Oscars 2015: Sean Penn's 'Green Card' Gag Goes Down Badly

Having spent his entire career being outspoken, Sean Penn conformed to type with what some deemed an offensive gag aimed at director Alejandro GonzálezIñárritu at this year’s Oscars bash.

Presenting the Best Picture Oscar to the Mexican auteur, the actor quipped: “Who gave this son of a bitch his green card?”

- Oscars 2015: All The Winners
- Terrence Howard Delivers Weird Oscar Speech
- John Travolta’s Creepy Oscar Antics

As you might imagine, an immigration gag at the glittering prize-giving wasn’t taken in the best spirits.

But as is often the case, there was a little more to the remark than the resulting trending on Twitter and other social media gave Penn credit for.

Iñárritu and Penn have been friends 2003 when Penn starred in Iñárritu’s ‘21 Grams’, while Penn was rumoured to have been the lead for ‘Red Flag’, a so-far unmade Iñárritu movie which was being planned in 2011.

As you might expect, Iñárritu himself appreciated the joke.

“I found it hilarious,” he told press backstage.

“We have that sort of brutal honestly that only true friends can survive. On ’21 Grams,’ he was always making jokes like that and I made jokes back to him that I will not tell you right now.

“I didn’t find it offensive.”

And while that should, to an extent, be that, the tweets of anger remain, many thinking that private banter between the two men might have been better kept private.

Image credit: Reuters

- Oscars: All The Red Carpet Photos
- Oscars: Best And Worst Dressed
- Host Harris’ Hilarious Opening Gag