Sean Penn isn’t paying your little backstage games, Jimmy Kimmel, but the “Mystic River” star offered up a fresh take on “Mean Tweets” Thursday night. In the process, Penn also ad-libbed a pretty solid Kevin Spacey joke.
“I did it once when I was here, and then I didn’t do it the next time,” Penn said of Kimmel’s long-running segment, where celebrities are asked to read very unkind things about themselves as posted to Twitter. “Because for me, doing it backstage feels like taking a selfie.”
Instead, Penn read them live in front of the “Kimmel” audience, who appreciated the alternative option. Before getting into it though, he quipped, “It’s gonna be tough for these people to come up with [mean tweets], because I’m so universally liked.”
And then this exchange happened mid-segment, as Penn was crediting the next tweet’s Twitter handle.
Penn: “And then, Kevin S. says…”
Kimmel: “Oh, he’s the worst.”
Penn: “Was he on ‘House of Cards’?”
Kimmel got a big kick out of that.
Anyway, here’s what Kevin S. tweeted: “Sean Penn looks like the kind of guy who would delete an Instagram if it didn’t get enough Likes.”
That one was our favorite.
To be honest though, we still prefer the backstage, produced version.
Watch the video above.
By the way, we’re not going to be able to sleep until we see a photo of Penn wearing his glasses properly.