Face slapping scandal
Reactions to Will Smith’s Oscar ban
Will Smith cries as he wins an Oscar for best actor for his role in ‘King Richard’. Photo: Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP/dpa
© dpa-infocom GmbH
Will Smith has been banned from all Academy events for ten years for being slapped at the Oscars. The reactions to it range from “toothless punishment” to “good”.
The fact that Will Smith will be banned from Academy events for ten years has triggered mixed reactions among US celebrities.
“It’s a toothless punishment,” wrote actor Harry Lennix in a op-ed for Variety magazine. Lennix has asked Smith to return the Oscar he received for his role on tennis drama King Richard. This is the only way he can end the “existential crisis” in which he has plunged the Academy Awards.
Smith will remain banned from Oscars and other Academy events until 2032, the Los Angeles Film Association announced. The actor said shortly afterwards that he accepts and respects the Academy’s decision. There were initially no further statements from Smith.
Twelve days earlier, Smith had shocked guests in Hollywood’s Dolby Theater and on the screens with an outbreak of violence in front of an audience of millions. He stormed onto the stage and slapped comedian Chris Rock after he made a joke about Smith’s wife Jada Pinkett. It was about her shaved head, the actress suffers from pathological hair loss.
Several American stars hailed Will Smith’s ten-year Oscar ban over the weekend. “What Smith has done in front of the world is unacceptable,” American singer-songwriter Carol Connors told the Hollywood Reporter. “Ten years is a good, round number.” A year or even five years of Oscar suspension, said Connors, would not have been enough.
US film producer Don Hahn told the industry journal: He hopes the Oscar ban will give Smith time to think and get help with the problems he seems to be having.