Will Smith rushes in the Oscars stage and slapped comedian Chris Rock across the face for joking about his wife. The incident went viral on social media and left viewers questioning if it had been scripted or genuine.
What went wrong with Chris Rock?
While presenting the award for Best Documentary Feature, Chris Rock made a joke on Will Smith’s wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, leading to an on-stage dispute. Chris made a joke about Jada’s tightly cropped hair to Demi Moore’s appearance in the film “G.I. Jane” and suggested she appear in a sequel.
“Jada, I love ya. G.I. Jane 2, can’t wait to see it,” Chris said regarding Pinkett Smith’s appearance.
Here's the moment Chris Rock made a "G.I. Jane 2" joke about Jada Pinkett Smith, prompting Will Smith to punch him and yell, "Leave my wife’s name out of your f–king mouth." #Oscars pic.twitter.com/kHTZXI6kuL
— Variety (@Variety) March 28, 2022
Will Smith appeared to be laughing following Rock’s statement. But then, Smith stepped up to Chris and slapped him, before returning to his seat alongside Jada and shouting swearwords.
“Keep my wife’s name out of your fkng mouth,” yelled Smith, forcing the producers to mute out several seconds of audio from the televised broadcast.
Pinkett Smith’s appearance is a result of alopecia, an autoimmune disorder that she had revealed in 2018. This disorder causes hair loss.
The apology
Later, Rock came the Smiths, possibly to apologize, while Denzel Washington and Tyler Perry communicated about the incident.
Smith received an Oscar for the best male actor and when the actor returned to claim the prize, he chose to calm the moment with Rock. In his emotional speech, Will Smith apologized – although not directly to Chris Rock but to the academy.
Will Smith's speech after winning Best Actor at the #Oscars pic.twitter.com/E2wsf0xpxg
— Piñata Farms ? (@pinatafarms) March 28, 2022
“I want to apologize to the Academy. I want to apologize to all my fellow nominees. This is a beautiful moment and I’m not crying for winning an award. It’s not about winning an award for me. It’s about being able to shine a light on all of the people,” he said,
“I look like the crazy father, just like they said about Richard Williams. Love will make you do crazy things,” he adds.
Will Smith’s Oscar acceptance speech about protecting people and loving people is worth the listen. pic.twitter.com/V9JAGknctQ
— Robert Griffin III (@RGIII) March 28, 2022
A snap at a ‘reporter’
Well, this is not the first time the MIB actor was in news for the same reason. Smith once slapped a ‘reporter’ who tried to kiss him on the cheek once.
In a premiere of “Men in Black III” in Moscow a reporter named Vitalii Sediuk from the Ukrainian television channel 1+1 approached Smith on the red carpet, put his hand on the actor’s shoulder, and tried to kiss him.
The 53-year-old pushed him away and then slapped him lightly across the cheek with the back of his left hand. Smith appeared shocked by the journalist’s behavior. While Vitalli did apologize to Smith, he didn’t learn his lesson and tried repeating that action on other celebrities as well. He did the same with Brad Pitt, to which the actor even got a restraining order against him.
