What Really Happened Between Chris Rock and Will Smith At The Oscars?

BY EMMA SPECTER

Two and a half hours into what had previously seemed like a fairly quiet Oscars came a WTF moment worthy of endless screengrabs and Twitter debates.

Presenter Chris Rock made a joke about actor Jada Pinkett Smith’s look, which prompted Pinkett Smith’s husband, Will Smith, to come onstage and strike the comedian. He then returned to his seat and appeared to shout: “Keep my wife’s name out of your f*cking mouth.”

The incendiary moment between the two performers was bleeped for U.S. audiences, but viewers in Australia caught the interaction between Rock and Smith live.

The exchange was so shocking and out of nowhere that many wondered if it was staged, but Smith’s anger seemed deeply genuine and the stars surrounding him —including actor Lupita Nyong’o— appeared extremely uncomfortable.

“I did not know this was going to be the most exciting Oscars ever,” said Sean “Diddy” Combs as he came onstage to present shortly thereafter, adding, “Will and Chris, we’re gonna fix this with love.”

Rock’s joke about Pinkett Smith appearing in “G.I. Jane 2” was particularly jaw-dropping given that the actor has been open about her recent struggle with alopecia, saying on Instagram that her hair loss was “terrifying when it first started. I was in the shower one day and had just handfuls of hair in my hands, and I was just like, Oh, my God, am I going bald?”  

While there’s still an hour of the ceremony left to go, many on Twitter are unable to shake the interaction.

It was the slap heard ’round the world; after Chris Rock made a joke about Jada Pinkett-Smith’s hair loss at the 94th Annual Academy Awards, Pinkett-Smith’s husband Will Smith came onstage and appeared to strike Rock.

He then said: “Keep my wife’s name out of your f*cking mouth.” (Remember when we thought the Moonlight/La La Land mixup constituted an Oscar-night scandal?).

As if that weren’t enough drama for one night, Smith was called to the stage shortly after to accept a Best Actor Oscar for his role in King Richard, and his tearful speech was, at once, a passionate defense of his love for his family and an apology to the Academy and to his fellow nominees.

Read part of Smith’s acceptance speech below:

“Oh, man. 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. Making this film, I got to protect Aunjanue Ellis, who is one of the strongest, most delicate people I’ve ever met. I got to protect Saniyya [Sidney] and Demi [Singleton], the two actresses that played Venus and Serena.

“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 to do what we do, you got to be able to take abuse. You got to be able to have people talk crazy about you. In this business you got to be able to have people disrespecting you. And you got to smile, you got to pretend like that’s okay.

“Richard Williams, and what I loved…Thank you, Dee —Denzel said a few minutes ago, “At your highest moment, be careful, that’s when the devil comes for you.” It’s like, I want to be a vessel for love. I want to say thank you to Venus and Serena. I just spit, I hope they didn’t see that on TV. I want to say thank you to Venus and Serena and the entire Williams family for entrusting me with your story. That’s what I want to do. I want to be an ambassador of that kind of love and care and concern.

“I want to apologize to the academy. I want to apologize to all my fellow nominees. This is a beautiful moment and I’m not—I’m not crying for winning an award. It’s not about winning an award. Art imitates life. I look like the crazy father, just like they said, just like they said about Richard Williams. But love will make you do crazy things.

“To my mother, a lot of this moment is really complicated for me. To my mother, she didn’t want to come out, she had her knitting friends, she has a knitting crew, she’s in Philly watching. Being able to love and care for my mother and my family, my wife.

“I’m taking up too much time, thank you for this honor. Thank you for this moment. And thank you on behalf of Richard and the entire Williams family. Thank you. I hope the academy invites me back. Thank you.“