Brazilian actor says “não” to Sean Penn

Actor Sean Penn has come under fire for his visits and chats with Hugo Chavez and Fidel Castro. This recently earned him the wrath of Maria Conchita Alonso who came out of the woodworks to claim that Penn “has no clue at all” about Venezuela.

In December, an article in The Advocate claimed that Penn is a hypocrite for his Oscar-winning portrayal of pioneering gay politician Harvey Milk. The piece by James Kirchick criticized Penn for coming “to the defense of thugs” like Chavez and Castro who have been accused of stifling the rights of the LGBT community in their respective countries.

In the latest Salvo, Penn has been critiqued by the man who usually does his voiceover in Brazil. Unlike Alonso and Kirchick, however, Marco Ribeiro’s reasoning is more religious than political:

Marco Ribeiro, who dubbed Penn in "21 Grams" and "All the King's Men," isn't just a local film voice. As a pastor, he's also the voice of the conservative protestant God's Assembly Church in Rio.

And that posed a conflict.

"I did not feel comfortable with the job," the 38-year-old Ribeiro told local press. "My voice is involved with other causes, and for the same reason I have refused to work on certain types of advertising."

The person in charge claimed that Ribeiro accepted the job yet he rejected it when he “learned more” about the movie “Milk.” (Perhaps Ribeiro mistakenly thought the film was on lactose intolerance?)

What do you think? Is Penn being rightly criticized or is it much ado about nothing?

Image- Guardian UK
Online Sources- Variety, The Independent, The Advocate, The Latin Americanist, Reuters