Actor Sean Penn, who previously referred his interview with Mexican drug lord El Chapo as a failure, says his words were taken “very literally”, and he actually wanted to say that it was “a very good failure”.

Penn clarified his comments regarding his article about the interview at the RSA cyber-security conference in San Francisco on Friday, reports variety.com.

“I have found throughout my life — and it well be by me — that I am taken very literally, and I don’t know if I mean anything literally. What I really meant by 'failed' was to get them to say, ‘Oh, it failed’, and to keep talking about it. I sit back at home and I watch them talk about the drug war every f***ing day. It was a very good failure,” Penn said.

The actor, who set the internet ablaze after his controversial interview with the drug lord, during an interview with Charlie Rose on "60 Minutes" had said he considered his article a failure because it failed to ignite a bigger discussion about the war on drugs.