Fans Worried For Sean Penn After 'Late Show With Stephen Colbert' TV Appearance

Sean Penn has won two Oscars (for Mystic River and Milk), is Ambassador-at-Large for Haiti thanks to his efforts to help the poverty-stricken nation in 2010 and successfully pissed off both the US and Mexican governments in 2016 when he conducted an unauthorised interview with gang lord Joaquín 'El Chapo' Guzmán just before he was arrested.

All in all, he's a pretty badass kind of guy. Who sometimes likes to smoke cigarettes.

While appearing on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert this week to promote his latest novel, entitled Bob Honey Who Just Do Stuff, Penn smoked a couple of ciggies and also admitted to being a little zoned out on Ambien, a sedative used to treat sleeping disorders.

"I've interviewed you before," says Colbert. "How do you tell Sean Penn on Ambien, from Sean Penn not on Ambien? Because you lay back in interviews in a really big way."

For those unsure of what Colbert's talking about, take a quick look at the pair's 2016 interview just prior to the US election, where Penn looked a little worse for wear:

While slowly (very slowly) thinking of his response, Penn whacked out his tabs and lit up, with Colbert proffering an ashtray with suspicious comic timing, saying: "I thought you might."

Penn admitted that he didn't really like acting anymore, particularly the collaborative aspect of it, commenting: "I increasingly don't play well with others."

Social media was quick to react to the actor's unkempt appearance:

Some users were also shocked by the sight of the 57-year-old having a cig on the telly - which doesn't seem like it should be that weird, but when was the last time you saw anyone smoke their way through an interview?

Someone even took issue with Penn's smoking on a legal level, as it's against the law to light up in a public place in New York (where the show is filmed).

Another user said you either 'get Sean Penn' or don't 'get Sean Penn'.

This is probably true.

In the end, Colbert himself begged Penn to knock the snouts on the head, saying: "Please don't smoke anymore.

"I don't mind. My parents smoked when I was a child so it gives me happy memories to smell cigarette smoke but you know we want you to be around for a long time and those things are bad for you."

This is the most concern I have ever seen for someone smoking on telly.

Topics: Film and TV, Cigarettes, Twitter, US Entertainment

Ronan O'Shea

Ronan J O'Shea is a freelance journalist from London who has written for titles including LADbible, Headspace, The Independent, National Geographic Traveller and New York Post. Contact him at [email protected].