Will Smith slaps Chris Rock during Oscars 2022 live telecast
The live telecast of the 94th Academy Awards was interrupted by an incident in which Chris Rock cracked a joke at the expense of actor Jada Pinkett Smith, and Will Smith, seated in the front row with his wife, responded by walking onto the stage and slapping the actor-comic. Needless to say, it stunned the audience as well as lakhs of spectators of the ceremony.
Reading: Old video of man slapping Will Smith on red carpet goes viral after Chris Rock’s Oscars ceremony
The incident began when Rock came on stage to announce the winners for the Best Documentary Feature award and made a tasteless joke about Pinkett-Smith, saying he was GI Jane in an apparent reference to his shaved head due to autoimmune disease. Might star in the sequel. Disorder alopecia. This triggered Smith, who went up and hit Rock in the face, Smith later winning the Oscar for Best Actor for his performance in the film King Richard. In his winning speech, Smith apologized to the Oscar organizers and fellow nominees, but not to The Rock, who refused to press charges against Smith. Meanwhile, Smith publicly apologized to The Rock in a statement released on social media.
Reading: ‘For the first time in my life…’: Will Smith’s mother breaks silence on 2022 Oscars ‘slap’ incident
Now, The Rock has opened up on the entire affair involving Smith and his wife. The Rock addressed the Oscars’ slapgate issue at a standup show in Boston. As per reports in the international media, it was a sold-out show.
“how was your weekend?” The Rock asked the crowd at his show. “I don’t have a bunch of crap about what happened, so if you hear that, I have a whole show that I wrote before this weekend. I’m still processing what happened. So someone To the point I’ll talk about that crap. And it’ll be serious and fun.”
Meanwhile, the Academy has said that Smith was asked to leave after the slapping incident but he refused. Earlier, in a statement issued just after the broadcast ended, the academy said that it does not condone violence of any form.
In its most recent statement, the academy said, “Mr. Smith was asked to leave the ceremony and declined, (but) we also believe we could have handled the situation differently.” The Academy also announced that it had “initiated disciplinary proceedings against Mr. Smith for a breach of the Academy’s standards of conduct”.
(with PTI inputs)