Sean Penn Laments Will Smith Oscars Slap: ‘Why Did I Go to F—ing Jail’ and Smith Didn’t?

Sean Penn recently opened up about Will Smith’s Oscars slap controversy and questioned why he himself went to “f—ing jail” for hitting someone but Smith didn’t. Speaking to Variety, Penn referenced his infamous altercation with an extra on the set of the film Colors in 1987 when he was 26. The actor was sentenced to 60 days in county jail after punching and spitting on the extra. He served 33 days of the sentence.

“I don’t know Will Smith. I met him once. He seemed very nice when I met him. He was so f—ing good in King Richard,” Penn said, noting the film for which Smith would go on to earn an Oscar. Penn questioned, “So why the f— did you just spit on yourself and everybody else with this stupid f—ing thing? Why did I go to f—ing 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?” 

Smith has since apologized for slapping Chris Rock over a joke about his wife, Jada Pinkett Smith. He has also resigned from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. He is banned from attending any Academy event for a decade.

Penn recently directed a documentary about Ukraine’s war with Russia, and he told Variety that he was upset the Oscars producers did not make space to include a message from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, as other award shows had done. “The Oscars producer thought, ‘Oh, he’s not light-hearted enough.’ Well, guess what you got instead? Will Smith!” Penn exclaimed, then adding, “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.”

In 2022, during the Academy Awards telecast, Smith took issue with a G.I. Jane that Rock made about the Independence Day star’s wife. After leaving his seat, Smith approached Rock on the stage, and hit him with a hard open-hand slap. Upon returning to his seat, Smith yelled to Rock, “Keep my wife’s name out of your f—ing mouth.”

Following the violent outburst, Smith took to social media to issue an apology. “Jokes at my expense are a part of the job, but a joke about Jada’s medical condition was too much for me to bear and I reacted emotionally,” he wrote on Instagram, insinuating that the joke was specifically bout Pinkett-Smith’s alopecia condition. “I would like to publicly apologize to you, Chris. I was out of line and I was wrong. I am embarrassed and my actions were not indicative of the man I want to be. There is no place for violence in a world of love and kindness.”

Smith added, “Violence in all forms is poisonous and destructive.” The actor also apologized to “the Academy, the producers of the show, all the attendees and everyone watching around the world,” as well as Venus and Serena Williams and their families, as it was his role in the biopic King Richard about them and their father that landed him an Oscar. “I deeply regret that my behavior has stained what has been an otherwise gorgeous journey for all of us,” Smith concluded. “I am a work in progress.”