Sean Penn believes that COVID-19 vaccinations should be mandatory for all, just like “turning your headlights on in the car at night.”
Penn — who made headlines last month after refusing to return to work until everybody on “Gaslit,” a Starz series he co-stars with Julia Roberts, got vaccinated against COVID-19 — is doubling down on his stance.
Speaking with CNN’s Michael Smerconish on Saturday morning about his new film “Flag Day,” the two-time Oscar-winning actor said that he is “so grateful” that audiences will have an opportunity to see the movie in the theaters.
“It’s rare these days to have something that is exclusively theatrical,” he said. “Eventually it will stream, and that’s a better time for the unvaccinated to see it, though I think I’ll probably offend them out of that choice.”
According to Variety, at the film’s premiere on Aug. 11, the 61-year-old actor, director, producer and activist said, “I do request people who are not vaccinated, don’t go to the cinemas. Stay home until you are convinced of these very clearly safe vaccines.”
When he was asked by Smerconish why he had refused to go back to work on “Gaslilt,” he said that he “didn’t want to feel complicit in something that was taking care of one group and not the other,” explaining that only actors and crew members who work alongside them were required to be vaccinated.
“And I do believe that everyone should get vaccinated,” he said.
Penn also compared being unvaccinated with pointing a gun at someone.
“I have some areas of strong belief in the Second Amendment, he said. “But I think that you need to recognize how — with something like this — you can’t go around pointing a gun in somebody’s face, which is what it is when people are unvaccinated.”
