Sean Penn’s secret pub haunt while filming in Sydney

Where do A-listers go when they wanna lay low in Sydney? One star could be found drinking at this run-down bar.

Oscar winner Sean Penn ignited a game of “wait, is that him?” on Saturday night as the run-down Sydney pub the A-lister has secretly been frequenting was hired out for a Halloween bash filled with actors wearing DIY costumes.

The Fast Times At Ridgemont High star has kept a low profile since jetting into the country to shoot the six-part dark-comedy series C*A*U*G*H*T but has been spotted at Glenroy Hotel in the Sydney suburb of Alexandria.

“He likes to have a drink and chill out and have a night at the pub,” one local said of the Hollywood star and his peculiar choice of drinking hole, which is located on a busy road opposite a McDonald’s, surrounded by offices and industrial buildings.

“There’s an outside-inside area at the pub where they have trivia and he booked that area for a Halloween party.”

Glenroy Hotel … the new Hollywood hotspot.

Penn plays a fictional version of himself in C*A*U*G*H*T, a satire about four Australian soldiers sent on a secret mission to a war-torn country. But this party would allow him to slip into the shadows as someone completely different.

It was the perfect plan. Penn is unrecognisable at the best of times. Halloween costumes would mean the star and his cast — including former teen heart-throb Matthew Fox from ’90s TV series Party Of Five and Aussie actors Kick Gurry, Bryan Brown, Erik Thomson, Rebecca Breeds and Bella Heathcote — could party in peace on the spookiest night of the year.

What would Penn dress up as? Perhaps a sexy kitten. Or a zombie-cheerleader. Maybe he’d take a dig at his ex-wife Madonna and wear a cone bra.

The man is a legend of stage and screen. A master of transformation. If anyone could go unnoticed while wearing a DIY costume made out of crap found in the junk cupboard of an Airbnb, it’s Sean Penn.

Any of these three people could be Sean Penn.

… Sean?

Sean, if this is you, blink twice.

As the sun set at 7pm, a Steve Irwin, a Hunter S Thompson and a Sailor Moon filed into the pub. Then a Spider-Man.

The Addams Family theme song played sporadically over the speakers of the poky bar throughout the night as the actors and production team partied while drinking an endless supply of mojitos and other cocktails in the zoned-off area.

Four people who could very well be Sean Penn.

Hunter S Thompson and Steve Irwin.

C*A*U*G*H*T’s creator, director and star Kick Gurry dressed as a cowboy.

But it seems Sean was not spending the evening as an undercover Sailor Moon and had instead flown out of the country before he could attend the Halloween bash at his new favourite hotspot.

In a rowdy speech, one of the producers said it was C*A*U*G*H*T’s creator, director and star Kick Gurry who convinced the A-lister to sign on to the Stan original series.

“There was a reason that Sean Penn came to Australia to make an Australian TV show,” they said.

“And that reason was that he wanted to be around this particular person’s positivity. He believed that the world needed the positivity this guy had. And Sean wanted to put that positivity on a pedestal for the whole world to see.”

“F**k Sean Penn!” someone in the crowd yelled.

“Nah, we love Sean!” another hit back.

Did the Hollywood heavyweight at least cover the bill?

At the end of the night, Steve Irwin and the rest of the team were spotted deliberating over the bar tab.

Originally published as Sean Penn’s secret pub haunt while filming in Sydney