{"id":1008018,"date":"2026-06-05T23:13:14","date_gmt":"2026-06-05T23:13:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1008018\/"},"modified":"2026-06-05T23:13:14","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T23:13:14","slug":"dont-ask-sean-penn-for-a-selfie-even-if-youre-a-holocaust-survivor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1008018\/","title":{"rendered":"Don’t Ask Sean Penn for a Selfie — Even If You’re a Holocaust Survivor"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tSean Penn<\/a> hates selfies and will not, under any circumstances, go to a public gathering with more than eight people \u2014 which is why he was noticeably absent from the recent 98th Academy Awards, where he won Best Supporting Actor (his third Oscar).<\/p>\n

\n\tThe revelations came during a conversation between Penn and CNN anchor Kaitlin Collins<\/a> during a Friday afternoon talk at Spring Studios in lower Manhattan as part of the 25th annual Tribeca Festival<\/a>, running June 3-14. Penn is a regular fixture at the fest, owing in large part to his long-time personal and professional relationship with one of the fest\u2019s co-founders, Robert De Niro, and was his usual frank and uncensored self during the talk, bouncing from topics like Ukraine (\u201cthey will prevail\u201d) to his newfound passion for woodworking to why he\u2019s mellowed out a lot since his hell-raising younger days. <\/p>\n

\n\tBut back to the selfies.<\/p>\n

\n\tAfter complimenting his moderator, telling Collins she\u2019s \u201cbrought so much of what real integrity is to covering this president\u201d while noting that \u201cif anybody ever had any question of who\u2019d win the stare-down contest, I think this week was a killer,\u201d Penn launched into an explanation as to why he wasn\u2019t present at the Oscars<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt\u2019s not just [that it\u2019s] an awards show,\u201d he said. \u201cIt would be the same if this group was going to an afterparty and one stepped into that. That always represented social discomfort for me; too many people. I\u2019m now down, committed for life, that I won\u2019t go anywhere to be in a designated group beyond eight people.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe problem is that there large public gatherings only \u201cgives you 15 minutes per person,\u201d which to him triggers his \u201canxiety\u201d and is \u201cdread-provoking.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe two times I had gone I felt relief that I\u2019d won because so many people out there had worked really hard for that,\u201d he offered, adding, \u201cThere\u2019s the politics of that stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAccording to Penn, he\u2019d spoken with his \u201cOne Battle After Another\u201d colleagues before the Oscars and they were all on the same page that it was \u201cbetter for my mental health\u201d if he not attend. So, he went to Ukraine instead<\/a>, where he\u2019s been working tirelessly to shine a light on its being under siege by Russia, and how it\u2019s in need of Western support. Penn still watched the Oscars in Ukraine, where it started at 2 a.m. and went until 5 a.m., and said he was grateful to not be there.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI really got to enjoy the Academy Awards for the first time,\u201d he admitted. \u201cIt was great.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tPenn made the decision to no longer attend awards shows after venturing to this year\u2019s Golden Globes.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe best that I could ever muster was relief,\u201d he shared. \u201cKnowing that I wasn\u2019t going to do that anymore, I did one before that this year. I went to the Golden Globes; I\u2019d never been to that before. And that\u2019s where I decided, \u2018I can\u2019t do this.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201c[It\u2019s] the ninth person,\u201d he continued. \u201cAnd it\u2019s not the low-hanging fruit of \u2018I don\u2019t wanna be around all this fake Hollywood\u2019 or something.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWhile he was leaving the Golden Globes, Penn was bombarded by people wanting selfies, which again, made him never, ever want to attend a public event with more than eight people.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cPeople should not do selfies ever with anyone. It\u2019s bad for you; it\u2019s bad for everyone. It\u2019s a soul-sucker,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s the Holocaust grandmother and her 6-year-old paraplegic wheeling over? It\u2019s a hard no.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sean Penn hates selfies and will not, under any circumstances, go to a public gathering with more than…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1008019,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3940],"tags":[4080,77,279291,14673,41323,279292,16,15],"class_list":["post-1008018","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-kaitlin-collins","tag-oscars","tag-sean-penn","tag-tribeca-festival","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116700041227353680","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1008018","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1008018"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1008018\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1008019"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1008018"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1008018"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1008018"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}