Sean Penn Responds To Criticism On Immigration Joke To Iñárritu: 'I'm Always Surprised By Flagrant Stupidity'

On the night of the 87^th Academy Awards Mexican director Alejandro González Iñárritu stepped up to receive the biggest honor of the night for Best Picture for “Birdman”, presented to him by his longtime friend, Sean Penn. The actor made a joke asking who’d given “this son of a bitch his Green Card,” which turned out to be the perfect opening what Iñárritu was about to say. The director himself made a joke about immigration rules being a little lose in the Academy because “two Mexicans in a row is suspicious,” he joked.

Penn’s comment became deeply controversial, getting the point where people called the “Mystic River” star a racist, although Iñárritu was not only not offended by Penn’s joke, told the press he thought it was very funny and Penn reacted to his critics saying he could not care less. “I wanted to let him know privately he’d won before the entire auditorium knew it, and he of course got it because our relationship goes far back; so I don’t give a shit what people have to say,” said the actor during a press conference for his new movie “The Gunman” in Los Angeles. The actor also added that the people who were offended should be “a little more cheerful” and avoid judging comments in a way which leads to “useless censorship” and “becoming stupid.”

“I'm always surprised by flagrant stupidity… "I have absolutely no apologies," Penn added. “In fact, I have a big (expletive) you for anybody who is so stupid not to have gotten the irony when you've got a country that is so xenophobic,” he said. “If they had their way, you wouldn't have great filmmakers like Alejandro working in this country. Thank god we do,” he said.