Sean Penn Refuses to Resume Starz Series Until Entire Crew Is Vaccinated
Sean Penn is refusing to return to work on the Watergate-themed Starz limited series Gaslit until the entire production, not just the cast and key crew, has been vaccinated against the COVID-19 virus.
As reported by our sister site Deadline, Penn made clear his stance to producer UCP upon returning from the Cannes Film Festival premiere of Flag Day, a film he directed and stars in alongside Katheryn Winnick (Big Sky), his daughter Dylan Penn, and Josh Brolin. Penn reportedly has a couple weeks’ worth of filming left on Gaslit.
Current COVID safety protocols in Hollywood, which were the product of much negotiation with assorted unions, only afford producers “the option to implement mandatory vaccination policies for casts and crew in Zone A on a production-by-production basis,” Deadline notes. (Zone A includes where unmasked actors congregate and perform on set, surrounded only by key crew members.)
Beyond Zone A is a far larger assembly of crew members and workers who are not obligated by existing protocols to be vaccinated. UCP, though, has always kept close to the set a mobile clinic from which anyone can receive the COVID vaccine of their choice, plus any required follow-up.
Per Deadline, Penn is fully vaccinated and has taken this stance not out of any concern for himself or his costars, but knowing that unvaccinated crew members not stationed in Zone A can potentially spread the virus. But again, (many) unions are involved, so no producer can simply snap their fingers and have Penn’s wish be fulfilled.
Penn has no official comment on the situation at this time, his reps told TVLine. UCP declined to comment on the standoff.
Based on real-life events, Starz‘s Gaslit follows Martha Mitchell (played by Julia Roberts), a celebrity Arkansan socialite and wife to Nixon’s loyal Attorney General, John Mitchell (played by Penn). Despite her party affiliation, Martha is the first person to publicly sound the alarm on Nixon’s involvement in Watergate, causing both the Presidency and her personal life to unravel. As Attorney General, Mitchell is Nixon’s most trusted advisor and best friend. Temperamental, foulmouthed and ruthless – yet hopelessly in love with his famously outspoken wife – he’ll be forced to choose between Martha and the President.
Additional cast includes Betty Gilpin (GLOW), Dan Stevens (Downton Abbey), Allison Tolman (Fargo), J.C. MacKenzie (October Faction), Chris Bauer (For All Mankind), Hamish Linklater (Legion) and Chris Messina (The Mindy Project).
Vaccinated people can also still get the virus and can also still spread it
The whole point is to make it less likely.
I mean the guy just flew overseas to a film festival full of people…you’d think behavior like that would lead to an increased risk but apparently it’s just the unvaccinated people he works with
He’s vaccinated, took strong precautions, and only came into close proximity with vaccinated people. There isn’t anything else you can do.
Other than just not go, you mean
You do have a point. I think if he traveled to a film festival he can’t just come back and make new demands
Cannes spent a million bucks testing to ensure nobody had Covid and I think vaccination was a requirement too, but not positive.
This. Plus, vaccinated people are less likely to get the more severe version of the virus that leads to hospitalizations and deaths, which would take a load off of already stressed and overworked doctors and nurses (and make it easier for them to focus on people who need treatment for other things, too).
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Bottom line, if you’re able to get the vaccine at this point and still refusing to do so, you’re a selfish idiot and you need to get over yourself. It’ never ceases to amaze me how so many of the same people going around complaining about how this pandemic is taking forever to end are simultaneously refusing to do anything that might actually help, y’know, end it, like getting vaccinated or wearing masks. They’re the reason we’re all still dealing with this crap all this time later.
Exactly.
It’s the dumb lockdowns and pearl-clutching overreactions governments have to any new case that people have a problem with. I am NOT an anti-vaxxer but the COVID threat has been seriously overblown too.
Really? Go tell that to the families of the 600,000 plus people in this country that died from it, or the thousands of others who got very sick with it. I’m sure they’d be thrilled to hear that you think the threat was “overblown”.
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Bottom line, you’re wrong, and the reason we needed lockdowns and such at all is because of people with attitudes like yours to begin with.
Nearly all those people were elderly people with comorbidities. Also, the numbers were even more exaggerated when people who simply had the virus in the system were counted as COVID deaths. There was a novel coronavirus out there but-with all due respect to the deceased-its deadliness was severely blown up and the lockdowns were often more fatal.
Yea, people seem to gloss over that the new cases are younger people without health issues – because a year ago , before the vaccine, it was older people with health issues dying, that’s not the reality now.
And the variants are way more aggressive. And the unvaccinated who refuse to get it are contributing to the virus being able to mutate and become resistant to vaccines.
The danger is real.
@American: So a lot of them were elderly. And? Still a hell of a lot of people dying of something they didn’t need to die of, had people taken this seriously and been more responsible. And there were still plenty of younger people without extra health issues that got sick and died from this, too. Just look at the story of Nick Cordero, for instance.
