At Sunday night’s Oscar ceremony, Will Smith shocked the room by approaching the stage and slapping presenter Chris Rock in the face after the comedian made a joke about Smith’s wife, actor Jada Pinkett Smith.
It was reported that after the joke was made about a sequel to “G.I Jane” and Pinkett Smith’s bald head, Smith was deeply offended and walked toward Rock, slapping him in the face before returning to his seat.
Rock said, “Will Smith just smacked the shit out of me,” while Smith walked away.
He then, which the Oscars live-stream muted, began yelling at Rock. Smith reportedly said, “Take my wife’s name out of your (expletive) mouth.”
When Smith yelled from his seat, Rock, still onstage, seemed stunned.
“Wow, dude,” replied Rock “It was a G.I. Jane joke.”
Alopecia, an autoimmune disorder that Pinkett Smith has been open about suffering from, causes her hair loss by attacking hair follicles.
Later, when Smith returned to claim the prize for Best Actor, he chose to address the moment with Rock. “I wanna apologize to the academy. I wanna apologize to all my fellow nominees,” he said. “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 light on all of the people.”
“I know to do what we do, you’ve got to be able to take abuse,” he said. “You’ve got to be able to have people disrespecting you, and you’ve got to smile and you’ve got to pretend like that’s okay.… I look like the crazy father, just like they said.… Love will make you do crazy things.”
He concluded his speech by apologizing to the Academy and to his fellow nominees. “I hope the Academy invites me back,” Smith added.