The Academy has issued a statement after the altercation between Will Smith and Chris Rock and the 2022 Oscars. “The Academy does not condone violence of any form. Tonight we are delighted to celebrate our 94th Academy Awards winners, who deserve this moment of recognition from their peers and movie lovers around the world,” the statement read.
Will Smith got on stage and hit Chris Rock after the latter made a joke about Will’s partner Jada Pinkett-Smith. Several people on social media condemned Will’s use of violence while also criticising Chris for his ‘G.I. Jane’ joke about Jada who had earlier revealed that she's living with alopecia.
Jada had shared the news on social media in December and wrote, "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!"
Will won the award for ‘Best Actor’ for the film King Richard at the 94th Academy Awards. In his acceptance speech, he alluded to the incident with Chris and said, “I want to apologize to the Academy. I want to apologize to all my fellow nominees. Art imitates life: I look like the crazy father. Just like they said about Richard Williams. But love will make you do crazy things."
He added, “Being able to love and care for my mother and my family, my wife ... Thank you for this honour. Thank you for this moment. ... I hope the Academy invites me back."
Smith concluded, "I wanna be a vessel of love. I wanna say thank you to Venus and Serena, I just hope they didn't see that on TV." Will Smith plays the role of Richard Williams, the coach and father of star tennis players Serena and Venus Williams, in King Richard.
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