(NewsNation) — Will Smith stunned the Dolby Theatre crowd at the 2022 Acadamy Awards and viewers at home when he slapped comedian Chris Rock live on-air after a joke about Smith’s wife, Jada Pinkett Smith.
“It was shocking,” Variety Executive Editor Brent Lang said during an appearance on “Morning in America.” “Because he is known as being such a nice person, and being so outgoing and more.”
“He’s one of the most polished stars that there is,” Lang continued. “He’s very good with people on an interpersonal level. He’s got, you know, that thing, that kind of charisma that very few people have.”
Smith walked across the stage and slapped Rock across the face. Once he returned to his seat, Smith shouted to Rock, twice, to “get my wife’s name out your (expletive) mouth.”
Onlookers were initially left wondering if the incident was planned as the cameras rolled and the control room didn’t cut away or take a commercial break.
“Like us, they were trying to process this and figure out, was this a bit? Was this something humorous that was happening? Or was this actually, you know, a real altercation?,” Lang said. “You’re in the middle of a live show that’s being watched by millions of people, so you have to kind of react to things on the fly. So I think they were trying to figure out what to do.”
With an altercation, there is the risk of broadcasting obscenities or worse.
“They were really leaning on that button to make sure that no obscenities were broadcast,” Lang said.
Later in the show, Smith won the best actor Oscar for his performance in the biopic “King Richard.”
The Academy, the control room and the executive producers must have known they were just minutes away from a possible Smith acceptance speech, according to Lang.
“I think they thought it would be more disruptive to remove him because he is one of the biggest stars in the world. So it would have created a big incident,” Lang said. “And then I think there was also the history of this, right? Will Smith is one of only a handful of Black actors to win best actor. So I think there was some reticence to overshadow that kind of history-making moment.”
Smith ultimately apologized to the Academy. The incident, it turned out, was not scripted and not on the teleprompter.
“(The joke) appears to have been something that sort of, you know, occurred to Rock in the moment,” Land said. “Which is partly, you know, what great comedians do. I mean, in this case, it was a sort of an offensive joke. But, of course, that doesn’t justify, you know, physical violence.”
Lang says the Academy may make changes in the future to avoid somebody just walking up on stage.
“I think some of that will come from the presenters themselves,” he says. “They need to reassure people who are participating in the show that they will be safe. So I’m sure they’re reassessing their policies.”
The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences on Monday said it condemned the actions of Smith and it will launch a formal review.
“I would not be shocked if there was some kind of disciplinary action,” Lang said. But he does not feel Smith’s Academy Award will be taken away.
“I mean, Roman Polanski still has his award. And he did something far, far worse,” Lang said of the director who pleaded guilty to statutory rape charges in 1979 before fleeing the country. Polanski subsequently won a best director Oscar for “The Pianist.”
It is a tradition that the best actor winner returns the next year as a presenter.
“I almost wonder if he won’t be back,” Lang said. “You know, I mean, I think it’ll be almost like Casey Affleck, who took himself out of presenting that award (the year after his “Manchester by the Sea” best actor win) when certain allegations were kind of surfacing about him, because they thought it was a distraction. And I wonder if Will Smith will just say that it’s too big a distraction.”
Smith has made a name for himself on the big screen for his ability to tap into his emotions.
“That was on display in his acceptance speech,” Lang said. “That was a very wrenching acceptance speech, whether you liked it or not. This was a person who was really processing something very emotional. So you know, that’s part of what his appeal is. But you know, he also is very image-conscious. And this was a real blow to the image that he has carefully cultivated over many decades.”
