The 94th Academy Awards had it’s fair share of controversies from the beginning. Starting from the pre-taping of the winner announcement in eight technical categories that was faced with backlash from the industry to this year’s Best Picture nominee West Side Story’s lead actress Rachel Zegler not being invited to the ceremony until a week ago, the event had been involved in a lot of matters, and it just continued in today’s live show as well.
Comedian Chris Rock was invited to present the award for Best Documentary Feature, where he made a joke about Will Smith‘s wife Jada Pinkett Smith sitting in front, saying he looks forward to seeing the sequel to GI Jane, referring to her shaved head and comparing it to Demi Moore‘s look in GI Jane. Jada has gone bald owing to her medical condition of alopecia. The joke didn’t seem to go well with Will who went up to the stage and punched Chris.
While there were some who felt that it was just an act, Will went to his seat and said, “Keep my wife’s name out of your f****** mouth,” twice. Chris seemed a bit rattled after the altercation but he put up a smile on his face and carried on. While the American telecasters muted the whole cussing part, in some international broadcast, it went uncensored. And as soon as it happened, twitterverse came up to give their two cents on the incident.
Will Smith abofetea a Chris Rock en #Oscar2022 tras que el humorista criticase la alopecia de su esposa Jada Pinkett Smith.
😱 Will Smith va a salir muy perjudicado de esta.
— M 📺 (@casasola_89) March 28, 2022
There were some people who believed that the whole incident was staged, while another section believed it to be true. Some behind the scene footage taken during the break after the incident saw Denzel Washington and Tyler Perry coming to comfort and talk to the actor. Will later went on to win the Best Actor award for his stint as Richard Williams in King Richard, and he got emotional during his speech.
Check out Will’s speech:
Will mentioned what Denzel had said to him after the incident, revealing, “At your highest, that’s when the devil comes for you.” He even couldn’t hold back his tears and apologized to the Academy for his outburst and said, “Love will make you do crazy things,” asserting that art imitates life and he is the protector of his family. He ended his speech saying he hopes that the Academy invites him back.
Just about an hour ago, the Academy released a statement on the whole incident asserting that they don’t condone violence of any kind.
Check out their statement:
The Academy does not condone violence of any form.
Tonight we are delighted to celebrate our 94th Academy Awards winners, who deserve this moment of recognition from their peers and movie lovers around the world.
— The Academy (@TheAcademy) March 28, 2022
The Los Angeles Police Department has also released a statement informing that Chris has declined to file a police complaint against Will as of now.
Their statement read:
“If the party desires a police report at a later date, LAPD will be available to complete an investigative report.”
Slowly slowly, even the industry is reacting to the whole situation with people either being Team Smith or Team Chris. Tiffany Haddish is one of those people who have stood by Will as she said, “When I saw a black man stand up for his wife, that meant so much to me.” The twitteratis and the whole of Hollywood are still giving their opinions on the incident, but it is for sure that this will go down as one of the most memorable moment in Oscars history.