot to say about him in a recent interview. The actor and director, who went to jail for a bit in 1987 after punching someone, just doesn't understand why Will Smith walked away from slapping Chris Rock largely unscathed at the Oscars in March 2022.
During his interview with Variety, Sean was mad that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences didn't want Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to speak at the Oscars in 2022. “The Oscars producer thought, ‘Oh, he’s not light-hearted enough.’ Well, guess what you got instead? Will Smith!” Sean said during the interview.
You can probably guess which infamous moment Sean Penn was alluding to: "the slap," or the moment when Will Smith went on stage to slap Chris Rock at the Oscars in 2022 because Chris Rock made a joke about Will's wife, Jada Pinkett Smith.
Chris' joke was related to Jada having a bald head. She has alopecia, and has lost her hair. After returning to his seat, Will shouted, "Keep my wife's name out of your [expletive] mouth." The academy banned Will from attending its events for 10 years, but what else really happened to him?
More from LittleThings: The Best Movies To Watch With Your Teen This Fall (& What They Bring To The Table)
The Los Angeles Police department could've arrested Will — if Chris Rock had wanted to press charges, that is, according to Academy Awards Producer Will Packer. Because the comedian didn't want to press charges, Will Smith was free to go.
"[The officers] were saying, 'This is battery' — the word they used in that moment. 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," Packer told ABC News, describing how the police responded to the incident.
Will later apologized, saying, "my behavior was unacceptable." Some accepted this apology, moved on and let it go, but Sean does not appear to be one of those people. In his recent Variety interview, Sean admitted that Will seemed like a nice person the one time they met, but still, he did not seem happy about what happened at the Oscars last year.
“I don’t know Will Smith. I met him once," Sean told Variety. "He seemed very nice when I met him. He was so [expletive] good in King Richard." Sean's compliments ended there, though.
“So why the [expletive] did you just spit on yourself and everybody else with this stupid [expletive] thing? Why did I go to [expletive] jail for what you just did? And you’re still sitting there? Why are you guys standing and applauding his worst moment as a person?” Sean continued.
Sean spent 33 days in county jail in 1987 after spitting on and punching an extra on set. It's not the only time he has been charged for altercations.
Some social media users brought up other allegations against Sean. In 1988, Madonna reported that Sean Penn assaulted her. They were married at the time, but divorced in 1989. She later said that he did not abuse her.
"I am aware of the allegations that have surfaced over the years accusing Sean of incidents of physical assault and abuse against me," Madonna had said in a statement. "Specifically, I am aware of the allegations concerning an alleged incident that occurred in June 1987, whereby (according to tabloid reports) Sean allegedly struck me with 'a baseball bat.' I know the allegations in those and other reports to be completely outrageous, malicious and false."
Some remained skeptical.
While Sean's comment makes it seem as though he's upset that Will was able to walk away from the altercation largely unaffected, a lot of his anger seems to be about how the Ukrainian president was not invited to speak at the Oscars. "This [expletive] wouldn’t have happened with Zelenskyy. Will Smith would never have left that chair to be part of stupid violence. It never would have happened," Sean continued.
Sean directed a movie about Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Ukraine. The documentary, called Superpower, was meant to be a "lighthearted" film about the country but evolved into a war film.
