Will Smith won the Best Actor Award at Oscars 2022 for his performance in King Richard. The actor walked up to the stage to receive the award shortly after he slapped Chris Rock for his joke about Jada Pinkett Smith. During his
speech, Will broke down and even apologised but not to Chris Rock. The actor pointed out that art imitates life and at this point, he looks ‘like the crazy father, just like they said, just like they said about Richard Williams. But love will make you do crazy things.’
“I’m not crying for winning an award, it’s not about winning an award for me. It’s about being able to shine light on all of the people,” Will said, after accepting the award. “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… 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 gotta be able to take abuse and you gotta be able to have people talk crazy about you. In this business, you gotta be able to have people disrespecting you, and. you gotta smile and you gotta pretend like that’s OK,” Will said, as tears streamed down his face.
He revealed that Denzel Washington spoke to him about his altercation with Chris Rock and warned him, “Be careful. At your highest moment, that’s when the devil comes for you.” He then continued, “I want to be a vessel for love. I want to say thank you to Venus and Serena and the entire Williams family for entrusting 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.”
Will concluded his emotional speech by saying, “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, it’s about being able to shine a light on all the people..the entire cast and crew of King Richard.”
Earlier in the night, Chris joked about Jada Pinkett Smith’s look. “GI Joe 2, can’t wait to see it,” Chris said, referring to her bald Oscars 2022 look. Jada’s short hair is a result of alopecia and The Matrix Resurrection star has been public about her battle with the autoimmune disorder.
The joke did not go down well with Will, who walked up to the 94th Academy Awards stage and slapped Chris. “Keep my wife’s name out of your f***king mouth,” Will screamed from the audience. “Wow dude, it was a GI Jane joke,” Chris replied. “Keep my wife’s name out of your f***king mouth,” Will repeated himself. “I’m going to,” Chris replied before adding, “That was the greatest night in television.”
The Academy Awards 2022 took place in Dolby Theatre as always with CODA winning Best Picture and Jessica Chastain winning the Best Actress for The Eyes of Tammy Faye.
