Sean Penn smoked a cigarette on 'The Late Show' — and people are furious Stephen Colbert let him get away with it

• Sean Penn smoked a cigarette during most of an interview on CBS's "The Late Show With Stephen Colbert."
• Colbert didn't tell him off until six minutes after he started smoking.
• Fans of the show are upset Colbert let him get away with it.

Sean Penn smoked a cigarette during his appearance on CBS's "The Late Show With Stephen Colbert" Monday night, horrifying some of the members of the audience.

Late show antics from celebrities are nothing new, but people weren't too amused by Penn's cigarette. When Penn started smoking, Colbert pulled out an ashtray from his desk. He smoked the cigarette for six minutes of the 10-minute interview, before Colbert told him off.

"Please don’t smoke anymore," Colbert said. "I don’t mind. My parents smoked when I was a child so it gives me happy memories to smell cigarette smoke but you know we want you to be around for a long time and those things are bad for you."

Fans of the show on Twitter were more outraged, saying that smoking cigarettes on TV was supposed to be a thing of the past and that it promotes unsafe behavior.

At the beginning of the interview, the "Mystic River" and "Milk" actor also said he had taken Ambien, a sleep-inducing drug, and said he isn't acting any more.

"The greatest thing an actor can bring is to play well with others. It's the collaboration," Penn said. "And I increasingly don't play well with others."

Representatives for "The Late Show" and Penn didn't immediately respond to INSIDER's request for comment.

Watch Sean Penn's "The Late Show" appearance below:

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