The Academy of Oscars announced on Monday that it had opened an “investigation” into the incident that occurred the day before at the gala evening, during which actor Will Smith slapped comedian Chris Rock after a joke about his close-cropped hair. his wife.
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“The Academy condemns the actions of Mr. Smith during last night’s show,” the organization wrote in a statement sent to AFP.
“We have officially begun an investigation into this incident,” said the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which will examine the follow-up to be given to the case under its “regulations and California law”.
It was a joke by Chris Rock about the shaved head of Jada Pinkett Smith, Will Smith’s wife who suffered from alopecia – a disease causing severe hair loss, which she revealed to be suffering from a few years ago – that sparked the ‘scandal.
Will Smith then goes on stage and slaps him. “Leave my wife’s name out of your fucking mouth!” the 53-year-old actor said twice, once back in his chair.
What risks the actor, crowned a little later “best actor” for his role in “The Williams Method”?
Some have called on the Academy of Oscars to withdraw her award, but actress Whoopi Goldberg, one of the Academy’s trustees, said that would not be the case.
Listen to Léa Stréliski and Mathieu Cyr at the microphone of Geneviève Pettersen on QUB radio:
“There will be consequences, I’m sure, but I don’t think that’s what they’re going to do, especially because Chris” Rock said he wouldn’t press charges, she said. said on TV.
On the criminal level either, no prosecution seems possible at this stage for lack of a complaint from Chris Rock, the Los Angeles police had indicated on Sunday evening.
Will Smith would therefore only expose himself to disciplinary sanctions, which can range according to the code of conduct of the Academy from a simple reprimand to expulsion.
The first punishment inflicted on the actor came from social networks, where many denounced the violence he showed.
The strongest condemnation came from American actor and director Judd Apatow in a tweet which he later deleted, but which comedian Mia Farrow took up: Will Smith “could have killed him. He simply lost control of his anger and his violence (…). He lost his mind.”
Mia Farrow herself, more consensual, defended the comedian Chris Rock, who made “only a joke, as he knows how to do”.
San Francisco Golden State Warriors star basketball player Stephen Curry said he was “still in shock, like everyone else.”
For British writer Bernardine Evaristo, whose father is Nigerian, Will Smith missed an opportunity to set an example, especially for African-Americans: when he is “only the fifth black in nearly 100 years to win an Oscar for a title role and the first in 16 years, (he) resorts to violence instead of using the power of words to defeat Chris Rock”, she denounced on Twitter.
“And then he invokes God and the love that would have made him do this,” she further castigated.
In fact, Will Smith apologized to the Academy of Oscars on Sunday, saying, in tears, that “love makes you do crazy things”, while condemning “people who disrespect you”.
But director Rob Reiner questioned the sincerity of the apology, noting that it was not directed at Chris Rock himself. Will Smith can consider himself “lucky that Chris does not press charges for assault”, he writes.
Rapper Sean “Diddy” Combs assured Sunday after the ceremony that the two men had passed on this blow of blood. “This is not a problem. It’s finish. I can confirm that,” Diddy told the gossip site Page Six.
“Everything is fine,” confirmed shortly after Variety Will Smith himself, while attending a party with his wife and children. The actor shunned the Oscars press room after receiving his trophy.
Some celebrities, however, have given their support to Will Smith. Former One Direction singer Liam Payne reacted to reporters: “I think whatever he did, he had the right to do it.”
The elected Democrat of Massachusetts Ayanna Pressley, also suffering from alopecia, thanked him in a tweet since deleted. “Congratulations to all the husbands who defend their wives with alopecia in the face of ignorance and everyday insults,” she wrote.
Will Smith was also defended by actress Tiffany Haddish: ‘That’s what your husband is supposed to do, right? Protect you,” she told People magazine.