Sean Penn Says ‘We Need’ People Like Charlie Kirk in Politics to Inspire ‘Debate’ and ‘Compromise’: ‘We Gotta Fight it Out’

In a recent interview with The New York Times, Sean Penn shared his thoughts on the recent death of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. Although the “One Battle After Another” star said he disagreed with “almost everything” Kirk believed in, he maintained that “we need” people like Kirk to promote open discussion on social issues.

“We need that debate,” Penn said. “We’ve gotta fight it out and find a compromise. do come into fashion, and the way we kill the fashion of it is people of conscience on both sides recognizing that if somebody really believes something, that’s your friend.”

Penn added that the nation is in desperate need of mutual understanding across political lines, and that people need to start recognizing differing viewpoints as “valid opinions.”

“I’m talking about if somebody believes that a human being starts at conception, if you can’t understand that concept, you’re just stupid,” Penn said. “And if you’re not willing to tolerate the concept as a concept that’s held as deeply as I may have a belief that, I don’t know, let the woman decide. All of these are valid opinions.”

Penn is hardly the first in Hollywood to speak out about Kirk. Stars like Stephen Colbert, Whoopi Goldberg, Jamie Lee Curtis, Michael Keaton, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Amanda Seyfried all shared their thoughts in the weeks following his death.

Kirk died on Sept. 10 during a speaking engagement at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah. He was 31.

Donald Trump announced Kirk’s death on Truth Social, writing, “The Great, and even Legendary, Charlie Kirk, is dead. No one understood or had the Heart of the Youth in the United States of America better than Charlie. He was loved and admired by ALL, especially me, and now, he is no longer with us. Melania and my Sympathies go out to his beautiful wife Erika, and family. Charlie, we love you!”