LOS ANGELES — The 94th Academy Awards produced the most shocking moment in the ceremony’s history on Sunday night, when Will Smith walked on stage and struck the presenter Chris Rock across the face, live on television, after Rock made a joke about Smith’s wife, Jada Pinkett Smith.
Rock, introducing the documentary award, had compared Pinkett Smith’s shaved head to “G.I. Jane” — a reference she has previously said hurts, since she has spoken publicly about hair loss from alopecia. Smith, who had initially laughed, strode onto the stage and hit Rock with an open hand, then returned to his seat and twice shouted, in words partly cut from the US broadcast, that Rock should keep his wife’s name out of his mouth.
The room froze. Rock, visibly shaken, completed his presentation. The show continued. And forty minutes later Smith won Best Actor for “King Richard”, delivering a tearful speech in which he apologised to the Academy and his fellow nominees — but not to Rock — and spoke of protecting his family.
The Academy said on Monday it does not condone violence and has opened a review. The Los Angeles police said Rock declined to file a report. Debate is raging over whether Smith should have been removed from the theatre and whether his award should stand.
The incident obliterated the night’s intended headlines: “CODA”, a small film about a deaf family, won Best Picture, and Jane Campion became the third woman to win Best Director. By Monday, almost nobody was talking about either.
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