Will Smith left Oscar viewers stunned and speechless on Sunday night after he slapped Chris Rock following a joke about his wife Jada Pinkett Smith’s hair loss, which is due to alopecia.
Rock, 57, joking that the Matrix Resurrections actress was preparing to star in a sequel to G.I. Jane, a reference to her bald head.
At that point, the camera turned to Smith, who at first was seen visibly laughing at the gag and even clapped his hands, a gesture that seemed to suggest he saw the funny side.
But as Smith laughed while still seated, Pinkett Smith, who has been open about her struggle with hair loss and alopecia – visibly rolled her eyes, looking furious.
Smith then jumped from his seat and stormed the stage as Rock was heard saying: ‘Uh-oh…’ seconds later Smith slapped him across the face.
‘Wow,’ Rock could be heard saying after the assault. ‘Will Smith just smacked the s**t out of me.’
‘Keep my wife’s name out of your f***ing mouth,’ Smith shouted from the audience after returning to his seat near the stage.
Hollywood stars quickly took to Twitter to call out Smith’s shocking attack, with comedian and director Judd Apatow calling the display ‘pure out of control rage and violence’ and claiming that Smith ‘could have killed’ Rock.
Apatow strongly rejected a Twitter user who said they ‘understood’ why Smith hit Rock because of Jada Pinkett Smith’s alopecia.
‘He could have killed him. That’s pure out of control rage and violence. They’ve heard a million jokes about them in the last three decades. They are not freshman in the world of Hollywood and comedy. He lost his mind,’ he wrote.
‘Seems like Will Smith’s plan to get comedian and the world to not make jokes about him is not going to pan out. The Williams family must be furious. Pure narcissism,’ he wrote.
Later, Smith opened his acceptance speech with an emotional defense of his assault on Rock for mocking the short hair of Pinkett Smith, who suffers from a medical condition that causes hair loss.
‘Richard Williams was a fierce defender of his family,’ Smith said in his first remarks. He continued: ‘I’m being called on in my life to love people and to protect people and to be a river to my people.’
Smith went on to issue a tearful partial apology for his emotional outburst, but did not apologize to Rock. ‘I want to apologize to the Academy, I want to apologize to all my fellow nominees. This is a beautiful moment,’ he said.
Comedian Kathy Griffin said, ‘Let me tell you something, it’s a very bad practice to walk up on stage and physically assault a Comedian.
Now we all have to worry about who wants to be the next Will Smith in comedy clubs and theaters.’
Rob Reiner wrote that there was ‘no excuse’ for what Smith did and called the apparent justifications in his acceptance speech ‘bulls***.’
‘Will Smith owes Chris Rock a huge apology. There is no excuse for what he did. He’s lucky Chris is not filing assault charges. The excuses he made tonight were bulls***.’
The Academy alluded to Smith’s slap without explicitly mentioning it in a statement posted to Twitter.
‘The Academy does not condone violence of any form.
Tonight we are delighted to celebrate our 94th Academy Award winners, who deserve this moment in recognition from their peers and movie lovers around the world.’
Will and Jada’s son Jaden Smith didn’t reference the slap in his Twitter post, but he didn’t speak out against it, tweeting, ‘And That’s How We Do It.’
Later, he included a photo of himself in a car wearing sunglasses and noted that his father’s acceptance speech made him emotional.
‘My Dads Speech Made Me Cry,’ he wrote.
Serena Williams, whose early years are documented in the inspiring drama, appeared to react to Smith attacking Rock in a short video posted to her Instagram Stories.
One brief clip showed her off the main floor with her moth hanging open and her eyes wide in shock.
‘I just sat down ’cause I was like, “I’ve gotta get a drink now,”‘ she said in a follow-up video posted from inside the theater, though she didn’t explicitly address the apparent assault.
Los Angeles Police Department released a statement about the incident after the show confirming Rock, 57, would have to make a complaint for an investigation to take place.
‘LAPD investigative entities are aware of an incident between two individuals during the Academy Awards program,’ the LAPD said in a press release after the show ended Sunday.
‘The incident involved one individual slapping another. The individual involved has declined to file a police report. If the involved party desires a police report at a later date, LAPD will be available to complete an investigative report.’
