Oscars 2022: Will Smith's slap to Chris Rock, a gesture without consequences?

The images have gone around the world and will probably go down in history from the 2022 Oscars ceremony on Sunday evening.

Will Smith walks onto the stage, slaps comedian Chris Rock and returns to his seat.

"Wow, I just got beat up by Will Smith," the comedian pretends to joke.

We then think of a joke, but we quickly understand that this is not the case.

"Don't say my wife's name with your fucking mouth!"

“Launches the actor, once seated in his place.

What really happened?

When the actor comes out of his hinges, the comedian Chris Rock, one of the presenters of this 94th ceremony of the Oscars, has just made a joke about the wife of the actor.

The latter, Jada Pinkett Smith, also an actress, suffers from alopecia, a disease that causes hair loss, and therefore has a shaved head.

It is this physical characteristic that Chris Rock pokes fun at, comparing her skull to Demi Moore in Ridley Scott's film “On Equal Terms”.

Read alsoOscars: Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith, a private life often so public

The few seconds that follow create discomfort.

We see Jada Pinkett Smith rolling her eyes and being annoyed, next to her husband… hilarious.

"No, but it was a little joke", quickly admits Chris Rock, in front of a laughing room.

A few seconds later, Will Smith gets up, approaches the presenter, stops in front of him – Chris Rock continues to laugh – and throws him a right.

The audience is still laughing, imagining a set-up... but it's not.

VIDEO.

"He just took my head off": at the Oscars, Will Smith's slap to Chris Rock

“I don’t want to hear a word from you anymore,” Will Smith tells him, back in his place.

“It was a joke,” replies the comedian.

"Leave my wife's name out of your fucking mouth," the actor repeats.

"Okay, I'll do it," replies Chris Rock, visibly embarrassed, before resuming the show as if nothing had happened.

Why so much hate?

Is Will Smith's reaction so violent because the joke comes from Chris Rock?

The comedian had already made fun of Jada Pinkett Smith and Will Smith at the Oscars in 2016, when he (already) hosted the 88th awards night.

The couple had at the time called for a boycott of the ceremony.

Jada Pinkett Smith had notably deplored the absence of her husband among the nominees and denounced a lack of diversity within the organization.

“Jada got upset, Jada said she wouldn't come in protest.

But I say to myself

(…) Jada boycotting the Oscars, it's as if I were boycotting Rihanna's panties… I'm not even invited!

“, had said at the time Chris Rock.

“I understand that you are angry, Jada.

Your guy, Will, wasn't nominated for

(…) It's not fair that he was so good and didn't get a nomination.

Just as it's not fair that he was paid 20 million for

 !

he continued.

The dispute between Chris Rock and the Smith couple is therefore not new.

What reactions?

The strongest condemnation came from American actor and director Judd Apatow in a tweet that he later deleted but actress Mia Farrow took up: Will Smith “could have killed him.

He simply lost control of his anger and his violence (…) He lost his mind.

Mia Farrow herself, more consensual, defended the comedian Chris Rock, who made "only a joke, as he knows how to do".

The star player of the San Francisco Golden State Warriors, basketball player Stephen Curry, also said he was “still in shock, like everyone else”.

The sportsman paid tribute to Denzel Washington who, Sunday evening at the Oscars, comforted Will Smith by saying to him: “In your most intense moments, be careful, this is where the devil arises!

»

Like everybody..I'm still in shock about the whole thing- but in all the unnecessary drama, at least we got the line of the night from Denzel…”In your highest moments, be careful, that's when the devil comes for you !”

📢

— Stephen Curry (@StephenCurry30) March 28, 2022

For British writer Bernardine Evaristo, whose father is Nigerian, Will Smith missed an opportunity to set an example, especially for African-Americans: while he is "only the fifth black in nearly 100 years to win an Oscar for a title role and the first in 16 years, (he) resorts to violence instead of using the power of words to defeat Chris Rock”, she denounced on Twitter.

"And then he invokes God and the love that would have made him do this," she further castigated.

What consequences for Will Smith?

The Los Angeles police, where the ceremony took place, reacted quickly, without mentioning the names of the protagonists.

She said she was “aware of an incident between two people during” the Oscars, during which “one individual slapped another”.

“The individual involved refused to file a complaint,” added the police without naming Chris Rock.

If he decides to file a complaint later, the police "will be available to complete an investigation report", she continued.

If legal action were to be taken, then the actor could face a $100,000 fine.

The slap of Will Smith to Chris Rock in any case had no consequences on the consequences of the ceremony.

The actor even won the Best Actor Oscar for “The Williams Method”, where he plays the coaching father of champions Serena and Venus Williams.

“I want to apologize to the Academy” of the Oscars, he launched in tears.

“Love makes you do crazy things,” he caught himself, tears streaming down his face.

Will the actor's "apologies" be enough?

“The Academy does not tolerate any form of violence”, just reacted on Twitter the organization.

"I don't think Will will want his Oscar, but who knows what will happen now," a source close to the organization told the New York Post.

The newspaper reports that the ceremony's code of conduct emphasizes the importance of "upholding the values ​​of the Academy."