in June 2005 Penn has been outspoken in supporting numerous political and social causes. On December 13–16, 2002, he visited
Iraq to protest against the
Bush administration's apparent plans for a military strike on Iraq. On June 10, 2005, Penn visited
Iran, where, acting as a journalist on an assignment for the
San Francisco Chronicle, he attended a
Friday prayer at
Tehran University. In response to the 2004 satirical film
Team America: World Police, in which a caricatured puppet of Penn claims
Baathist Iraq was a
utopia with "rainbow skies" and "rivers made of chocolate" before the
US military and the
Coalition of the Willing invaded and removed Saddam Hussein from power in 2003, Penn sent an angry letter to its creators
Trey Parker and
Matt Stone, inviting them to tour
Iraq with him and ending with the statement, "fuck you". On January 7, 2006, Penn joined author and media critic
Norman Solomon and activist
Cindy Sheehan as a special guest at their "Out of Iraq Forum" in
Sacramento, California for the
Progressive Democrats of America, an event organized to support and promote the anti-
Iraq War movement. On December 18, 2006, Penn received the
Christopher Reeve First Amendment Award from the
Creative Coalition for his commitment to
free speech. In August 2008, Penn attended one of
Ralph Nader's "Open the Debates" super rallies, protesting against the exclusion of Nader and other third-party candidates. In October 2008, Penn visited
Cuba, where he met with and interviewed then
Cuban president Raúl Castro. In 2021, Penn denounced
cancel culture, describing it as "ludicrous".
George W. Bush administration in Washington, D.C., in January 2007 On October 18, 2002, Penn placed a $56,000 advertisement in
The Washington Post, publicly asking then President
George W. Bush to end military hostilities in
Iraq and elsewhere. The advertisement was written as an open letter and referred to the
planned attack on Iraq and the
war on terror. In the letter, Penn also criticized the Bush administration for its "deconstruction of
civil liberties" and its "simplistic and inflammatory view of good and evil." Penn visited Iraq briefly in December 2002. The
Post advertisement was cited as a primary reason for the development of his relationship with Venezuelan president
Hugo Chávez. In one of his televised speeches, Chávez used and read aloud an open letter Penn wrote to Bush. The letter condemned the
Iraq War, called for Bush to be
impeached, and also called then US Vice President
Dick Cheney and US Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice "villainously and criminally obscene people." On April 19, 2007, Penn appeared on
The Colbert Report and had a "Meta-Free-Phor-All" versus
Stephen Colbert that was judged by
Robert Pinsky following Penn's criticisms of Bush. In the appearance, Penn said, "We cower as you point your fingers telling us to support our troops. You and the smarmy pundits in your pocket– those who bathe in the moisture of your soiled and blood-soaked underwear–can take that noise and shove it." He won the contest with 10,000,000 points to Colbert's 1. On December 7, 2007, Penn said he supported Ohio Congressman
Dennis J. Kucinich in the
2008 US presidential election, and again criticized Bush's handling of the Iraq War. Penn questioned whether Bush's daughters,
Jenna and
Barbara, supported the war in Iraq.
Natural disasters In September 2005, Penn traveled to
New Orleans, to aid
Hurricane Katrina victims. He was physically involved in rescuing people, although there was criticism that his involvement was a PR stunt as he hired a photographer to come along with his entourage. Penn denied such accusations in an article he wrote for
HuffPost. Director
Spike Lee interviewed Penn for Lee's documentary about Hurricane Katrina,
When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts (2006). After the
2010 Haiti earthquake, Penn founded the
J/P Haitian Relief Organization, which operated a 55,000 person tent camp. Prior to founding the organization, Penn acknowledged he had never visited
Haiti and did not speak French or
Creole. When asked about critics who questioned his experience on Haiti, he said he hopes they "die screaming of
rectal cancer". On January 31, 2012, due largely to his visibility as an on-the-ground advocate for rescue and aid efforts in the aftermath, Penn was designated by then
Haitian president Michel Martelly as Ambassador-at-Large for Haiti, the first time a non-Haitian citizen has held the position in the country's history. Also in 2012, at the 12th World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates, Penn was recognized with the Peace Summit Award.