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But considering you’re going on about the numbers being “exaggerated”, I’m thinking you’ve brought into a lot of the conspiracy nonsense surrounding this virus, so it’s hard to take your post all that seriously as a result.
American, I don’t give a rats ass if it affected older people more adversely. They were still people who may still be alive if not for the virus. To act like they they had no meaning because of their age or health is very callous and cruel to those who still miss them.
No it hasn’t been overblown. I know lots of people who died with COVID before vaccines were available. Even now many people overseas are begging for vaccines and can’t get them. I have no sympathy for the unvaccinated who could get a vaccine but refused to do so. It is the unvaccinated who are destroying our economy and wasting resources and money.
Here in Florida we are at over 6000 cases a day now. See I thought it was the media over talking the issue but our state no longer reports daily cases. So unless you seek out the numbers on your own one would not know.please take it seriously.
That’s not guaranteed. I know someone who got two vaccinations and still caught the virus. Senn Penn has swallowed the poisoned kool-aid. What next? Crew gets vaccinated and then he refuses to do the show unless everyone in the world gets vaccinated? Penn has lost his mind.
@kie Because it’s a *vaccine*, not a cure. Please educate yourself as to the difference. In the meantime, feel free to confer with your neighbors who have polio and smallpox. Oh, wait…
Kie, you clearly do not understand the vaccine. It’s similar to the flu vaccine. No one has EVER said (well at least not anyone with actual scientific knowledge) that the vaccine prevents all cases. It makes it less likely to get severely ill if you do catch it. Yes, some vaccines prevent you from getting a disease at all. Others make it less likely you will be severely ill. You also seem to think that the person you know got two separate vaccines. There are two vaccines that require two doses to be fully effective. Using the “I know someone who got two vaccines and still got COVID” just makes you sound uneducated. That person got the first dose of either the Moderna or Pfizer vaccine and then a month later got the second dose of the same brand of vaccine. That’s just two doses of the same vaccine to be fully vaccinated. It’s not like that person got two different vaccines to double up on protection and still got it. ANYONE, vaccinated or not, can still catch the virus. Having the vaccine just means it’s less likely you’ll actually get sick and if you do, it shouldn’t be as severe. And, save your ridiculousness for the other science deniers. I know two people who were severely affected by COVID. One woman I went to school with from elementary all the way through graduation died from COVID at the age of 40. She wasn’t elderly and she didn’t have other illnesses. She died leaving behind a husband a 4 children before the vaccine was available. Another woman I work with is 35. She has asthma and is still recovering months later. It is serious and the vaccine makes it less likely that the person who comes into contact will be severely ill. It also makes it less likely that a vaccinated person who becomes infected will produce enough of the virus to continue spreading the virus. Penn is perhaps being a little bit unreasonable as some people may have autoimmune issues and they legitimately shouldn’t have any vaccine. But, wanting to do right for himself and those he is working with is a respectable idea.
That doesn’t make it less likely. Vaccinated people are still catching the virus. Oh, and getting the vaccine doesn’t make it less likely you’ll catch the variants either.
They never said you won’t catch the virus. It’s not 100 percent but the chances of dying from the virus is extremely low compared to not having been vaccinated and getting the virus.
Think about it like this:
The COVID vaccine is like wearing a life jacket on a boat. It doesn’t mean you can’t fall overboard, it just means you likely won’t drown
People wearing seat belts can still die in car crashes, but we know that they help REDUCE the risk of that happening, so we have mandatory seat belt laws. Why is this so hard to understand?
But someone else not wearing their seatbelt doesn’t increase your risk if you are wearing yours…why care what other people choose to do with their own bodies? If someone else chooses to not wear a seatbelt and then they die it’s on them, not you. If you’re vaccinated then you’ll be fine.
Because that person who chose not to wear the seatbelt can negatively impact you. They can wreck you and cause a negative impact on your physical health.
They actually can. If one person is wearing their seatbelt and another isn’t, the one without a seatbelt can physically harm the other in an accident as they can be flung around the car.
I remember an accident in my home town. Mom and Dad were in the front of the car, two kids in the back – one behind each parent. Kid behind Mom didn’t wear a seatbelt. They crashed. Kid was catapulted forward, crashed with his head against his mom’s head and the impact caused such brain damage the mom died. Had the kid word a seatbelt everyone would have survived.
Good for him for taking a stance. Hopefully more people will.
Because they are the vector of disease – they are choosing to try and kill other citizens. There is no reason for not being vaccinated unless you have a valid medical exception. People aren’t allowed to drive recklessly, drive drunk, run around stabbing people with illegal drugs, or any other of an incredibly long list of similar behaviors.
Trying to kill other citizens? You’re being a touch melodramatic.
