In this year’s most shocking Oscars moment, Best Actor winner Will Smith just hit comedian Chris Rock on live television, to the surprise of everyone in attendance.
The altercation happened after Chris joked about Jada Pinkett Smith being part of G.I. Jane 2. FYI, the original film featured Demi Moore in the titular role with a shaved head.
In the videos online, Will could be seen laughing at the joke at first, but he immediately switched gears after presumably seeing his wife’s miffed expression. The actor then walked up to Chris on stage and smacked him with an open hand on the face.
Once he got back to his seat, Will shouted at Chris, “Keep my wife’s name out of your f*cking mouth!” This part was muted during the live broadcast, but certain countries like Australia and Japan aired the uncensored version.
To no one’s surprise, the internet immediately turned the whole thing into a meme-fest. “Andrew is 100% scrolling thru Twitter to see what everyone is saying about the Will Smith thing,” wrote one user above a photo of Tik tik…Boom star Andrew Garfield looking at his phone.
While Will could have kept his cool and confronted Chris after the award show instead, there was no excuse for the dig that led to the incident either. ICYDK, Jada has been struggling with alopecia for years, a condition that causes one’s hair to “fall out in small patches.” According to Healthline, It’s an autoimmune disease that “develops when the immune system attacks the hair follicles, resulting in hair loss.” There’s currently no cure for alopecia, but medical treatments are available for patients to try.
In spite of her condition, Jada has remained positive on social media. Last December 28, 2021, the actress posted a clip of herself explaining the progression of her hair loss. “Now at this point, I can only laugh… y’all know I’ve been struggling with alopecia. Just all of a sudden, one day…it [referring to a hairless line on her scalp] just showed up like that. 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.” She continued in her caption, “Mama’s gonna have to take it down to the scalp so nobody thinks she got brain surgery or something. Me and this alopecia are going to be friends…period!”
After the incident, Variety reported that a number of people came up to talk to Will during commercial breaks. This included his publicist Meredith O. Sullivan, actor Denzel Washington, and Oscar producer Will Packer.
Later on in the show, Will ended up winning the Best Actor award for his performance in the sports drama King Richard. During his speech, he apologized to the Academy and his fellow nominees for his actions, but did not address Chris. “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 a light on all of the people [in the movie]…Art imitates life. I look like the crazy father, just like they said about Richard Williams,” he said.
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