Gender and sexual orientation On February 22, 2009, Penn received the
Academy Award for Best Actor for the film
Milk. In his acceptance speech, he said: "I think that it is a good time for those who voted for the ban against gay marriage to sit and reflect and anticipate their great shame and the shame in their grandchildren's eyes if they continue that way of support. We've got to have equal rights for everyone!" In 2022, Penn expressed his position on masculinity, saying, "I am in the club that believes that men in American culture have become wildly feminised...I don't think that [in order] to be fair to women, we should become them." He later told
The Independent that "I think that men have, in my view, become quite feminised...There are a lot of, I think, cowardly genes that lead to people surrendering their jeans and putting on a skirt."
International affairs Penn gained significant attention in
Pakistan media when he visited
Karachi and
Badin in 2012. On March 23, 2012, accompanied by US Consul General William J. Martin, Penn visited flood-stricken villages in Karim Bux Jamali, Dargah Shah Gurio, and Peero Lashari in the
Badin District, where he distributed blankets, quilts, kitchen items, and other goods to flood survivors. On March 24, 2012, during his visit to Pakistan, Penn visited Bilquis Edhi Female Child Home and met Pakistani humanitarian worker
Abdul Sattar Edhi and his wife
Bilquis Edhi and laid floral wreaths at the shrine of
Abdullah Shah Ghazi in honor of him. Penn played a role in securing the release of American entrepreneur
Jacob Ostreicher from a Bolivian prison in 2013, and was credited by Ostreicher for having personally nursed him back to health at Penn's home after his release. Penn is the founder of the nonprofit organization
Community Organized Relief Effort (CORE), which distributed aid in
Haiti following the country's 2010 earthquake and
Hurricane Matthew and administered free
COVID-19 diagnostic tests in the US during the
COVID-19 pandemic. In October 2021, the
National Labor Relations Board filed a complaint that Penn and CORE violated
US federal labor law, contending that Penn "impliedly threatened" his employees with reprisals after they complained about working conditions, which allegedly included 18-hour work days.
Syria In February 2012, during the
Syrian civil war, Penn stood beside
Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez as Venezuela supported the government of Syria, led by
Bashar al-Assad.
Venezuela Penn and Chávez maintained a friendship. In March 2010, Penn called for the
imprisonment of journalists who referred to
Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez as a dictator. Penn's was criticized by conservative and libertarian media sources, including
National Review and
Reason. When Chávez died in 2013, Penn said: "Venezuela and its revolution will endure under the proven leadership of Vice President
Nicolás Maduro. Today the United States lost a friend it never knew it had. And poor people around the world lost a champion. I lost a friend I was blessed to have." Penn's friendship with Chávez and his praise for Cuban dictator
Raúl Castro have been criticized by human rights activist
Thor Halvorssen and media, including
The New York Times, the
Los Angeles Times,
The New Criterion, and
The Advocate, each of which alleged that Castro and Chávez's strong anti-
LGBT stances clashed with Penn's support for LGBT groups. Actress
María Conchita Alonso, who co-starred with Penn in
Colors, also issued an "Open Letter to Sean Penn", attacking his views on Chávez. In December 2011, Alonso and Penn began verbally fighting at an airport, during which Penn called her "a pig" and Alonso called Penn a
communist.
Mexico On January 9, 2016, a day after Mexican officials announced the capture of fugitive
Sinaloa Cartel boss
Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán in a militarized raid,
Rolling Stone reported that Penn and actress
Kate del Castillo had conducted a secret interview with El Chapo prior to his arrest. Del Castillo was contacted by Guzmán's lawyer, who was then under
CISEN surveillance, to discuss producing a biographical film about Guzmán, and communication between the two increased following Guzmán's escape from a Mexican prison in July 2015. The deal for the interview was brokered by del Castillo. According to text messages released between Penn and del Castillo, El Chapo did not know who Sean Penn was. CISEN released photographs of del Castillo at the meetings with Guzmán's lawyers and of Penn and del Castillo arriving in Mexico. The interview was criticized by the
White House, which called it "maddening". Mexican authorities said they sought to question Penn over the interview, which had not been approved by either the American or Mexican government. Penn and del Castillo's meeting with Guzmán was investigated by the
attorney general of Mexico. Del Castillo acknowledged that she never resumed communication with Penn after the release of the
Rolling Stone article. In October 2025, Del Castillo harshly criticized Penn, calling him "scum" and accusing him of using her as "bait" during their 2015 meeting with Guzmán. Penn had never told her that he had planned to write the article despite her central role in arranging the meeting.