Are you seriously saying not getting a vaccine is similar behavior to running around stabbing people? Wtf. Get a grip, Temperance. That is completely idiotic and ignorant thinking.
Some people ARE concerned about side effects. For example, the Johnson & Johnson vaccine stories are pretty infamous by now.
Titus, although the J&J concerns are still – comparatively – statistically lesser than side effects from common drugs, like birth control pills.
Get a different vaccine.
In the history of vaccines, side effects have manifested in less than 2 months and we are well past that now.
Besides, the drugs being used to treat C19 are also emergency use like people claim the vaccine is (how it’s not formally fda approved) and why they won’t get the vaccine.
But. Other. People. Won’t. Be. This is a virus. It infects other people around you. It is not just YOUR body at risk here, it’s everyone else’s as well.
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Truly, I do not get how people are failing to understand this incredibly simple and obvious concept.
This coming from the same party who is trying to make knowingly giving HIV to people no longer a crime this is rich
…what the hell are you talking about?
Because the oversimplified seatbelt equivalence only works in the “prevention” context, not in the “person-to-person effect” one.
Think of it as “if someone else isn’t wearing a seatbelt, and in a frontal crash, goes thru the window and hits you in the face”.
I know I’m wasting my breath but oh well…
There is less than a year worth of data and no long term studies about the potential side effects of these vaccines. Also the survival rate of Covid is over 97%. Two over the counter medicines were pulled off the market (1 recently and the other a couple of years ago) for causing Cancer and those had FDA approval. So I would like to have more information before rolling up my sleeve. (besides I had it already while social distancing, wearing a mask and following all the rules)
As an ironic side note: How many of you same people would be refusing to get the vaccine if a President Trump was telling you to do so.
Well, considering Trump suggested people inject bleach to handle the virus, uh, yeah, I think a lot of people would have logical reason to be skeptical of him encouraging people to get a vaccine. See, he never listened to scientists or medical experts and acted like he knew more than everyone else.
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Biden, on the other hand, actually respects scientists and medical experts, and hasn’t told anyone to inject bleach. So yeah, it’s, easier to trust him when he encourages people to get the vaccine. He’s actually earned that trust.
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Bottom line, if the scientists and medical experts, as well as presidents who listen to them, encourage vaccines, I’ll take one. If a two-bit con man who spreads conspiracy theories suggests it, then no.
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Also, these vaccines were created by scientists who’ve used other similar pandemics and viruses as a basis to start from. It’s not like they just woke up one day and suddenly created these out of nowhere, they had decades worth of research to work from. So, yeah, it actually is easier to have an idea of how well these vaccines will work, and how safe they are, as a result, because they can go off past examples of what worked and what didn’t. That’s kind of how science works.
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As for the survival rate, thing is, people want to avoid getting sick with this to begin with. And there are plenty of people who got sick and survived…but who also had long term effects from the virus, too, effects which may or may not be permanent. So just because you survive doesn’t mean you’re totally out of the woods. it amazes me that people are willing to take their chances with a deadly virus, but when it comes to vaccines, they’re suddenly like, “Yeah, I need to know more about this.” Great logic there, mmhm.
At a rate that makes it irrelevant to production. Good on Penn.
Yeah. I mean I understand the point is to lessen the risk, but plenty of vaccinated people are still asymptomatic carriers of this virus and they spread it around. And people that are fully vaccinated are still getting sick and dying. One died near where I live the other day. A kid died the other day. And despite myself being vaccinated, because I’m immunosuppressed I didn’t manufacture many antibodies. I just don’t know anymore.
The J&J vaccine doesn’t protect effectively against the Delta variant. The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines do protect against the Delta variant. IMHO they should stop giving out the J&J vaccine and only give out the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines.
I have the moderna vaccine. As far as I know, the only vaccine available in my area is Moderna. But the point is people are still catching this. I’m lucky to have a good relationship with my doctor, and she’s being honest with me. They don’t know. She admitted it, they don’t know. A year ago, she told me that she didn’t think the world would get back to normal until fall or winter 2022. When I talked to her last month, she said straight out that they’re no closer to getting a handle on this because of all the variants. So the point is, doctors are still just grasping at straws. The vaccines are a start, not a solution. The solution will come with time. That’s the only thing that will solve this. Time.
We would have vastly fewer vaccinated asymptomatic carriers of the COVID-19 virus if vastly more eligible people who could safely be vaccinated, and who have not yet been vaccinated, would get vaccinated.
OMG. I can’t with you people. YES, everybody should know that by now. That’s not the point of the vaccination. It’s amazing with all the information at people’s fingertips how utterly stupid we are. sigh.
So what is the point of the vaccination?
At the same rate? Like, vaccines are just useless placebos that do nothing toward those two things?
