Sean Penn says his awards-show absence was not a stunt, a slight, or a mystery campaign move. It was a mental-health decision.
The 65-year-old actor opened up at the Tribeca Festival on Friday, June 5, about why he skipped the 98th Academy Awards, where he won Best Supporting Actor for One Battle After Another. People reported that Penn told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins that awards shows trigger anxiety for him and have become “dread-provoking.”
Sean Penn says he decided to stop attending award shows (including this year’s Oscars, where he won Best Supporting Actor) after being bombarded by people asking for selfies at the Golden Globes.
“People should not do selfies ever with anyone. It’s bad for you; it’s bad for… pic.twitter.com/0N5ppAkEYQ
— Variety (@Variety) June 5, 2026
The explanation gives a clearer answer to one of this year’s strangest Oscars moments: Penn won his third Academy Award, but he was not in the room to accept it.
The Golden Globes Were the Breaking Point
Penn said he had already been struggling with awards-show environments before this year’s Oscars.
At Tribeca, he explained that the problem was not only the ceremony itself. He described the rooms around awards season as socially uncomfortable, crowded, and built around brief encounters that leave him anxious rather than energized.
“I’m now down, committed for life, that I won’t go anywhere to be in a designated group beyond eight people,” Penn said, according to People.
He said the Golden Globes earlier this year were the moment he decided he could not keep doing it. He had never attended that ceremony before, but after going, he concluded, “I can’t do this.”
He Said Awards Rooms Feel Too Shallow and Too Crowded
Penn told Collins that awards shows give people only a few minutes with one another, which makes the experience feel worse for him.
He said the events offer “15 minutes per person,” and that setup triggers anxiety. He also said the two previous times he attended the Oscars, his strongest feeling after winning was relief because so many people had worked hard on the films.
Penn won Best Actor Oscars for Mystic River and Milk. His 2026 win for One Battle After Another gave him a third Oscar, this time in the supporting actor category.
Still, he said he told his costars that skipping the ceremony would be better for his mental health.
He Went to Ukraine Instead
Penn was not in Los Angeles when his name was called at the Oscars.
People previously reported that Penn had left the United States before the ceremony and intended to spend time in Ukraine instead. During the Oscars broadcast, Kieran Culkin accepted the award on his behalf and joked that Penn “couldn’t be here this evening, or didn’t want to.”
In the new Tribeca conversation, Penn said he watched the ceremony from afar and enjoyed the Oscars for the first time.
People reported that while in Kyiv, Penn received a different kind of Oscar: a statuette made from metal from a train damaged in the war, presented by Ukrainian Railways’ Oleksandr Pertsovskyi on March 17.
The Ukraine trip fit a longer pattern for Penn. He has been a vocal supporter of Ukraine and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy since Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022.
Selfies Are Another Part of the Problem
Penn also used the Tribeca conversation to explain another reason awards rooms and public events have become uncomfortable for him.
He said he dislikes being asked for selfies and argued that people should not ask anyone for them.
“People should not do selfies ever with anyone,” Penn said, according to People. “It’s bad for you; it’s bad for everyone.”
The comment fits Penn’s larger point about public spaces feeling artificial and draining. He was not only describing one stressful ceremony. He was describing an environment he no longer wants to enter.
His Third Oscar Arrived Without the Walk to the Stage
Penn’s absence did not change the size of the career moment.
His win for One Battle After Another made him a three-time Oscar winner, adding to the awards he previously won for Mystic River and Milk. People also noted that he has been nominated before for Dead Man Walking, Sweet and Lowdown, and I Am Sam.
The difference is that this time, the ceremony did not become the emotional center of the win for him. Penn said the Golden Globes confirmed that he could not keep attending awards rooms, and the Oscars happened without him in the audience.