Sean Penn picked up the third Academy Award of his career at the 2026 Oscars — but he wasn’t there to accept it.
Penn, 65, won Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of Col. Steven J. Lockjaw in One Battle After Another at the Sunday, March 15, ceremony, triumphing over Frankenstein’s Jacob Elordi, Sinners’ Delroy Lindo, Sentimental Value’s Stellan Skarsgård and his One Battle After Another costar Benicio Del Toro.
“Sean Penn couldn’t be here this evening, or didn’t want to, so I’ll be accepting this award on his behalf,” said presenter Kieran Culkin, who won Best Supporting Actor last year for A Real Pain.
According to The New York Times, Penn was in Europe instead of attending the Oscars.
“His plan as of late last week was to visit Ukraine, according to two people who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter,” the Times reported.
The outlet continued, “The people did not specify what he would be doing there or where precisely within the country he would be going. There remained some possibility that although Penn had left the United States by the time of the telecast, his itinerary might have changed.”
Penn has become close friends with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy, codirecting the 2023 documentary Superpower, about Russian’s invasion of Ukraine.
The actor previously expressed outrage about the Oscars telecast refusing to allow Zelenskyy, 48, to speak at the 2022 Oscars, shortly after the start of the invasion.
“The Oscars producer thought, ‘Oh, he’s not light-hearted enough.’ Well, guess what you got instead? Will Smith!’” Penn told Variety in September 2023, referencing Smith’s slap of Chris Rock during the broadcast.
He added, “This f***ing bulls*** 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.”
Penn said the Zelenskyy was enough to inspire him to get rid of his two acting Oscars.
“I thought, well, f***, you know? I’ll give them to Ukraine. They can be melted down to bullets they can shoot at the Russians.”
Penn previously won Best Actor in a Leading Role 2004 and 2009 for his performances in Mystic River and Milk, respectively.
With his win on Sunday, Penn became just the fourth male actor in history to win three acting Oscars, joining Jack Nicholson, Daniel Day-Lewis and Walter Brennan.
Actress Katherine Hepburn holds the record for most acting Oscar wins of all-time, with four.
