Will Smith and Chris Rock Oscars’ Incident: Black Twitter And Black Hollywood Weighs In
It was an Oscars night no one will ever forget.
The Academy Awards are notorious for celebrating drama on-screen, but on Sunday (March 27), the 94th annual ceremony was pretty tame and uneventful until the drama that led up to the presentation of Best Documentary Feature (of which Questlove won for Summer of Soul). Will Smith, who minutes later would go on to win Best Actor for King Richard, shattered everyone’s faces after he stormed the stage to slap the Earth, Wind and Fire out of comedian Chris Rock after the latter made a joke about Jada Pinkett Smith.
“Jada, can’t wait for G.I. Jane 2,” the comic said while announcing the nominees, referring to the fact that Pinkett Smith was rocking a shaved head. She has said in the past that she has suffered from hair loss due to alopecia. (In the original film, G.I. Jane, Demi Moore wore a buzzcut hairstyle.)
RELATED: Will Smith Wins Best Actor Award, Talks 'Fierce Defender' Of His Family In Acceptance Speech
Despite the unscripted moment landing a laugh with the Oscars audience, Smith and Pinkett Smith were not happy at all.
From there, Smith, who portrayed Muhammad Ali in the biopic film, marched up the stage with purpose to deliver the blow that some have said will forever besmirk his winning moment, which came some minutes after.
“Keep my wife’s name out of your f***ing mouth,” Smith said twice at Rock before the latter went on to announce the winner.
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The confrontation overshadowed the rest of the night’s proceedings, which included a fantastic triple hosting job by Regina Hall, Amy Schumer, and Wanda Sykes, many awards for Dune and Coda, the latter of which took home Best Picture.
Black Twitter instantly went into overdrive with videos, and memes aplenty to drive home just how unexpected this incident was and the impact it had on some folks in Black Hollywood. Here are some of the reactions that went viral in the aftermath of the Smith/Rock confrontation and a few celebs who offered their opinions siding with Team Will or Team Rock.
