Two days after Will Smith punched presenter Chris Rock at the 94th Academy Awards after a joke about his wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, Hollywood seems to have agreed that Smith deserves a major reprimand for his actions.
One of the three hosts at this year’s ceremony, Amy Schumer, said she was still “triggered and traumatized” by the incident and “waiting for this sickening feeling from what we’ve all witnessed to go away.”
Schumer wrote on Instagram, adding, “I love my boyfriend [Chris Rock] and think he handled it like a pro. Stayed up there and gave his friend an Oscar [Questlove] and the whole thing was so disturbing.
“So much pain in there [Will Smith]Anyway, I’m still shocked and stunned and sad.”
On Monday, Smith posted a public apology to Rock on social media, saying, “I’m in the works.” This followed his qualified apology in his Best Actor acceptance speech later Sunday night, in which he defended his actions by saying: “Love makes you do crazy things”.
The academy has said it will conduct a formal review of the incident, which will take “a few weeks” and then take “appropriate action”.
Rock has yet to publicly respond to the incident, but is not pressing charges. Ticket sales for his forthcoming tour have skyrocketed after Sunday night, with a marketplace site saying more tickets for Rock’s tour sold the night after the Oscars than the entire month prior.
The price for the cheapest seats on the upcoming US and UK tour has increased by around 800%.
In a speech on US television on Tuesday, Jim Carrey said that had he been in Rock’s position on Sunday, he would have sued Smith for $200 million and Smith should have been arrested.
The standing ovation that earned Smith the Best Actor award later that same night made Carrey “sick,” he said. “Hollywood is just spineless en masse and it really felt like that was a very clear indication that we’re not the cool club anymore.”
Host Gayle King went on to speculate, “If anyone else had left the audience and done that, they would have been escorted by security or maybe even arrested.”
On Wednesday, Bafta officials said they had “removed [Smith] out of the building” after the slap. “It’s just a red line for us,” added Sara Putt, BAFTA Television Committee chair and BAFTA vice chair.
Others who have spoken out about the incident over the past 24 hours include Isla Fisher, who posted a photo of her husband Sacha Baron Cohen next to Rock with a love heart, and OJ Simpson, who said he thought it was Smith ” wrong”, but that he could “understand the mood”.