The organization that puts on the Academy Awards is stressing that the slap heard ‘round the world wasn’t scripted.
Hours after Will Smith jumped onto the Oscars stage and slapped Chris Rock over a joke about wife Jada Pinkett Smith’s baldness, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences insisted that the viral moment was not planned and also not OK.
“The Academy does not condone violence of any form,” the group said in a statement early Monday morning.
The seemingly made-for-TV moment drew understandable confusion from viewers, especially after Smith spent his best actor acceptance speech talking about playing family man Richard Williams and protecting those you love.
“Richard Williams was a fierce defender of his family. In this time in my life, in this moment, I am overwhelmed by what God is calling on me to do and be in this world,” Smith, 53, said tearfully from the Dolby Theatre stage.
“I’m being called on in my life to love people and to protect people and to be a river to my people. I know we do what we do, you gotta be able to take abuse and you gotta be able to have people talk crazy about you. In this business, you’ve gotta be able to have people disrespecting you and you have to smile and pretend like that’s OK. I want to be a vessel for love.”
Just minutes earlier, the “Fresh Prince” decided not to let people disrespect him, or rather his wife.
While introducing the award for documentary feature, Rock took aim at the bald “Red Table Talk” host, saying he was excited to watch her in “G.I. Jane 2.” Smith shaved her head last year as she battled alopecia, which causes hair loss.
That’s when the “King Richard” star jumped up on the stage, slapped Rock and then walked back to his seat, where he shouted at the comedian to “keep my wife’s name out of your f—king mouth.”
Smith did offer an apology later, but to the Academy and his fellow nominees, not to Rock.
