Oscars 2022: Will Smith apologises to the Academy after punching comedian Chris Rock

Oscars 2022 took place at the Dolby Theatre, Hollywood, and saw some of the most celebrated faces of the film fraternity. Films like CODA, Dune, The Eyes Of Tammy Faye won big awards, but the eye-catching moment for all the viewers was the feud between Will Smith and Chris Rock. In between the award ceremony, Will Smith lost his cool and slapped Chris Rock after the latter joked about Jada Pinkett Smith playing the titular role in GI Jane 2 addressing her baldness, which is due to a condition called alopecia. While the feud became the highlight of the ceremony, Smith apologised to the Academy for punching Rock moments before he won the Best Actor award for King Richard.

Will Smith ended his dry run at the Oscars 2022 as he won the award for the Best Actor in a Leading Role for his latest film King Richard. The actor's winning announcement came a few minutes after he punched Chris Rock for poking a comment at his actor wife Jada Pinkett Smith. Smith also warned Chris Rock to keep his wife's name out of his mouth. 

Will Smith apologises to Academy in his award acceptance speech

As the punch is going down in the history of Oscars as one of the wildest moments after it went viral on social media within seconds, Will Smith apologised to the Academy for his behaviour during his winning speech. In his speech, Will Smith said, "I'm being called on in my life to love people and to protect people and to be a river to my people... You got to be able to take abuse, you got to be able to have people talk crazy about you. In this business, you got to be able to have people disrespecting you and you got to smile and you got pretend like that's okay." He further mentioned a brief chat with Denzel Washington, who told him to be careful at his highest moment as "that's when the devil comes for you."

The actor broke down in tears and thanked Venus and Serena Williams for trusting him with their story. He concluded his speech by apologising to the Academy and his fellow nominees. The actor said, "I just hope they didn't see that on TV. I want to say thank you to Venus and Serena and the entire Williams family for trusting me with your story. That's what I want to do. I want to be an ambassador of that kind of love and care and concern. I want to apologise to the academy. I want to apologise to my all my fellow nominees."

The feud between Will Smith and Chris Rock at the Oscars 2022 became the most talked-about incident within a few seconds. However, as per a statement filed by Los Angeles Police Department, Chris Rock has declined to file a report against Smith.

As per Variety, LAPD's statement read, "LAPD investigative entities are aware of an incident between two individuals during the Academy Awards program. The incident involved one individual slapping another. The individual involved has declined to file a police report. If the involved party desires a police report at a later date, LAPD will be available to complete an investigative report."

Image: AP