Penn calls for Zelenskyy at the Oscars

Sean Penn has called for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to be offered a stage at the Academy Awards ceremony, due to take place in Los Angeles on Sunday.

Taking issue with those who said films and politics should be separated, Penn told CNN's Jim Acosta, "There is nothing greater that the Academy Awards could do than to give him [Volodymyr Zelenskyy] the opportunity to talk to all of us."

The actor also said that Zelenskyy himself was a member of the television fraternity. "This is a man who understands television and who has had his own and very long and successful career," Penn told CNN.

He also said the way he had understood it, the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, which organizes the Oscars, had decided not to offer Zelenskyy a chance to speak at the ceremony.

"If the Academy has elected not to do it, if presenters have elected not to pursue the leadership in Ukraine who are taking bullets and bombs for us, along with the Ukrainian children that they are trying to protect, then I think every single one of those people and every bit of that decision will have been the most obscene moment in all of Hollywood history and I hope that's not what's happening," Penn told the network.

Boycotting the Oscars

Penn even urged winners to refuse the prizes if the Academy itself decided to not let Zelenskyy speak at the event. "If it turns out to be what's happening, I would encourage everyone involved to know that though it may be their moment – and I understand that – to celebrate their films, it is so much more important their moment to shine and to protest and to boycott the Academy Awards."

He also said if that was the case, he would destroy his Oscar trophies when he returned to the US. "I will smelt mine in public," the two-time Oscar-winner said. He added that he hoped it would not happen, and that if it did, everybody would walk out of the ceremony.

Penn currently in Poland

Sean Penn, who was in Ukraine to shoot a documentary as the war began and is currently in Poland, also described the current situation: "You've got two immediate crises: One is the refugee crisis of those coming into Poland and other border nations and then this horror that's going on in Ukraine," he said. "And just as important is the extraordinary courage and unification of Ukraine and of its leadership."

Penn is also overseeing humanitarian aid to Ukraine through the organization Community Organized Relief Support (CORE), of which he is the co-founder. When he was in Ukraine, he met President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

"I had met the president initially a day before the invasion and met with him again during the invasion," Penn told CNN. "I was with as moving, as courageous, as extraordinary a person and face of his extraordinary country and people as I would expect I ever will witness and certainly that I ever have."

Several Hollywood actors have joined in an effort to help refugees in Ukraine, including Ukraine-born Mila Kunis and her husband Ashton Kutcher, who raised over $35 million (€32 million) in aid.

The idea of Zelenskyy speaking at the Oscars via video was originally suggested by actor Amy Schumer, who is a co-presenter at this year's show. The Academy has not yet commented, but Schumer conceded that "there is definitely pressure in one way to be like, 'This is a vacation, let people forget – we just want to have this night,'" AFP reported.