Sean Penn: El Chapo's capture makes my article a failure

Actor Sean Penn stunned just about everyone by publishing an interview with notorious Mexican drug kingpin Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman in Rolling Stone last Saturday — but now Penn says his controversial article has "failed." Speaking with CBS host Charlie Rose for an interview to be broadcast Sunday on 60 Minutes, Penn said he has "a terrible regret" that El Chapo's capture last Friday after six months on the run distracted from his article.

"Let's go to the big picture of what we all want. We all want this drug problem to stop […] And how much time have they spent in the last week since this article come out, talking about that? One percent? I think that'd be generous," Penn said, going on to explain that in his eyes, his article had "failed."

"As a result of El Chapo," Rose clarified.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

"Let me be clear. My article has failed," Penn said.

Penn also dismissed some reports that his meeting with El Chapo led to the kingpin's capture.

"Here's the things that we know: We know that the Mexican government — they were clearly very humiliated by the notion that someone found him before they did," Penn said. "Well, nobody found him before they did. We didn't — we're not smarter than the D.E.A. or the Mexican intelligence. We had a contact upon which we were able to facilitate an invitation."

Read more from Penn's 60 Minutes interview at The New York Times.