Will Smith, facing possible expulsion or suspension after he assaulted Chris Rock during last Sunday’s Oscars telecast, has instead resigned from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences. The move comes as the actor is embroiled in the gravest crisis of his career and as the organization behind the Academy Awards has struggled in its attempts to deal with the fallout from the altercation.
During the ceremony, Smith charged the stage during the broadcast after Rock made a joke about the actor’s wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, likening her shaved head to the buzzcut sported by Demi Moore in “G.I. Jane.” Pinkett Smith suffers from hair loss due to alopecia.
The Academy later said it asked Smith to leave the ceremony and he refused. However, sources tell Variety that the organization’s leaders never formally requested he be ejected and producer Will Packer urged him to stay. During an appearance on GMA on Friday, Packer said that he said Smith should say at the request of Rock — something Rock’s camp has denied.
It’s a very tangled narrative about what exactly went down behind-the-scenes. What is certain is that Smith ended up remaining at the Dolby Theatre, where he went on to win best actor for his performance in “King Richard.” In an emotional speech, Smith seemed to try to justify his actions by saying that the his outburst was the result of the same protective instincts that led his character in the film, Richard Williams, to push his daughters, Venus and Serena Williams, to succeed in the world of tennis. His speech, initial failure to apologize to Rock and his decision to attend the Vanity Fair party following the awards did not sit well with some members of the Academy.
On Monday, Smith finally apologized to Rock, saying, “I was out of line and I was wrong.” He added that he reacted emotionally because “a joke about Jada’s medical condition was too much for me to bear.”
After initially offering up a statement that said it did not condone violence, the Academy followed up with two subsequent statements that more forcefully criticized Smith. On Wednesday, the group said Smith had violated the Academy’s standards of conduct and that he had 15 days to provide a written response explaining his actions. The organization said Smith faced suspension, expulsion or other sanctions.
Source: Read Full Article
