Sean Penn Refuses to Film 'Gaslit' TV Series Until All Cast and Crew Get COVID-19 Vaccine: Report

The upcoming Watergate scandal series Gaslit also stars Julia Roberts, who shared that she got the second dose of her COVID-19 vaccine in May

sean penn
Sean Penn. Photo: Kevin Mazur/Getty

Sean Penn won't continue to work on his latest project unless the entire cast and crew are vaccinated against COVID-19, multiple outlets report.

The 60-year-old Oscar winner has refused to show up to film the upcoming Starz limited series Gaslit and will only continue if the production team gets the vaccine, according to Deadline, Entertainment Weekly and Variety.

Penn has also reportedly offered to have his nonprofit Community Organized Relief Effort (CORE) (which he co-founded as a response relief organization in the aftermath of the 2010 earthquake that devastated Haiti) to administer the vaccinations. In March 2020, CORE began providing COVID-19 testing across the U.S., and this past January, the organization began providing vaccinations.

Penn received his vaccination in January, tweeting at the time, "I'm a lucky man."

The studio has reportedly already required everyone who will work in a close-proximity space designated as "Zone A" to be fully vaccinated and offer a vaccination clinic on location, the outlets report, though Penn wants more.

Reps for Penn and the network did not immediately respond to PEOPLE's requests for comment.

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NBCUniversal's Content Productions announced in February that Julia Roberts and Penn would star in Gaslit, which is based on the 2017 podcast Slow Burn follows Martha Mitchell's role in the 1972 Watergate scandal. Roberts stars as Mitchell, whistleblower and wife of President Richard Nixon's attorney general, John Mitchell, played by Penn.

In May, Roberts celebrated getting her vaccine on Instagram with a selfie after receiving the second dose, urging others to do the same. "Fully….VACCINATED!!! Grateful beyond measure. If you are not vaccinated and have the GOOD FORTUNE to get vaccinated- go, go, go! #weareinthistogether," she captioned the post at the time.

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