Sean Penn’s Reported Hardline Film-Set Vaccination Stance Arrived After A Darkly Humorous Tweet

Sean Penn apparently took a hardline stance by refusing to return and film Gaslit, his Watergate limited TV series with Julia Roberts, until the entire crew and cast got vaccinated. Deadline originally reported that Penn made the insistence due to Covid-19’s Delta variant spread in Los Angeles, and he also offered to “facilitate the vaccination effort, free of charge,” through his CORE organization. Penn’s stance arrives on the heels of LA reinstating an indoor mask mandate as cases rise again, and he’s apparently only got two weeks of filming left, so replacing him wouldn’t really be an option.

This stance also lands on the heels of widespread reports about a committed set of conservative voters who are digging in their heels and refusing to get vaccinated, and that’s a stance that endangers the immunocompromised and paves the way for more variants. However, Penn first tried to get his message across with a little bit of humor.

“Anecdotally, I’m told that not only are the vaccines totally safe, but they also help burn weight,” Penn tweeted last week. “Healthier & slimmer in one shot.”

— Sean Penn (@SeanPenn) July 17, 2021

Yes, it’s silly, but there may be a handful of people who have (incidentally) lost weight since getting vaccinated. Being able to get out of those house and to the gym would make a difference, after all. Yet Penn is not known for subtlety, so he’s likely being sarcastic and hoping that something will eventually convince those who refuse to protect not only themselves but those around them. And the report that he’s offering to vaccinate the Gaslit crew would be consistent with CORE’s efforts to help run drive-through testing facilities earlier on in the pandemic.

There’s been no word yet of a response from the Gaslit production heads (on the Starz limited series) on the reported Penn hardline stance.