Sean Penn recounts the “unnecessarily aggressive” journey he went through when he met Putin

Sean Penn has publicly spoken out against Vladimir Putin’s regime since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, using his media clout to lobby on several fronts: He has announced he will melt his two Oscar statuettes if the Ukrainian president Volodimir Zelensky will not be invited to the gala to be held in March and, even more representatively, he went to the occupied country to shoot the documentary ‘Superpower’, following the figure of Zelenski during the war. This project is one of the reasons why he is banned from entering Russia, along with Ben Stiller and many others. However, there was a time when Putin would have gladly shared an evening with the director and vice versa, but for that we will have to go back more than twenty years.

In 2001, Sean Penn was promoting ‘The Oath’, a film he directed and starred Jack Nicholson in which he played a retired cop who would do anything to catch a girl’s killer. The film was supposed to have its world premiere at the Moscow Film Festival, so both Penn and Nicholson were in the capital, where they received an invitation to a surprise party. “We knew Putin would be an honored guest”, Penn tells The Independent (via Variety). Since the Russian political reality at that time was different, they accepted the invitation, but still haven’t forgotten what the journey was like to get there.

“They put us in a convoy. We went as fast as they wanted, not caring if we could pose a danger in the cities we were passing through”says Penn. The actor claims that throughout the trip he had a bad feeling. “When farmers with pony carts tried to cross, the security personnel of our vehicles leaned out of the window to drive them away, hitting them with batons”Remember. “He was so unnecessarily aggressive”.

Vladimir Putin, Jack Nicholson and Sean Penn with Bob Van Ronkel at a surprise party organized by the president of the Moscow International Film Festival, Nikita Mikhalhov, in his country house. Penn and Nicholson were in Russia for a screening of The Pledge in 2001. pic.twitter.com/bszT5ZdU1G

? Kat (@mopeng) March 4, 2019

Putin, an admirer

According to The Guardian, Putin told Nicholson that he really enjoyed his role in ‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest’, to which the actor would respond by offering him a role as a producer in future projects. This never materialized, but we can’t help but wonder what would have become of Putin if he had opted for films instead of political battles and assaults.