The slap heard around the world is continuing to reverberate. Shortly before accepting the award for best actor at the Oscars 2022, Will Smith slapped Chris Rock onstage in response to a joke Rock made about Jada Pinkett Smith. A day later, the hosts of The View weighed in, with EGOT winner Whoopi Goldberg taking the lead on the topic. “I think he overreacted,” Goldberg said of Smith. “I think he had one of those moments where it was just like, [goddammit], just stop.… I get it. Not everybody acts the way we would like them to act under pressure. Some people just snap. He snapped.”
Still, Goldberg maintained that Smith wouldn’t be stripped of his Oscar statuette. “We’re not going to take that Oscar from him,” she said. “There will be consequences, I’m sure, but I don’t think that’s what they’re going to do, particularly because Chris said, ‘Listen, I’m not pressing any charges.’” (The Los Angeles Police Department issued a statement confirming that Rock declined to file a police report against Smith following the altercation.)
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Goldberg also ventured that “a lot of stuff probably built up” for Smith. Earlier in the telecast, cohost Regina Hall made a jab about the Smiths’ reportedly open marriage. And Rock had joked about Pinkett Smith protesting the Academy Awards, in support of the #OscarsSoWhite movement, back when he hosted in 2016. “Jada boycotting the Oscars is like me boycotting Rihanna’s panties,” Rock said back then. “I wasn’t invited!”
The Rock–Smith interaction became an instantly stunning Oscar moment. While onstage to present the award for best documentary, Rock made a joke about Pinkett Smith’s short haircut. (The actor has publicly detailed her battle with alopecia.) “Can’t wait for G.I. Jane 2,” Rock said, referencing the 1997 Demi Moore film G.I. Jane, in which the titular character has a buzz cut. Smith then walked onstage to slap Rock across the face. “Will Smith just smacked the shit out of me,” Rock said when Smith returned to his seat. The actor could then be seen shouting toward the stage, “Keep my wife’s name out your fucking mouth.”
Goldberg’s View cohosts expressed varying degrees of outrage at the slap. Joy Behar claimed that “comedians are in danger everywhere,” adding that Smith should have brushed away the comment: If he was “upset about something, walk off.” Ana Navarro said that while Rock’s joke was “in very poor taste,” she couldn’t condone violence. When Smith won the best-actor trophy, he apologized to the Academy and his fellow nominees—but not Rock by name. “I was embarrassed for Will. I was horrified for Chris Rock,” said Sunny Hostin. “I thought Chris was the one that deserved an apology for taking the high road.” She also expressed disbelief that Smith received a standing ovation after his acceptance speech. “I’m surprised he was not escorted out,” Hostin said.
Goldberg concluded that “sometimes you get to a point and you behave badly,” adding, “I myself have behaved badly on occasion.” She did address Rock’s muted response to the slap, saying, “I think it’s remarkable and wonderful that Chris Rock did not take it to that other place it could have gone.” Smith later celebrated his Oscar win with his entire family—including kids Willow, Jaden, and Trey—at Vanity Fair’s Oscar party.
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