Sean Penn went on a rant against the Oscars while defending the biopic about a young Donald Trump at the Marrakech Film Festival.
The 64-year-old actor, who has won two Academy Awards, spoke during a press conference Tuesday and accused the Oscars of being “afraid” of embracing “The Apprentice” starring Sebastian Stan as the president-elect, 78.
“The Academy have exercised really extraordinary cowardice when it comes to being part of the bigger world of expression, and in fact, have largely been part of limiting the imagination and very limiting of different cultural expressions,” said Penn, per Variety.
The “Mystic River” star, who was casually chain-smoking during his rant, said the Oscars and other award ceremonies should be viewed as “television shows first.”
“So I don’t I get very excited about what we’ll call the Academy Awards [except for] when a film like ‘The Florida Project,’ or ‘I’m Still Here,’ or, you know, ‘Emilia Perez,’ of the things that are likely to happen this year,” he explained.
Penn then addressed the controversy over Ali Abbasi’s “The Apprentice,” which is not expected to be a major contender during awards season, despite receiving an 8-minute standing ovation when it premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in May.
“When something sneaks through, it’s to be celebrated,” said Penn. “It’s jaw-dropping how afraid this [so-called] business of mavericks is of a great film like that,” he continued.
“One with great, great acting. [It’s amazing] that they too can be as afraid as a piddly little Republican congressman,” he added.
The Post has reached out to the Academy for comment.
“The Apprentice” focuses on Trump’s rise to prominence in the 1970s and 1980s and his relationships with attorney Roy Cohn (Jeremy Strong) and his first wife, Ivana Trump (Maria Bakalova).
Trump has bashed the movie and sent a cease and desist letter to the producers over a scene that depicts him violently raping Ivana. Trump has denied the allegation he assaulted his late ex-wife.
Meanwhile, Stan, 42, claimed last month that his peers refused to sit down with him to discuss the film for Variety’s annual “Actors on Actors” series. This was confirmed by Variety coo-editor in chief Ramin Setoodeh.
“They were too afraid to go and talk about this movie, so I couldn’t do it,” Stan said at a screening of “The Apprentice” on Nov. 19.
“And it doesn’t matter, that’s OK,” he continued. “It’s not to point a finger at anybody — I’ve got to do a lot of great things.”
The “Hawkeye” star explained that “we couldn’t get past the publicists or the people representing them because they were too afraid to talk about this movie.” He added, “If it really becomes that fear or that discomfort to talk about this, we’re really going to have a problem.”
Briarcliff Entertainment bought the rights to “The Apprentice” and released it in theaters on October 11. It made $12 million on a $16 million budget.
However, the film received mostly positive reviews from critics. It has an 83% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes.
