Will Smith has issued an apology to Chris Rock, the Academy and viewers after\u00a0slapping the comedian on stage\u00a0at the 94th Academy Awards, saying he was \u201cout of line\u201d and that his actions were \u201cnot indicative of the man I want to be\u201d.<\/p>\n
The fallout from Sunday\u2019s show continued on Monday as the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences condemned Smith\u2019s onstage assault and said it would launch an inquiry. Smith apologised to the Academy during his best actor acceptance speech, which notably didn\u2019t include an apology to Rock.<\/p>\n
On Monday, he issued a stronger apology and account of his actions, writing on\u00a0Instagram\u00a0that he \u201creacted emotionally\u201d to Rock\u2019s joke about his wife,\u00a0Jada Pinkett Smith, who has been open about her alopecia-related hair loss.<\/p>\n
\u201cViolence in all of its forms is poisonous and destructive,\u201d said Smith. \u201cMy behavior at last night\u2019s Academy Awards was unacceptable and inexcusable. Jokes at my expense are a part of the job, but a joke about Jada\u2019s medical condition was too much for me to bear and I reacted emotionally. I would like to publicly apologize to you, Chris. I was out of line and I was wrong. I am embarrassed and my actions were not indicative of the man I want to be. There is no place for violence in a world of love and kindness.\u201d<\/p>\n
Smith added apologies to the film academy, producers of the telecast, attendees, viewers and the Williams family. Smith was honored for his role as Richard Williams, father of Venus and Serena.<\/p>\n
\u201cI deeply regret that my behavior has stained what has been an otherwise gorgeous journey for all of us. I am a work in progress,\u201d added Smith.<\/p>\n Rock has yet to comment on the matter publicly, apart from in the moment when he said on stage, \u201cWow, wow \u2026\u00a0Will Smith\u00a0just smacked the shit out of me.\u201d<\/p>\n Hollywood and the public have continued to wrestle with a moment that stunned the Dolby Theatre crowd and viewers at home. Smith initially laughed, then took to the stage when the comedian joked: \u201cJada, I love you. GI Jane 2, can\u2019t wait to see it.\u201d<\/p>\n Smith strode on stage and slapped Rock across the face. Back in his seat, Smith twice shouted for Rock to \u201cget my wife\u2019s name out your fucking mouth\u201d. His words echoed clearly throughout the Dolby, though the US broadcaster, ABC, cut the audio for about 15 seconds. Within an hour, Smith had won best actor.<\/p>\n Several stars rushed to counsel and calm Smith, including Denzel Washington, Bradley Cooper and Tyler Perry. But the timing was also awkward because the best actor category was due up soon after, and Smith had long been considered the favourite for the award.<\/p>\n In his tearful acceptance speech, Smith did not apologise to Rock, saying, \u201cLove will make you do crazy things.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI know we\u2019re all still processing, but the way casual violence was normalized tonight by a collective national audience will have consequences that we can\u2019t even fathom in the moment,\u201d wrote Janai Nelson, president and director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, on Twitter.<\/p>\n A full meeting of the Academy\u2019s board of governors has been called for Wednesday evening to discuss the incident,\u00a0according to the Hollywood Reporter. In addition to a review, the film academy said that it \u201cwill explore further action and consequences in accordance with our bylaws, standards of conduct and California law\u201d.<\/p>\n The Los Angeles police department said on Sunday that it was aware of the incident but was not pursuing an investigation because Rock had declined to file a police report.<\/p>\n The drama overshadowed some historical wins at an Oscars. The deaf family drama Coda became the first film with a\u00a0largely deaf cast\u00a0to win best picture. For the first time, a streaming service,\u00a0Apple TV+, took Hollywood\u2019s top honour, signalling a profound shift in Hollywood and in moviegoing.<\/p>\n Ariana DeBose\u00a0became the first LGBTQ woman to win best supporting actor, for her role in West Side Story. Coda actor\u00a0Troy Kotsur\u00a0was the first deaf male actor to win an Oscar. And\u00a0Jane Campion\u00a0became the third ever female film-maker to win best director for The Power of the Dog.<\/p>\n Associated Press contributed to this report.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Will Smith has issued an apology to Chris Rock, the Academy and viewers after\u00a0slapping the comedian on stage\u00a0at the 94th Academy Awards, saying he was \u201cout of line\u201d and that his actions were \u201cnot indicative of the man I want to be\u201d. The fallout from Sunday\u2019s show continued on Monday as the Academy of Motion […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":19022,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_post_source_name":"","_post_source_url":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[80],"tags":[10618,6765,9678,3504,183,4321,2848,5428,5398,275,9171,5262,10391,5591,6190,5455,12210,9643,2490,8394,10197,2249,7734,10342,2717,7123,6220,9867,9833,11064,5399,5439,421,3805,6978,1507,5444,10041,5350,2721,6348,6178,2354,3954,1869,5273,10415,36,594],"class_list":["post-19019","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-actor","tag-alopecia","tag-apology","tag-apple","tag-assault","tag-broadcaster","tag-california","tag-chris-rock","tag-coda","tag-comedian","tag-crowd","tag-cut","tag-declined","tag-denzel-washington","tag-dog","tag-family","tag-female","tag-fund","tag-hollywood","tag-instagram","tag-investigation","tag-jada-pinkett-smith","tag-jane","tag-law","tag-lgbtq","tag-los-angeles","tag-love","tag-medical-condition","tag-meeting","tag-naacp","tag-oscar","tag-oscars","tag-police","tag-president","tag-rock","tag-sean-diddy-combs","tag-slap","tag-speech","tag-twitter","tag-tyler-perry","tag-us","tag-venus","tag-washington","tag-will","tag-will-smith","tag-woman","tag-work","tag-world","tag-who"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19019","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19019"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19019\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":50755,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19019\/revisions\/50755"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19022"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19019"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19019"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19019"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}