Or perhaps, just perhaps, because I’m no doctor, and I’m assuming you aren’t either, the vaccine (which isn’t a cure, btw) highly reduces the chances of getting or spreading the virus, and just as important, highly reduces the symptoms you suffer if you catch it?
So, what you’re basically saying, if I’m understanding this “you can still get and spread it” rhetoric correctly, is that “what’s the point in getting the vaccine, even if it helps the spread and effects of the virus in a big way, I rather suffer the full consequences”, right?
I’m vaccinated but this is absolutely ridiculous.
YAH! How DARE he want to keep the cast and crew safe from a deadly disease that killed millions while also preventing any chance of production getting shut down and thus increasing the cost of production!! Such ridiculousness!!! SMH
Good for him. I’m not a fan of Pen at all, but he’s right.
Spicoli took down El Chapo. This is happening.
Penn spent months with his charity CORE during the earlier stages of the pandemic offering free covid tests to underserved communities. He has earned the right to insist that all safety precautions be taken and the best protection is vaccinations for everyone.
Good man … He’s probably saving lives. And even if some anti-vaxx idiot doesn’t deserve it, their family, friends and people they might run into do.
No hes not.
Dont blame him. I wish every company would do this.
What about personal freedom? What about the right to not be vaccinated? I am vaccinated, but I also realize that we live in America.
Yes, you have the right not to be vaccinated. And other people have the right to set conditions of employment. Freedom from vaccination does not mean freedom from the consequences of that decision. (How do people actually need this explained??)
Yeah exactly…all the vaccines are safe and effective just like they said they were, remember get whichever one you can…oh wait, what’s that about Johnson and Johnson? Well that was only 10 million that took that one, drop in the bucket, who cares about them as long as the majority are safe
“Many hospitalizations, ICU admissions and deaths can be prevented through Janssen and mRNA Covid-19 vaccines, far outweighing the risks.”
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That’s CDC researcher Dr. Hannah Rosenblum speaking on the Johnson & Johnson vaccine YESTERDAY.
Thanks, I’ll give more weight to my own personal experience with the Johnson and Johnson vaccine… I had both COVID and took the vaccine…what I suffered as a result of the vaccine did not far outweigh the benefits…but then I’m just one person that doesn’t fit the narrative, so who cares
“What I suffered as a result of the vaccine did not far outweigh the benefits” – Well, you didn’t die. So perhaps it did. As for me, I will continue to believe the CDC over the expertise of “Nick from TVLine comments.” ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I guess time will tell, hopefully you’re right that I don’t die, thanks for the sympathy and understanding that seems to elude most people these days, you definitely seem like one of the good ones Simon Jester from TvLine
There are actually a lot of legal cases going through at this very moment about the legality of employers mandating that employees get vaccinated. We will soon see.
yes and also you should have consequences if you choose to get vaccinated, like why not blackmail u for being vaccinated then? the tables can turn, if the rules apply to the unvaccinated they can apply to u as well. Hope someone sets conditions of employment for there to be unvaccinated people ony, and then you get left out of a job because you believed that it is the right thing to get vaccinated.
Well, Elizabeth, no one is FORCING them to get vaccinated. They don’t have to. But, if that means there is a consequence for that choice, then that’s the right of those in charge of the production. We live in America, yes. But, that doesn’t mean we can do whatever the F*** we want without consequences. It drives me crazy when people use that excuse. It’s like they only consider what THEY want and think they shouldn’t have to do what they don’t want to and everyone else should be fine with that. You are free to make your own choices but no one is free from the consequences of their choices, both natural consequences and those enforced by others.
I can’t stand Sean Penn but this time he’s right. BUT…….he’s playing John Mitchell??? I remember Watergate very well……… But he’ll be terrible in this role. He’d be better playing Nixon. Or G. Gordon Liddy.
It is not a vaccine.
It is gene therapy, mRNA
Commies gonna commie. Leftism is a totalitarian mental illness. To those like Penn, it is always my way or no way. Too bad these is no vaccine for it.
Just fire him, he can’t make people take vaccines if they don’t want to, like we don’t have enough covid propaganda everyday for 2 years being fed down our throats, now this person is going to blackmail others to get vaccinated? wtf is wrong with all yall? take ur vaccine if u want it, leave the people alone who don’t want it. Wear your masks and gloves burn sage whatever u want, just leave us alone already
I’d tell him to not let the door hit him in the ass on his way out. Who does he think he is trying to dictate to all others on the show that they have to get a vaccine. Regardless of if you feel the vaccine is needed, no one has the right to try and force anyone else’s actions.
Ridiculous. Considering the “vaccine” does. not. work.; then nobody gets to dictate whether I get the shot or dont, especially if that someone is not my employer and does not pay my bills.
No one else’s employer cares if you want to harrumph from over yonder.
Ok Anti-Vaxxers are complete idiots and deserve to get COVID and die. At least before they give it to kids under 12. How about that.