Yesterday became the greatest night in the history of Oscars 2022 when “The Pursuit of Happyness” star Will Smith lost his calm and rushed to the centre stage to punch the host of the show, comedian Chris Rock.
Those who missed this unscripted action at the coveted award ceremony must know that Smith lost his calm after Rock joked about Smith’s wife, Jada Pinkett Smith.
The comedian was roasting some of the award nominees when he mentioned Smith and his wife saying, “Jada, I love you. G.I. Jane II, can`t wait to see it.”
Chris Rock made a joke about Will Smith's wife, Jada being in "G.I. Jane" because of her bald head.
She's spoken openly about having a hair loss condition.
Will Smith ran on stage, and slapped Chris Rock.
What a slap!!#Oscars #Oscar2022pic.twitter.com/B9deVWTEjE
— Benji (@Cule_Ben) March 28, 2022
Rock was taken aback by Smith’s violent move but managed it with a smile and said, “Oh, wow! Wow! Will Smith just smacked the shit out of me.”
While Smith slapping Rock first looked like a scripted joke but things went down South when Smith badmouthed the host multiple times from his seat at the audience and said, “Keep my wife’s name out of your f**king mouth!”
Reacting to it, Rock then clarified, “I’m going to. That’s the greatest night in the history of television. Wow, dude. It was a G.I. Jane joke,” referring to the 1997 film “G.I. Jane” in which actress Demi Moore shaved her head, reported Elle.com.
For the uninitiated, the actress Jada Pinkett Smith revealed in 2018 that she is suffering from alopecia which caused her hair loss and balding.
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A while back she shared a video update with her fans through social media and said, “Look at this line right here? Now, this is going to be a little bit more difficult for me to hide, so I thought I’d just share it so y’all not asking any questions but you know, mama’s going to put some rhinestones in there, and I’m going to make me a little crown.”
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But after this physical episode between the two entertainers, Smith was bestowed with the ‘Best Actor’ award for his role in ‘King Richard’. And during his acceptance speech, Smith got a little emotional.
First, he tried to laugh out the incident, but moments later tears were seen rolling down his eyes. He was seen saying, “Richard Williams was a fierce defender of his family. In this time in my life, in this moment, I am overwhelmed by why God is calling on me to do and be in this world.”
Then, after talking about the film, he added, “I know, to do what we do, you got to be able to take abuse, you gotta be able to have people talk crazy about you, in this business, you gotta be able to have people disrespecting you. And you gotta smile and you gotta pretend like that’s okay. What I loved, Denzel said to me a few minutes ago, he said, ‘At your highest moment, be careful because that’s when the devil comes for you.’”
Will smiths full acceptance speech for best actor pt 1 #Oscars2022 #willsmith pic.twitter.com/gDrK3UPMXQ
— Art Forest (@theartforest) March 28, 2022
He also went on to apologize to the Academy, among others, saying that “I hope the Academy invites me back.”
Will Smith: "I want to apologize to the Academy and I want to apologize to all my fellow nominees — this is a beautiful moment and I'm not crying about winning an award…it's about being able to shine light."#Oscarshttps://t.co/EViXaQY1NZ pic.twitter.com/NhyqzDtkf0
— Good Morning America (@GMA) March 28, 2022
Even though Smith apologised and managed to coat his violent act with his emotional speech, physical violence should never be justified. What do you think?