Last year, Sean Penn made headlines with his piece in Rolling Stone, recounting his odd but very casual hang time with notorious Mexican drug dealer Joaquín Guzmán Loera better known as El Chapo, a meeting arranged by Mexican actress Kate del Castillo. The piece made waves for a number reasons, but mostly because it was published a day after El Chapo was captured, and it featured this haunting closing line: “El Chapo? It won’t be long, I’m sure, before the Sinaloa cartel’s next shipment into the United States is the man himself.” Now, a Netflix documentary series about that day with El Chapo is on the way, and Penn doesn’t want you to see it.
“The Day I Met El Chapo: The Kate del Castillo Story” tells the story from the Castillo’s perspective, and details how the Mexican government spun their own version of what played out. However, Penn is concerned that the series posits that he aided the Department of Justice in capturing El Chapo, and could potentially put him in danger, and requested changed made to the documentary.
“It is reprehensible that, in their ongoing, relentless efforts to gain additional attention and publicity, Ms. del Castillo and her team (who have zero firsthand knowledge) have sought to create this profoundly false, foolish, and reckless narrative,” Penn’s spokesman, Mark Fabiani, said in an email to Netflix, demanding changes to the documentary (via The New York Times). “The notion that Mr. Penn or anyone on his behalf alerted D.O.J. to the trip is a complete fabrication and baldfaced lie. It never happened, nor would there have been any reason for it to have happened.”
For their part, Netflix says they reached out to Penn to participate in the documentary, and that he declined. Moreover, they add that Penn himself pretty much put his involvement in the public record with the Rolling Stone article. Producer David Broome also adds, “We never say in this documentary that Sean Penn is in cahoots with the D.O.J.”
“The Day I Met El Chapo: The Kate del Castillo Story” is now streaming on Netflix.