Sean Penn Receives Backlash for Saying He Won’t Take a Selfie Even If You’re a ‘Holocaust Grandmother’

Sean Penn has very strict rules when it comes to social settings.

The Academy Award winner, 65, revealed during a Tribeca Festival talk with CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins at Spring Studios that he doesn’t want to take selfies with anyone.

“People should not do selfies ever with anyone. It’s bad for you; it’s bad for everyone. It’s a soul-sucker,” he said, according to Variety. “It’s the Holocaust grandmother and her 6-year-old paraplegic wheeling over? It’s a hard no.”

When his comments made their way over to X, many social media users questioned why the One Battle After Another actor would bring the Holocaust into the conversation in the first place.

“What does the Holocaust have to do with selfies?” one person wrote, while another said: “Sean Penn comparing selfie requests to the Holocaust Bro went full dictator-fanboy for years, now he’s too important for photos. Touch grass, Sean.”

“So it’s just disabled Jews he has a thing about, got it,” someone else said on X.

During Penn’s conversation with Collins, he also explained why he wasn’t in attendance at this year’s Oscars — even though he won for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in One Battle After Another.

“It’s not just [that it’s] an awards show,” he said, per Variety. “It would be the same if this group was going to an afterparty and one stepped into that. That always represented social discomfort for me; too many people. I’m now down, committed for life, that I won’t go anywhere to be in a designated group beyond eight people.”

Penn explained that he made the right decision.

“I really got to enjoy the Academy Awards for the first time,” he said. “It was great.”