LOS ANGELES — On Thursday, one day after the motion picture academy announced it is launching disciplinary proceedings against Will Smith after he slapped Chris Rock during Sunday’s Oscars over a joke about his wife, questions continue to swirl around what exactly happened inside the Dolby Theatre in the fraught moments after the altercation.
In a statement issued Wednesday, the academy, which has faced fierce criticism over its handling of the incident, including from its own members, attempted to shift some of the responsibility to Smith, suggesting the actor had refused a request to leave the Dolby.
“While we would like to clarify that Mr. Smith was asked to leave the ceremony and refused, we also recognize we could have handled the situation differently,” the group said, calling Smith’s conduct “a deeply shocking, traumatic event to witness in-person and on television.”
But reports Thursday in TMZ and the trade publication Variety, citing anonymous sources familiar with what transpired, cast doubt on the academy’s account. They suggested that the organization’s leaders and the show’s first-time producer, Will Packer, conveyed mixed, and perhaps even contradictory, messages about whether Smith should be removed and never formally asked him to leave.
Neither the academy nor Smith’s representative has responded to questions from the Los Angeles Times about precisely what transpired that evening.
Via email on Wednesday, one academy governor, who declined to be speak on the record due to the sensitivity of the situation, chalked up the confusion to what they called “the fog of war.”
After the incident, Smith was seen conferring with his publicist and being comforted by Denzel Washington, Tyler Perry and Bradley Cooper, among other well-wishers. Meanwhile, heated discussions went on behind the scenes involving academy president David Rubin, academy chief executive Dawn Hudson, Packer and Smith’s representatives over how to handle the situation.
Less than an hour after striking Rock, Smith received a standing ovation and cheers from many in the Dolby when he was awarded the lead actor prize for his performance in “King Richard.” In a tearful, nearly 6-minute acceptance speech, the actor suggested that, like his character in the film, he had been driven by the impulse to protect his family and offered an apology to the academy and his fellow nominees, but not to Rock.
Since Sunday, conversation in Hollywood has been largely dominated by the shocking eruption of violence during Hollywood’s biggest night, plunging the academy into an unprecedented crisis as it finds itself in an increasingly volatile dispute with one of the industry’s most bankable and well-liked stars.
Following an emergency meeting of its board of governors earlier in the day, the academy said Wednesday that it had initiated disciplinary proceedings against Smith “for violations of the Academy’s Standards of Conduct, including inappropriate physical contact, abusive or threatening behavior and compromising the integrity of the Academy.”
The academy said the ultimate repercussions for Smith — “which may include suspension, expulsion or other sanctions permitted by the Bylaws and Standards of Conduct” — would be voted on by the group’s 54-member board, which includes such notables as Steven Spielberg, Ava DuVernay and Laura Dern, at a meeting on April 18. Smith was offered 15 days to provide a written response.
Also on Wednesday, two of the show’s co-hosts, comedians Amy Schumer and Wanda Sykes, offered their reactions to the incident.
In an Instagram post Wednesday, Schumer wrote: “Still triggered and traumatized. I love my friend @chrisrock and believe he handled it like a pro…. The whole thing was so disturbing.”
On Ellen DeGeneres’ daytime talk show Wednesday, Sykes said she “felt so awful for my friend Chris, and it was sickening. I physically felt ill, and I’m still a little traumatized by it.”
Sykes also criticized the decision to allow Smith to remain in the Dolby to receive his Oscar after slapping Rock.
“For them to let him stay in that room and enjoy the rest of the show and accept his award, I was like, ‘How gross is this? This is just the wrong message,’” she said. “You assault somebody, you get escorted out the building and that’s it. For them to let him continue, I thought it was gross. Plus, I wanted to be able to run out after he won and say, ‘Unfortunately, Will couldn’t be here tonight...’”
Rock himself made his first public comments about the incident at a stand-up show in Boston Wednesday evening. “I’m still kind of processing what happened,” he told the crowd, who greeted him with a standing ovation. “At some point, I’ll talk about that s—. And it will be serious and funny.”
It remains to be seen what disciplinary action the academy will take against Smith. On Monday, Whoopi Goldberg, an academy governor, said categorically on the daytime talk show “The View”: “We’re not going to take that Oscar from him.”
But the decision on what measures to take will ultimately be up to the entire board. Since adopting a code of conduct for its members in 2017, the academy has ejected only three members: producer Harvey Weinstein, director Roman Polanski and comedian-author Bill Cosby.
Some have speculated that Smith’s membership could instead be suspended for a certain period of time or that the actor — who has a film coming out later this year from Apple called “Emancipation” — could be barred from presenting at next year’s Oscars. (It is customary for the previous year’s lead actor winner to present the lead actress trophy, as Anthony Hopkins did to Jessica Chastain this year.)
Insiders say it could take three weeks for a final resolution to be reached, as the organization plans to carefully follow the procedures laid out in its bylaws and standards of conduct. (In 2019, Polanski filed a lawsuit against the academy, alleging that it had not followed its own protocols in expelling him, but ultimately lost the suit.)
In a statement issued Monday, Smith called his conduct “unacceptable and inexcusable,” apologizing to Rock and saying, “ I was out of line and I was wrong. I am embarrassed and my actions were not indicative of the man I want to be. There is no place for violence in a world of love and kindness.”
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(L.A. Times staff writer Glenn Whipp contributed to this report.)
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