The director spent the last few months in Ukraine shooting a VICE documentary that follows President Volodymyr Zelensky and the country’s military.
Penn, 61, told the Hollywood Authentic in an April 9 interview that he “intends to return to Ukraine,” although he’re not sure what [he] I can offer. ‘
“The only possible reason for me to stay longer in Ukraine last time would be to hold a rifle, probably without armor, because as a foreigner, you would like to give this armor to one of the citizens who does not have it, not even to a fighter with “More skills than I have, not even a younger man or woman who could fight for more time or anything,” Penn said in the report.
“Well, where I am in my life I miss doing this, but if you have been to Ukraine [fighting] it has to go through your mind. And do you think what century is this? Because I was at the gas station in Brentwood the other day and now I’m thinking of taking up arms against Russia? What happens;”
Sean Penn, 61, told Hollywood Authentic that he was “thinking of taking up arms against Russia” while at a gas station in Brentwood, California, shortly after returning from the war-torn country.
Penn, pictured left, is pictured with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Penn, who was with Zelensky when Russia first invaded Ukraine, credited the president for uniting the country.
Penn was pictured at a press conference in Rzeszow, Poland last month, announcing a partnership between the city and its nonprofit organization, CORE, to help Ukrainian refugees fleeing there. However, the Oscar-winning activist said that when he returned to Ukraine, he could “send a message through the chief of staff” to see how else he could help.
The mourners are pictured gathering on April 12 around the coffin of 47-year-old Ukrainian soldier Roman Tiaka, who was killed during the Russian invasion. Penn described the “ritual of passage” of covering war zones where you wonder “how would I react?”
The director plans to continue shooting the ongoing conflict for his documentary. In the interview, however, Penn questioned whether there was “tangible evidence that the documentaries really change anything.”
“All we know is that this can give hope,” he said.
The activist and Oscar-winning director, who physically participated in the rescue of people after Hurricane Katrina and gave a secret interview with the boss of the Sinaloa cartel, El Chapo in 2016, told the agency that “statistically, I have never taken any risks . ‘
“And that includes Baghdad in 2003, when I was alone outside the Green Zone … you probably had one in 100 chances of being killed.”
Usually, Penn said, he was never “a conflict zone reporter who stays for months or years in a place that is really rough, and never someone who had no choice but to be there and live there.”
He said in the report that it is possible to be “fascinated by the conflict” and “mentally very anti-war” at the same time.
“There is a rite of passage while you are in or near what has to do with some basic questions you ask yourself: how would you react? Could I keep enough oxygen in my brain to make clear seizures? “Will you be harmed when you are at war, emotionally or psychologically?”
“I think there is a part of my quest that is influenced by those questions that at some level require answers. And so, yes, I do not think it would be fair to say that this was not part of it. “
Penn first arrived in the Kiev capital when Russia first invaded Ukraine in February – Zelensky even announced the director’s presence on his official Facebook page.
Penn is pictured at a press conference of the Presidential Office in Ukraine on February 24. The actor said that he saw a change in the leader of Ukraine after the first invasion of Russia: “I was impressed that now I was looking at a guy who knows he had to rise to the absolute level of human courage and leadership.”
Penn told the report that “if you have been to Ukraine, [fighting] it has to go through your mind. ” Field engineers in Ukraine pictured next to damaged armored vehicles on a street in the city of Bucha on April 5
“Oscar-winning American actor and director Sean Penn has arrived in Ukraine,” the post read. “The director came to Kyiv specifically to record all the events taking place in Ukraine as a documentary and to tell the world the truth about Russia’s invasion of our country.”
Penn accuses Zelensky of uniting the country of Ukraine in the face of disaster.
“They are together as never before and, as I said, it is Zelensky’s historical legacy, because he is the man who did it.”
“They will never be able to take away what united the Ukrainians to fight for their country.”
Penn first met the Ukrainian president before the conflict, calling him “very charming, very smart and very charismatic.” When the Russian offensive began, Penn said, he saw a change in Zelensky.
Penn, pictured right, is pictured visiting Ukrainian armed forces positions near the front line with Russian-backed separatists in the Donetsk region of Ukraine.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (C) walks on the street in the city of Bucha in Kiev, which was recaptured by the Ukrainian army on April 4. Penn says Zelensky’s “historical legacy” will unite Ukraine “like never before”
“Seeing Zelensky the day before the invasion, I would say, it’s logical that he would not feel completely tested. And then, seeing him the next day, I was impressed that I was now looking at a guy who knows he had to rise to the ultimate level of human courage and leadership. “I think he found out he was born to do that.”
Currently, the non-profit organization CORE (Community Organized Relief Fort) of Penn, which was founded in 2010 to help earthquake victims in Haiti, is helping Ukrainian refugees flee to Poland, and Penn said his resources could not to try to cross the border to add to the resources that are so fast “.
More than 4 million people have fled Ukraine to neighboring countries since Russia invaded the country on February 24, according to the United Nations, which represents Europe’s largest refugee crisis since World War II.
When he returns to the country, Penn will evaluate what else he can do to help.
“I do not spend much time sending messages to the president or his staff while they are under siege and their people are being killed. I would probably send a message through the chief of staff. ” Here’s what I’m looking to do that I think would be worth it. “You have to answer me only in one of two ways: do not come or do not come to do what you are planning or come, but here you could be more useful,” he said.
