Actor Sean Penn may go to Ukraine to fight Russian forces.
The 61-year-old Oscar-winning celebrity has reportedly been working on a documentary for Vice about escalating tensions in the country since last year, and flew to Ukraine in February to get a firsthand look at the war.
After returning from the warzone in February, the Ukrainian embassy praised Penn’s effort to film the documentary in Kyiv.
“Sean Penn demonstrates the courage that many others, especially Western politicians lack. The more such people in our country now, true friends of Ukraine, who support the struggle for freedom, the sooner it will be possible to stop Russia’s treacherous attack,” the Ukrainian embassy told Newsweek in a translated statement.
Now the actor is contemplating whether to go back to Ukraine to “take up arms against Russia.”
“Look, my intention is to go back into Ukraine. But I’m not an idiot, I am not certain what I can offer,” Penn told Hollywood Authentic magazine in an interview published Saturday.
“If you’ve been in Ukraine [fighting] has to cross your mind,” he said. “And you kind of think what century is this? Because I was at the gas station in Brentwood the other day and I’m now thinking about taking up arms against Russia? What the fuck is going on?”
Penn continued: “The only possible reason for me staying in Ukraine longer last time would’ve been for me to be holding a rifle, probably without body armor, because as a foreigner, you would want to give that body armor to one of the civilian fighters who doesn’t have it or to a fighter with more skills than I have, or to a younger man or woman who could fight for longer or whatever.”
The left-wing Hollywood star, who played an Army sergeant in the 1998 Terrence Malick movie The Thin Red Line, said his curiosity about the effects of psychological warfare is also compelling him to fight Russian forces.