A lot has unfolded since the world watched Will Smith slap Chris Rock at the 2022 Oscars. The most recent in the series of events has been the Academy's disciplinary measures following the viral incident. Here's what to know.
The King Richard actor has been banned from the Oscars and other Academy events for 10 years as a consequence of his actions at the 94th Academy Awards. The organization released a statement saying that the 94th Oscars had been "overshadowed by the unacceptable and harmful behavior we saw Mr. Smith exhibit on stage." The Academy's decision comes over a week after Smith's apology to Chris Rock and his official resignation from the AMPAS on April 1st. In his letter, he called his behavior "shocking, painful, and inexcusable," before adding, "I betrayed the trust of the Academy." While the Best Actor winner won't be presenting next year's Best Actress award to the winner - as is traditional - neither his resignation nor the Academy's punishment for him would prevent Smith from being nominated for an Oscar in the future.
However, following the shocking incident, a lot of controversy emerged around the Academy's decision to allow Smith to stay at the event. Less than an hour after slapping Chris Rock on stage, the actor accepted his first Oscar ever and gave a tearful speech in which he apologized to the Academy and his fellow nominees. But after that, the Academy found itself having to explain why it allowed the event to continue as usual. A group of AMPAS Governors representatives released a statement, saying, "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."
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Chris Rock first publicly addressed the issue during his stand-up show in Boston. "I'm still processing what happened," Rock said. "So at some point I'll talk about that sh*t. It'll be serious. It'll be funny, but right now I'm going to tell some jokes." However, the comedian recently made further remarks about the incident during his show at Fantasy Springs. "I'm OK, I have a whole show and I'm not talking about that until I get paid. Life is good. I got my hearing back," he reportedly told the audience. We'll be watching closely as the events in the aftermath of the incident continue to unfold. Stay tuned.
