Which character did Sean Penn play in his BAFTA-winning One Battle After Another role?

Sean Penn played Col. Steven J. Lockjaw in One Battle After Another and won the 2026 BAFTA for Supporting Actor.

The character is a powerful military and political antagonist in Paul Thomas Anderson’s film. Lockjaw is connected to the film’s revolutionary past and to the fugitive family at the story’s center, making him more than a conventional action-movie villain. Penn’s performance presents the colonel as intimidating, obsessive and ideologically charged.

The title’s role can be confused with Bob Ferguson, played by Leonardo DiCaprio, or with Perfidia Beverly Hills, played by Teyana Taylor. Those characters belong to the same tangled political history but are not Penn’s role. One Battle After Another was the biggest winner at the 2026 BAFTAs, taking awards including Best Film, Director, Adapted Screenplay, Cinematography and Editing in addition to Penn’s acting prize.