Remember the moment that went around the world exactly one year ago? Unless you live under a rock, you probably know the story starring Will Smith slapping Chris Rock after bringing up his toxic mascunity. Twelve months later, each has returned to what they do best: movies and a monologue addressing the experience from the comedic side.
On February 13 will take place the most awaited event by fans of the seventh art: the annual Oscar Awards. In it, the spotlight will be focused on actors like Brendan Fraser, the protagonist of historic franchises such as The Mummy, who returns in style after his performance in The Whale, who will share this media spotlight with proposals such as Top Gun: Maverick or the curious and charismatic Everything Everywhere All at Once. However, although the Academy tries to omit it and almost a year has passed, two of the stars of the event will once again be Will Smith and Chris Rock.
At last year’s ceremony, Rock acted as master of ceremonies, which meant he had to liven up the evening with jokes, funny comments and other situations. But, unfortunately for him, everything got out of control during the awarding of the best documentary feature film. At this point, the comedian made a joke about Jada Pinkett’s shaved head by pointing out that he was looking forward to seeing her performance in the sequel to Lieutenant O’Neil, a comment that did not sit well with either Pinkett or Will Smith.
As a result, Smith went on stage and slapped Rock. The audience, torn between astonishment at the situation and disbelief that it was a pact, was uncomfortable with the joke’s resolution. After returning to his seat, Smith aggressively asked the host to stop referring to his wife, a request that Rock accepted and later noted that they had experienced “the greatest moment in the history of television. After this, the ceremony continued and Will Smith won the award for Best Actor for his role in King Richard, but the consequences for those involved were not to be long in coming.
Ten years of punishment for Will Smith
As expected, the moment between the performers became the most talked about moment of the night. Once the gala was over, users from around the world sought an explanation for the situation, a maneuver with which they discovered that there were already previous conflicts between those involved. As an example, they cited the 2016 Oscar ceremony in which, following Jada Pinkett’s boycott due to the lack of African-American actors nominated, Chris Rock (who was also acting as master of ceremonies) pointed out that Pinkett’s position was as ridiculous as if he boycotted “Rihanna’s panties” since none of them were invited. This, coupled with other situations, revealed that the relationship between Pinkett, Smith and Rock had had its ups and downs.
The latter, who had a performance in Boston a few days after the Oscar ceremony, revealed during it that he was still processing what happened, which is why at some point he would try to talk about it. As for Jada Pinkett, a few days later she acknowledged through her social networks that she did not need anyone’s defense, a statement to which she added that she was going to start a personal healing stage. Finally, Will Smith, although he was able to keep his Oscar for Best Actor, abandoned his position in the Academy and received a 10-year sanction that will prevent him from attending events organized by the Academy until 2032. And, when everything seemed to have calmed down a year later, a Chris Rock show and some new statements by Will Smith have reignited the controversy.
Chris Rock thinks Will Smith’s anger is due to Jada Pinkett’s infidelity
In a recent Rock show released on Netflix, the comedian alludes to his incident with Will Smith and his current view of the situation. During his monologue, Rock analyzes the inordinate public exposure of the Smith-Pinkett marriage, a decision that led them to publicly acknowledge that Jada had been unfaithful to Will with a friend of their son. And this, for Rock, was the conditioning factor for Smith’s attitude since he considers that the public exposure of this fact, added to the way they both acted, made him quite insecure. If you want to see an excerpt of the monologue focused on this situation, you can do it below these lines.
Smith, for his part, delivered his first speech after almost a year of silence. As reported by Deadline, this took place during a recent awards ceremony of the African American Film Critics Association. In this, Smith took the stage next to Antoine Fuqua, director of Towards Freedom and numerous action films, and thanked the opportunity to be back and be able to work on what he loves the most. After this, he praised Apple for their willingness to make the film, jokingly noting that the budget was never a problem because they make iPhones and can afford it.
So, while Rock addressed the issue in his most recent show, Smith prefers to shelve the issue and not allude to it. In fact, during the show the comedian revealed that the performer has not answered any of his calls in the last year. Thus, just days before the celebration of the most important annual event of cinema, the controversy over the events of the past are back in the eye of the hurricane.