Armenia In October 2020, Penn
tweeted support for
Armenia in the
Nagorno-Karabakh war between Armenia and
Azerbaijan. He also criticized
Turkey's involvement in the conflict and close
Turkey–United States ties and simultaneously endorsed
Joe Biden in the
2020 US presidential election. Penn said, "Armenians are being slaughtered by
Trump pal
Erdogan with weapons WE provided. THIS is NOT America! Biden for America's new birth!".
Ukraine In 2022, Penn visited
Ukraine to film a documentary about the
Russian invasion of that country. On February 25, 2022, Penn said, "If we allow it [Ukraine] to fight alone, our soul as America is lost." Penn also praised the response from the Ukrainian government and its citizens. Russia is sanctioning Penn over his Ukraine support. In Kyiv in November 2022, Penn lent an
Oscar statuette to
President Zelenskyy, saying, "This is for you. It's just a symbolic silly thing...When you win, bring it back to
Malibu." Zelensky, in turn, awarded Penn the
Ukrainian Order of Merit. In March 2026, he visited Ukraine for the fifth time, choosing to be there instead of attending the Academy Awards ceremony, where he had been named a winner for his role in
One Battle After Another. During his stay, he received a symbolic Oscar-like metal statuette, crafted from the material of a railway car that had been damaged during shelling in Ukraine.
Falkland Islands Cristina Fernández de Kirchner during Penn's visit to
Argentina in February 2012 In February 2012, Penn met with the
president of Argentina,
Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, in
Buenos Aires, where he commented on the long-running
dispute between Argentina and the United Kingdom over the
Falkland Islands, saying: "I know I came in a very sensitive moment in terms of diplomacy between Argentina and the UK over the Falkland Islands. And I hope that diplomats can establish true dialogue in order to solve the conflict as the world today cannot tolerate ridiculous demonstrations of colonialism. The way of dialogue is the only way to achieve a better solution for both nations." The comments were taken as support of Argentina's claim to the islands and evoked reactions in British media, including a satirical article in
The Daily Telegraph requesting that Penn "return his Malibu estate to the
Mexicans". In February 2012, Penn's comments on the Falklands dispute were criticized by
Falklands War veteran and political activist
Simon Weston, who said, "Sean Penn does not know what he is talking about and, frankly, he should shut up. His [Penn's] views are irrelevant and it only serves to fuel the fire of the Argentinians and get them more pumped up."
British Conservative MP
Patrick Mercer called Penn's statement on the Falklands "moronic". Lauren Collins wrote in
The New Yorker, "As of today, Sean Penn is the new
Karl Lagerfeld—the man upon whom, having disrespected something dear to the United Kingdom, the British papers most gleefully pile contempt". Penn later claimed his comments were misrepresented in British press and that his criticism of "colonialism" was a reference to the deployment of
Prince William as an air-sea rescue pilot, describing it as a "message of pre-emptive intimidation". He claimed that the Prince's posting meant "the automatic deployment of warships", and stated: "My oh my, aren't people sensitive to the word 'colonialism', particularly those who implement colonialism." In an op-ed written in
The Guardian, Penn wrote that "the legalisation of Argentinian immigration to the Malvinas/Falkland Islands is one that it seems might have been addressed, but for the speculative discovery of booming offshore oil in the surrounding seas this past year" and that it was "irresponsible journalism" to suggest "that I had taken a specific position against those currently residing in the Malvinas/Falkland Islands, that they should either be deported or absorbed into Argentine rule. I neither said, nor insinuated that". ==Acting credits and accolades==