American actor Will Smith has explained why he slapped comic act Chris Rock during the Oscars Academy Award.
While presenting the award for best documentary, Rock joked: “Jada I love you, ‘G.I. Jane 2,’ can’t wait to see it.”
The comic act was referring to Pinkett Smith, who has spoken openly about her struggle with alopecia, an autoimmune disorder that leads to hair loss.
Will Smith, who was sitting beside his wife, walked up to the podium and slapped Rock to the astonishment of everyone.
The actor returned to his seat, angrily telling the comedian: “Keep my wife’s name out of your f***ing mouth!”
Almost 50 minutes after, he mounted the podium to receive the award Oscar for best actor and apologised to the Academy and his fellow nominees for the incident.
A tearful Smith said: “I want to apologize to the Academy. I want to apologize to all my fellow nominees. This is a beautiful moment and I’m not crying for winning an award. It’s not about winning an award for me. Richard Williams was a fierce defender of his family.
“In this time in my life, in this moment, I am overwhelmed by what God is calling on me to do and be in this world. Making this film, I got to protect Aunjanue Ellis, who is one of the strongest, most delicate people I’ve ever met.
“I got to protect Saniyya and Demi, the two actresses that played Venus and Serena. I’m being called on in my life to love people and to protect people and to be a river to my people. I know to do what we do, 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 to pretend like that’s okay.”
